broadcastreceiver - Trying to start a service on boot on Android

Question

I've been trying to start a service when a device boots up on android, but I cannot get it to work. I've looked at a number of links online but none of the code works. Am I forgetting something?

AndroidManifest.xml

<receiver
    android:name=".StartServiceAtBootReceiver"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="false"
    android:label="StartServiceAtBootReceiver" >
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action._BOOT_COMPLETED" />
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

<service
    android:name="com.test.RunService"
    android:enabled="true" />

BroadcastReceiver

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    if ("android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED".equals(intent.getAction())) {
        Intent serviceLauncher = new Intent(context, RunService.class);
        context.startService(serviceLauncher);
        Log.v("TEST", "Service loaded at start");
    }
}

Answer 1

The other answers look good, but I thought I'd wrap everything up into one complete answer.

You need the following in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

1. In your <manifest> element:

   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />
   

2. In your <application> element (be sure to use a fully-qualified [or relative] class name for your BroadcastReceiver):

   <receiver android:name="com.example.MyBroadcastReceiver">  
       <intent-filter>  
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />  
       </intent-filter>  
   </receiver>
   

   (you don't need the android:enabled, exported, etc., attributes: the Android defaults are correct)

   In MyBroadcastReceiver.java:

   package com.example;
   
   public class MyBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
       @Override
       public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
           Intent startServiceIntent = new Intent(context, MyService.class);
           context.startService(startServiceIntent);
       }
   }
   

From the original question:

• it's not clear if the <receiver> element was in the <application> element
• it's not clear if the correct fully-qualified (or relative) class name for the BroadcastReceiver was specified
• there was a typo in the <intent-filter>