Updating Activity TextView from service using Service binding

Question

I have a service for reading GPS latitude and longitude. I would like to update the activity from the service\'s locationlistener\'s onLocationChanged

Answer 1

What stops you from declaring a method like this (in your service):

public void setTextViewToModify(TextView tv);

After you gave the reference of the TextView to your Service, it can access it just like any other object.

In the other hand, I do not suggest this solution, because this way it is really easy to cause memory leaks. Also, the TextView should not leave the Activity's context since it is a part of the Activity. The reference would remain in the Service, even after the Activity is destroyed, and I guess you can imagine what would happen if the Service touched the dead TextView.

You should broadcast the updates from your service, and use a LocalBroadcastRecever to get those updates in your Activity. That way the TextView will be updated by the one who is responsible for that, the Activity itself.

If you don't like the concept of LocalBroadcatReceiver you can try any of the event bus solutions. It is more easy to use, and you can pass any kind of objects. You do not have to make them marshallable (Serializable/Parcelable).

• http://square.github.io/otto/
• https://github.com/greenrobot/EventBus