getExtra from Intent launched from a pendingIntent

Question

Hi. I am trying to make some alarms after the user selects something with a time from a list and create a notification for it at the given time. My problem is that the "showname" that a putExtra on my Intent cant be received at the broadcast receiver. It always get null value. This is the way I do it for most of my intents but I think this time maybe because of the pendingIntent or the broadcastReceiver something need to be done differentelly. Thank you

The function that sends the Intent through the pending intent

public void setAlarm(String showname,String time) {

    String[] hourminute=time.split(":");
    String hour = hourminute[0];
    String minute = hourminute[1];
    Calendar rightNow = Calendar.getInstance();
    rightNow.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, Integer.parseInt(hour));
    rightNow.set(Calendar.MINUTE, Integer.parseInt(minute));
    rightNow.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    long t=rightNow.getTimeInMillis();
    long t1=System.currentTimeMillis();

    try {   

    Intent intent = new Intent(this, alarmreceiver.class);  
    Bundle c = new Bundle();            
    c.putString("showname", showname);//This is the value I want to pass
    intent.putExtras(c);
    PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 12345, intent, 0);

    AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
    alarmManager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, rightNow.getTimeInMillis(),pendingIntent);
    //Log.e("ALARM", "time of millis: "+System.currentTimeMillis());
    Toast.makeText(this, "Alarm set", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    } catch (Exception e) {
        Log.e("ALARM", "ERROR IN CODE:"+e.toString());
    }
}

And this is the receiving end

public class alarmreceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    // Toast.makeText(context, "Alarm worked.", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();      
    Bundle b = intent.getExtras();
    String showname=b.getString("showname");//This is where I suppose to receive it but its null
    NotificationManager manger = (NotificationManager) context
            .getSystemService(context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

    Notification notification = new Notification(R.drawable.icon,
            "TVGuide Υπενθύμιση", System.currentTimeMillis());
    PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0,
            new Intent(context, tvguide.class), 0);

    notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, "Το Πρόγραμμα Ξεκίνησε",
            showname, contentIntent);

    notification.flags = Notification.FLAG_ONLY_ALERT_ONCE;

    notification.sound = Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/dominating.mp3");
    notification.vibrate = new long[]{100, 250, 100, 500};
    manger.notify(1, notification);
}           
}

Answer 1

Intents are re-used in the system, unless they differ on context/action I believe. (Does anyone have a reference for that? I lost it.) That is, if you have already constructed an Intent, that intent might be used later as well.

As a debug-test, you could try to add intent.setAction("" + Math.random()) below intent.putExtras(c) and see if your extras are received in the other end.

Answer 2

Thanks that seemed to do the trick. It was a intent conflict.

Answer 3

This worked for me too, but it feels funky. Is there a better way to make sure your activity is started by a specific intent?

Answer 4

If you change the Extra's value in the intent, then while creating the pending intent you should use the flag PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT.

A simple example would be

PendingIntent pi = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 0,intentWithNewExtras,PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);

This is the right way and will ensure that your new values are delivered.

Hope it helps.