BroadcastReceiver registered in AndroidManifest not working

Question

Current Behavior: The messages are being broadcast, but the receiver never gets them. I know this because the print statement in the broadcaster is printed, but the print statement in the receiver is never printed. What am I missing/doing incorrectly?

Here's the snippet where I tried (multiple ways) to broadcast a message, which is inside a class called IMService that extends Service :

//NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST is a String
Log.i( "MY_TAG", "broadcasting received friend request");

Intent i = new Intent( NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST, null, null, NotificationReceiver.class );

i.putExtra( USER_ID, user.username() );  
sendBroadcast(i);

i = new Intent( NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST );

i.putExtra( USER_ID, user.username() );  
sendBroadcast(i);

i = new Intent( this, NotificationReceiver.class );

i.putExtra( USER_ID, user.username() );  
sendBroadcast(i);

The broadcast receiver (which is a standalone class aka not an inner class):

public class NotificationReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver 
{
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) 
    {
         Log.i("MY_TAG", "friends broadcast receiver received a friend request message");
    }
}

AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="10"
    android:targetSdkVersion="21" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

<application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

    <receiver android:name="NotificationsReceiver" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action  android:name="IMService.NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST" />
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

    <activity
        android:name="activities.MainActivity"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.Login"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_login" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.Register"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_register" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name=".HttpRequest"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_signin" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name=".Messaging"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_messaging" >
    </activity>

    <service android:name=".IMService" />

    <activity
        android:name=".FriendList"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_friend_list" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.Home"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_home"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.Friends"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_friends"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.FriendRequests"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_friend_requests" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.PrivateChat"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_private_chat"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.RandomChat"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_random_chat" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.Groups"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_groups" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.GroupChat"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_group_chat"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="activities.UserProfile"
        android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_user_profile" >
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name=".Messages"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_messages" >
    </activity>
</application>

</manifest>

EDIT: After reading Mike's comment, I tried the following 2 things (separately), but the receiver still does not receive the message:

<!-- no filter -->
<receiver android:name="NotificationReceiver" />

and:

<!-- with a filter, and I changed the value of NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST to 
    public static final String NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST = "new_friend_request"; -->

<receiver android:name="NotificationReceiver" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action  android:name="new_friend_request" />
        </intent-filter>
</receiver>

Here is my project's hierarchy:

Last Edit:

For anyone curious about the exact warning when I used a capital letter for the package name, here's a screen shot:

Answer 1

When using implicit Intents - ie, Intents not created for a specific class - the action you're filtering for on the BroadcastReceiver must exactly match that which you use to create the Intent. In this case, the NEW_FRIEND_REQUEST String specified in the code did not match the <action> element in the manifest.

Also, when a Receiver is incorrectly listed in the manifest, firing an implicit Intent meant for it will fail silently, as the system won't be able find it. In this case, an extra s in NotificationReceiver was one problem. Another was that the Receiver is located in a subdirectory of /src , and therefore in a different package. This was corrected by changing the name listed in the manifest to include the subdirectory in the package name.

Finally, it appears that capital letters in package names - and, therefore, project directory names - can cause problems, and should be avoided.