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The Android widget documentation (http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/appwidgets/index.html#AppWidgetProvider) seems to indicate that you can set your own broadcast receiver to handle widget activity instead of using the AppWidgetProvider helper class. For reasons of activity/service structure this would be the most convenient way for me to manage the widget I would like to create.

Is it possible to do this with a broadcast receiver registered in OnCreate as opposed to on in it's own class. The trouble, I think, is that it then isn't registered in the manifest, and thus the widget never shows up in the list.

Documentation/examples of this setup are essentially non-existent. Does anyone know if this is possible or have a good example?

Chris2222000
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1 Answers1

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Is it possible to do this with a broadcast receiver registered in OnCreate as opposed to on in it's own class.

Not really. In theory, you could have two receivers registered, one in the manifest and one via registerReceiver(). I cannot imagine a scenario in which this would be a good idea, as your activity will not be running all of the time anyway, and so you need the manifest-registered receiver to do everything anyhow.

CommonsWare
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  • Ok. Well at least that clears that up. Thank you for your quick answer. If you will permit me a follow-up question, lets say I have a service that is bound to my main activity. What is the best way for me to then get information to/from the already running service from/to the widgetprovider? I've seen some suggestions that a broadcast receiver might be a good solution. – Chris2222000 Mar 24 '14 at 22:26
  • @Chris2222000: "What is the best way for me to then get information to/from the already running service from/to the widgetprovider?" -- ideally, you don't. Your service updates the app widget itself, using `AppWidgetManager`. – CommonsWare Mar 24 '14 at 23:18
  • Thank you again for the nudge in the right direction. I was able to use AppWidgetManager from within the service like you said. – Chris2222000 Mar 25 '14 at 00:43