Continue tracking location in a service when user changes app or activity/fragment

Question

I am making a fitness app and need to track location (using google play services) in the background - I run an unbound service. The service work fine when run from the fragment its started in, but when the user changes fragment or changes/minimizes app (say to start using the gmail app, etc...) the service stops. How do I keep tracking location so that when the app is minimized and then opened again, it will still be tracking (So that it can continuously write to the SQLite DB - Distance travelled, avg. speed, etc.)

segments of code from the fragment:

public void onResume(){
//setting up Broadcast Reciever
        if(broadcastReceiver == null){
            broadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
                @Override
                public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
                    Location currentLocation;
                    //retrieving extras with given tag from service
                    currentLocation = (Location) intent.getExtras().get("currentLocation");

                    //displaying speed and altitude if user has selected to view it from the spinner
                    if(appPreferences.getKeyStatsSpinner1().equalsIgnoreCase("CURRENT SPEED")){
                        spinner1TextView.setText(String.valueOf(currentLocation.getSpeed()));
                    }
                    if(appPreferences.getKeyStatsSpinner2().equalsIgnoreCase("CURRENT SPEED")){
                        spinner2TextView.setText(String.valueOf(currentLocation.getSpeed()));
                    }
                    if(appPreferences.getKeyStatsSpinner1().equalsIgnoreCase("CURRENT ALTITUDE")){
                        spinner1TextView.setText(String.valueOf(currentLocation.getAltitude()));
                    }
                    if(appPreferences.getKeyStatsSpinner2().equalsIgnoreCase("CURRENT ALTITUDE")){
                        spinner2TextView.setText(String.valueOf(currentLocation.getAltitude()));
                    }
                }
            };
        }

        //start recieving updates from service with tag given
        //getActivity().registerReceiver(broadcastReceiver, new IntentFilter("LocationTrackingService_update"));
        context.registerReceiver(broadcastReceiver, new IntentFilter("LocationTrackingService_update"));
}
 @Override
public void onPause() {
    super.onPause();

    Log.d(TAG, "onPause: service cancelled");

    //close connecting with broadcast receiver
    if(broadcastReceiver != null){
        //getActivity().unregisterReceiver(broadcastReceiver);
        context.unregisterReceiver(broadcastReceiver);
    }

    trackLocation(false);
}

private void trackLocation(Boolean trackLocation){
        if(trackLocation == true) {
            Intent locationTrackingService = new Intent(context, LocationTrackingService.class);
            //getActivity().startService(locationTrackingService);
            context.startService(locationTrackingService);
        }
        else{
            Intent locationTrackingService = new Intent(context, LocationTrackingService.class);
            //getActivity().stopService(locationTrackingService);
            context.stopService(locationTrackingService);
        }
    }

segments of code from the service:

//automatically called when we .connect() to googleApiClient
    @Override
    public void onConnected(@Nullable Bundle bundle) {

        if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED && ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            ............................
            return;
        }


        //sets location to last known location
        currentLocation = LocationServices.FusedLocationApi.getLastLocation(googleApiClient);

        //broadcasting intent with last known location
        Intent publishLocationUpdate = new Intent("LocationTrackingService_update");
        publishLocationUpdate.putExtra("currentLocation", currentLocation);
        sendBroadcast(publishLocationUpdate);

        //request updates
        LocationServices.FusedLocationApi.requestLocationUpdates(googleApiClient, locationRequest, this);
    }

I have read perhaps that I should use 'startForegroundService' instead. I was also thinking that if I removed the service destruction from onPause, the service would run indefinitely - but when I deleted the code from onPause, the service continued as normal..

Answer 1

You are right that you should use ForegroundService. The following example runs perfect. We are using this in our projects.

Android Play Location Foreground Service Example