Why doesn't my app widget update in API 3 or 4?

Question

I'm working on an android widget and it works great in API Level 5 or greater. It's not supported at all in API Level 1 or 2. It should work absolutely fine in 3 and 4 but for some reason the widget doesn't update.

The onUpdate method gets called and executes without errors; however, in 3 and 4 it doesn't change the text of the widget. I'm pretty much at a loss. Any thoughts?

@Override
public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {
    RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.widget);

    DataAccess helper = new DataAccess(context);
    String text = helper.getCurrentText();
    helper.close();

    if (text != null)
        views.setTextViewText(R.id.widget_text, text);

    Intent intent = new Intent(context, WidgetDetailsActivity.class);
    PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, intent, 0);
    views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.widget, pending);

    appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetIds, views);
}

Have you debugged the widget? Do you get the text as expected? Does the pending intent work? Is the onUpdate executed at all? — Kaj, Jul 29 '11 at 12:22
Yeah, I attached the debugger and everything worked except the text changing. I could change colors, sizes, behaviors, and all of that but I couldn't change the text. I haven't tried it in 1.5 or 1.6 in a really long time because that version is becoming more and more obsolete. — D. Patrick, Jul 30 '11 at 18:15
Strange. I have widgets that works with 1.5+, and haven't had any problems with updating texts. — Kaj, Aug 01 '11 at 08:00
try to add some logs and see what is happening. the debugger could be deceiving with widgets. it should work fine on 1.5+ . how often are you updating? — Ran, Aug 07 '11 at 20:39
I take back my previous comment. It appears that none of the remote view commands get executed against the widget. There are no errors or log statements to go along with it. It just fails. I update on command when preferences are modified and then again every few hours. I may throw together a quick test widget to see if I can take out some of the confounding variables. — D. Patrick, Oct 05 '11 at 21:54

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 07:58

Try this:

At the end of your update method you need to call the super.

@Override
public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {
    RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.widget);

    DataAccess helper = new DataAccess(context);
    String text = helper.getCurrentText();
    helper.close();

    if (text != null)
        views.setTextViewText(R.id.widget_text, text);

    Intent intent = new Intent(context, WidgetDetailsActivity.class);
    PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, intent, 0);
    views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.widget, pending);

    appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetIds, views);

   super.onUpdate(context, appWidgetManager, appWidgetIds);
}

I tried this. Still no luck. It doesn't appear to execute the remote views at all. — D. Patrick, Oct 05 '11 at 21:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 02 '12 at 06:09

You need to start service on update method and put your all code in service also,here I give onReceive and service demo context.startService(new Intent(context, UpdateService.class));

public static class UpdateService extends Service {
    @Override
    public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
        // Build the widget update for today
        RemoteViews updateViews = buildUpdate(this);
        // Push update for this widget to the home screen
        ComponentName thisWidget = new ComponentName(this,
                Widget.class);
        AppWidgetManager manager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(this);
        manager.updateAppWidget(thisWidget, updateViews);
    }

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return null;
    }
}

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    final RemoteViews remoteViews  = buildUpdate(context);
    ComponentName cn = new ComponentName(context, Widget.class);
    AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context).updateAppWidget(cn, remoteViews);
    super.onReceive(context, intent);
}

where buildUpdate is method for your widget updating code

Why doesn't my app widget update in API 3 or 4?

2 Answers2