Android library project: calling a method of an inner class

Question

I'm in the process of splitting an Android project into a library project + several dependent projects, and ran into this problem.

The library project has an Android Service defined like this:

public class UserService extends Service {

    public class LocalBinder extends Binder {
        UserService getService() {
            return UserService.this;
        }
    }
    ...
}

The dependent project makes a call to a method of an inner class of the Service like this:

public ServiceConnection mConnection = new ServiceConnection() {

    public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) {
        LocalBinder binder = (LocalBinder) service;
        mService = binder.getService();
        mBound = true;            
    }
    ...
};

This works fine when everything's in the same project. But after I moved the Service into the library project, it gives a compile-time error:

The method getService() from the type UserService.LocalBinder is not visible

What do I need to change to make it compile?

Answer 1

Your method doesn't have any visibility modifier, so it's only visible from classes in the same package. Make it public to make it accessible from any other class:

    public UserService getService() {
        return UserService.this;
    }

Read the Java tutorial to learn about visibility modifiers.