How to replace sendStickyBroadcast in Android?

Question

As you know, sendStickyBroadcast method is now deprecated. How to replace it?

Of course I can use sendBroadcast but then it will be not sticky.

Answer 1

You could use an event bus, the following are some of the most used libraries. - https://github.com/greenrobot/EventBus - http://square.github.io/otto/ - https://blog.kaush.co/2014/12/24/implementing-an-event-bus-with-rxjava-rxbus/ (how to use Rx as an event bus)

Another approach would be to create a class that listens to the broadcast and then stores the last state that it retrieved. In my opinion, this approach would not be ideal though.

Answer 2

Maybe one can use a JobScheduler to
schedule a periodic job,
which will send broadcasts.

The "keep alive" service, which will send periodoc broadcasts.

import android.app.job.JobParameters;
import android.app.job.JobService;
import android.content.Intent;


import static my.UtilsLocation.PACKAGE_NAME;

/**
 * JobService to be scheduled by the JobScheduler.
 * start another service
 */
public class KeepAliveBroadcastJobService extends JobService {

    public static final String INTENT_ACTION_KEEP_ALIVE = PACKAGE_NAME + ".action.KEEPALIVE";

    @Override
    public boolean onStartJob(JobParameters params) {
        // send recurring broadcast
        final Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext());
        intent.setAction(INTENT_ACTION_KEEP_ALIVE);
        sendBroadcast(intent);
        return false;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onStopJob(JobParameters params) {
        return true;
    }

}

A util, to periodically schedule the keep alive job.

import android.app.job.JobInfo;
import android.app.job.JobScheduler;
import android.content.ComponentName;
import android.content.Context;
import android.util.Log;

import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;

public class UtilsKeepAlive {

    private static final String TAG = UtilsKeepAlive.class.toString();

    private static AtomicBoolean isKeepAliveOn = new AtomicBoolean(false);

    private static final int INTERVAL_MILLIS = 600000; // 10 min
    private static final int FLEX_MILLIS = 60000; // 1 min

    public static void enableKeepAlive(Context context) {
        // if already on
        if (isKeepAliveOn.get()) return;

        Log.i(TAG, "Keep alive job scheduled");

        ComponentName serviceComponent = new ComponentName(context, KeepAliveBroadcastJobService.class);
        JobInfo.Builder builder = new JobInfo.Builder(0, serviceComponent);
        builder.setRequiredNetworkType(JobInfo.NETWORK_TYPE_ANY); //Require any network
        builder.setRequiresCharging(false);
        builder.setPeriodic(INTERVAL_MILLIS, FLEX_MILLIS);

        JobScheduler jobScheduler = context.getSystemService(JobScheduler.class);
        jobScheduler.schedule(builder.build());

        //we have scheduled the keep alive
        isKeepAliveOn.set(true);
    }
}

The periodic "keep alive" job - can be e.g. scheduled in a broadcast, on BOOT_COMPLETED.

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Log.d(TAG, "BroadCastReceiver got the location.");

    final String action = intent.getAction();

    switch (action) {
        case INTENT_ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED:
            Log.i(TAG, "Received a BootCompleted");
            UtilsKeepAlive.enableKeepAlive(context);
            break;

I have used this tutorial explaining the JobScheduler: https://www.vogella.com/tutorials/AndroidTaskScheduling/article.html