Why the PendingIntent doesn't send back my custom Extras setup for the Intent?

Question

This questions somehow relates to the question when I was looking to get the extras back in startActivityForResult but now I face another challenge.

I have subscribed to receive ProximityAlerts and I have explicitly constructed the Intent to include some Extras. But when I got the service the extras are not there.

After the answers here is the working code:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, PlacesProximityHandlerService.class);
intent.setAction("PlacesProximityHandlerService");
intent.putExtra("lat", objPlace.getLat());
intent.putExtra("lon", objPlace.getLon());
intent.putExtra("error_m", objPlace.getError()+ALERT_RANGE_IN_METERS);
PendingIntent sender=PendingIntent.getService(this, 0, intent, 0);
LocationUtils.addProximity(this, objPlace.getLat(), objPlace.getLon(),objPlace.getError()+ALERT_RANGE_IN_METERS, -1, sender);

The documentation says param PendingIntent to be sent for each location update

Answer 1

If you have multiple outstanding PendingIntents, you need to make sure that the underlying Intents differ on more than their extras. Otherwise, Android will keep reusing the first PendingIntent you created for your first Intent, using that first Intent's extras all of the time.

For example, you could add a unique action via setAction() -- that will not change your Intent routing (since you are specifying the component), but it will make your Intents different.

Answer 2

Hi,

For some unspecified reason, extras will be delivered only if you've set some action, for example setAction("foo"). What CommonsWare refers to applies only when obtaining PendingIntent instances, if you haven't set FLAG_ONE_SHOT. That can be fixed by the requestCode argument in PendingIntent.get... factory methods. Although documentation says it's currently not used, it actually takes into count when distinguishing PendingIntents.

In your case, you don't need to set anything else than some dummy action string. LocationManagerService reuses the PendingIntent you have subscribed for proximity alerts, and only adds a flag if phone has entered or exited the alarm range.