Using an Android Service to handle a network connection

Question

I\'m working on an Android app that needs to maintain a network connection to a chat server. I understand that I can create a service to initiate the connection to the serve

Answer 1

Did you check the Service API page: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html ?
It has a couple of examples on how to interact with a Service.

The service runs on the same thread and the same Context as the Activity. Check also here: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Context.html#bindService%28android.content.Intent,%20android.content.ServiceConnection,%20int%29

Finally, take a look also at Lars Vogel's article: http://www.vogella.de/articles/AndroidServices/article.html