Using Google Play Services LocationClient in background service

Question

My app is designed to track user's location periodically and send it to server, Recently I changed my code with Google play services Location API.

I created the locationclient and connected to the service in onStartCommand

public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
    setUpLocationClientIfNeeded();
    if(!mLocationClient.isConnected() || !mLocationClient.isConnecting())
    mLocationClient.connect();
    return START_STICKY;

}

and in onConnected method, I send a location request,

@Override
public void onConnected(Bundle arg0) {
    System.out.println("Connected ...");
    mLocationClient.requestLocationUpdates(REQUEST, this);

}

The REQUEST object is,

 private static final LocationRequest REQUEST = LocationRequest.create()
      .setInterval(5*60*1000)      // 5 minutes
      .setFastestInterval(3*60*1000) // 3 minutes
      .setPriority(LocationRequest.PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY);

Now the issue is,

1. the onLocationChanged method is not getting called at the given interval i.e 5 minutes or the fastest interval 3 minutes. From the log I could see, its getting called only twice or thrice after that its not getting called at all ( I checked after 1 hour).

What is the issue with my above code?. ( I couldnt see any log for 'disconnected' also)

1. To solve this, I tried to use alarmmanager to call the task periodically. Now how to get a single location update through Locationclient from a broadcastreceiver. (locationclient.getLastlocation() only return last stored location but it is not requesting a new location)

Answer 1

Full source code for a background service available here:

https://gist.github.com/blackcj/20efe2ac885c7297a676

Try adding the super call to your onStartCommand.

/**
 * Keeps the service running even after the app is closed.
 * 
 */
public int onStartCommand (Intent intent, int flags, int startId)
{
    super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);

    setUpLocationClientIfNeeded();
    if(!mLocationClient.isConnected() || !mLocationClient.isConnecting())
    {
        mLocationClient.connect();
    }

    return START_STICKY;
}