is it over?

it's about to be

do you have something really quick?

I have a Service that runs a background thread. I'm binding to the service, and when I unbind the background thread is still running.

did you do anything to stop the thread?

The onDestroy in the Service is getting called.

if you fork a thread, you have to clean it up

clean it up in the onDestroy?

what if I need it to finish?

then you really should consider using startService(), instead of or in addition to bindService()

and you still need to make sure that the thread will eventually terminate

ok, i was thinking that would be the case

if you bind, create a thread, and unbind without cleaning up the thread, it is no different than if you leak a thread from an activity that was destroyed by the BACK button

ok, do you cover that in any of the books?

and the same risks exist (e.g., Android may terminate your process soonish, before your work is done)

i think i've been pretty sloppy there

cover what?

an elegant way to clean up based on the life cycles

not for your specific scenario, no

ok. thanks Mark.

this is why I prefer the command pattern and IntentService

oh

avoid the binding?

yes

i've been binding so hard, it's hard for me to let go

IntentService will terminate the thread and shut itself down upon completion of the work

ok, i need to read up on that. that could be perfect for what im trying to do.

and that's fine, you are welcome to use binding, but it makes scenarios like yours a bit more complicated

and takes you outside the scope of what I try to cover

im trying to download some remote data.. and just hook into the service to get progress updates

use LocalBroadcastManager

or regular broadcasts

or a Messenger

or something to deliver progress updates to your activity

i've been trying to do it with the observer pattern

there is nothing in the observer pattern that requires binding

yea.. i guess it's just they way im trying to implement.

LocalBroadcastManager, regular broadcasts, or a Messenger can implement an observer pattern

i bind, then register the activity with the service as an observer, then notify the activity with "notifyObserver" methods

but that is just the observer

something is causing your service to "download some remote data"

whatever *that* is should use startService()

i see... then the service can stopSelf() when the thread is done.

though personally I'd still use IntentService and the command pattern, but that's personal preference

correct

basically, the last thing the thread does is call stopSelf()

got it

(I think there's a Wrath of Khan quote for this somewhere... :-)

lol

anyway, I need to wrap up this chat

thanks again for your insight. ttyl.

next one is Tuesday, 10am Eastern

have a pleasant day!

ok..ill try to be on time next time.

bye