Xamarin Mobile Development for Android Cookbook

Starting services

Sometimes, we have to execute a task that must continue to run even if the user switches to another app or activity.

How to do it...

To be able to execute a task, even if the user switches away, we use a Service instance:

1. First, we need an instance of Service, and in most cases, we can use an IntentService instance:

   [Service]
   public class XamarinService : IntentService {
     protected override void OnHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
       // some long-running task
     }
   }

2. In order to begin execution, we invoke the StartService() method on the Context type:

   StartService(new Intent(this, typeof(XamarinService)));

3. We can pass data to the service when we start it by adding data to the intent:

   var intent = new Intent(this, typeof(XamarinService)); intent.PutExtra("MyKey", ...