863103 - Add BackgroundService runIntentInService() and WakeLock

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Android Sync, defect)

Description

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

After reviewing Google's Cloud Messaging (GCM) implementation, here are two BackgroundService additions that may be useful:

1. Add runIntentInService() utility method to ensure the original Intent's extras are copied to rebroadcast Intent:

  https://code.google.com/p/gcm/source/browse/gcm-client/src/com/google/android/gcm/GCMBaseIntentService.java?r=3f8285f108caecf9ee040cdadda3a024b81f7e3e#268

2. Add WakeLock to ensure BackgroundService receives the Intent after the BroadcastReceiver returns.

GCM releases its WakeLock at the end of onHandleIntent():

  https://code.google.com/p/gcm/source/browse/gcm-client/src/com/google/android/gcm/GCMBaseIntentService.java?r=3f8285f108caecf9ee040cdadda3a024b81f7e3e#241

Can we safely assume that Android will always call our onDestroy() method? This change is tricky because it relies on every subclass calling super.onHandleIntent() and super.onDestroy() (if the subclass has overridden those methods). Also, we might be able to remove the ugly EXTRA_RELEASE_WAKE_LOCK extra if we assume BackgroundServices are always launched from runIntentForService() and thus called acquireWakeLock().

Comment 1

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

https://github.com/mozilla-services/android-sync/pull/307

Comment 2

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/8e57ba27d6dd

Comment 3

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8e57ba27d6dd