IntentService won't show Toast

Question

This IntentService I created will show Toasts in onStartCommand() and in onDestroy(), but not in onHandleIntent(). Am I missing something about the limitations of an IntentService?

public class MyService extends IntentService {

private static final String TAG = "MyService";

public MyService(){
    super("MyService");
}

@Override
protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
    cycle();
}

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
    Toast.makeText(this, "service starting", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); //This happens!
    return super.onStartCommand(intent,flags,startId);
}

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

}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    Toast.makeText(this, "service stopping", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); //This happens!
    super.onDestroy();
}

private void cycle(){
      Toast.makeText(this, "cycle done", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();  //This DOESN'T happen!
      Log.d(TAG,"cycle completed"); //This happens!
}
}

Answer 1

onHandleIntent() is called from a background thread (that is what IntentService is all about), so you shouldn't do UI from there.

Answer 2

The accepted answer is not correct.

Here is how you can show toast from onHandleIntent():

Create a DisplayToast class:

public class DisplayToast implements Runnable {
    private final Context mContext;
    String mText;

    public DisplayToast(Context mContext, String text){
        this.mContext = mContext;
        mText = text;
    }

    public void run(){
        Toast.makeText(mContext, mText, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
}

Instantiate a Handler in your service's constructor and call the post method with a DisplayToast object inside.

public class MyService extends IntentService {
Handler mHandler;

public MyService(){
    super("MyService");
    mHandler = new Handler();
}

@Override
protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
    mHandler.post(new DisplayToast(this, "Hello World!"));

}
}

Answer 3

You should start the Toast on the main thread:

new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).post(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), message, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
});

This is because otherwise the thread of the IntentService quits before the toast can be send out, causing a IllegalStateException:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Handler (android.os.Handler) {12345678} sending message to a Handler on a dead thread

Answer 4

Another option is RxJava, e.g.:

private void showToast(final String text) {
    Observable.just(text)
        .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
        .subscribe(new Action1<String>() {
            @Override
            public void call(String s) {
                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), s, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
            }
        });
}

Caveat: I'm new to Android.