Missing Extras in Intent when received from a BroadcastReceiver

Question

I have a broadcast receiver which listens for all outgoing calls. In another activity I make an outgoing call. In my BC I want to be able to determine which calls were created in the activity, so I use putExtras() to place a marker field when I'm making the call. Problem is, in the onReceive() of the BC I don't see the extra data field at all (returns null).

Here is the relevant Activity code:

@Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        appGlobal gState = (appGlobal)getApplicationContext();
        dh = gState.getSqlDataHelper();
        Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras(); 
        if(extras != null)
        {
            phoneNumber = extras.getString("number");
        }
        makePhoneCall();
        finish();
    }

private void makePhoneCall()
    {

        if (phoneNumber.length() < 1) {
            return;
        }
        String url = "tel:" + phoneNumber;
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL, Uri.parse(url));
        intent.putExtra("number", "bla");

        startActivity(intent);
    }

And here is the relevant BC code:

public class CallMeNotServiceCallReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();

        if (intent.getStringExtra("number") != null)
        { Log.w("bla", "HAS KEY!!!"); }
...

Does this situation require a PendingIntent?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '11 at 12:59

The official BroadcastReceiver API reference clearly states (3rd paragraph) :

[...] the Intent broadcast mechanism is completely separate from Intents that are used to start Activities. There is no way for a BroadcastReceiver to see or capture Intents used with startActivity(); [...]

So as Jason & HellBoy have suggested, instead of starting an Activity in makePhoneCall(), you send a Broadcast to your BroadcastReceiver, which in turn starts an Activity (only if it contains the marker extra of course)...

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '11 at 03:29

1

If you add additional logging, do you find that the BroadcastReceiver actually doesn't get called at all?

Use sendBroadcast(intent) to send an Intent that a BroadcastReceiver will receive. You're currently using startActivity which expects an Intent with a particular Activity class to start.

answered Feb 03 '11 at 03:29

Jason LeBrun

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The broadcast receiver _does_ get called, just that the extra is not there. As far as I know I _have_ to use startactivity to make a phone call, no? – Suan Feb 03 '11 at 04:04
"The broadcast receiver does get called" because it might be register for "outgoing call". What is my suggestion is you send a broadcast using send broadcast and start activity from there(i.e from in onReceive() method). – Vivek Feb 03 '11 at 05:36
I have same problem did you get a solution? – Androider Feb 16 '11 at 23:12

Missing Extras in Intent when received from a BroadcastReceiver

2 Answers2