title: Restful API service
body: <p>I'm looking to make a service which I can use to make calls to a web-based REST API.</p>
  
  <p>Basically I want to start a service on app init then I want to be able to ask that service to request a url and return the results.  In the meantime I want to be able to display a progress window or something similar.</p>
  
  <p>I've created a service currently which uses IDL, I've read somewhere that you only really need this for cross app communication, so think these needs stripping out but unsure how to do callbacks without it.  Also when I hit the <code>post(Config.getURL("login"), values)</code> the app seems to pause for a while (seems weird - thought the idea behind a service was that it runs on a different thread!)</p>
  
  <p>Currently I have a service with post and get http methods inside, a couple of AIDL files (for two way communication), a ServiceManager which deals with starting, stopping, binding etc to the service and I'm dynamically creating a Handler with specific code for the callbacks as needed.</p>
  
  <p>I don't want anyone to give me a complete code base to work on, but some pointers would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Code in (mostly) full:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class RestfulAPIService extends Service  {
  
  final RemoteCallbackList&lt;IRemoteServiceCallback&gt; mCallbacks = new RemoteCallbackList&lt;IRemoteServiceCallback&gt;();
  
  public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
      super.onStart(intent, startId);
  }
  public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
      return binder;
  }
  public void onCreate() {
      super.onCreate();
  }
  public void onDestroy() {
      super.onDestroy();
      mCallbacks.kill();
  }
  private final IRestfulService.Stub binder = new IRestfulService.Stub() {
      public void doLogin(String username, String password) {
  
          Message msg = new Message();
          Bundle data = new Bundle();
          HashMap&lt;String, String&gt; values = new HashMap&lt;String, String&gt;();
          values.put("username", username);
          values.put("password", password);
          String result = post(Config.getURL("login"), values);
          data.putString("response", result);
          msg.setData(data);
          msg.what = Config.ACTION_LOGIN;
          mHandler.sendMessage(msg);
      }
  
      public void registerCallback(IRemoteServiceCallback cb) {
          if (cb != null)
              mCallbacks.register(cb);
      }
  };
  
  private final Handler mHandler = new Handler() {
      public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
  
          // Broadcast to all clients the new value.
          final int N = mCallbacks.beginBroadcast();
          for (int i = 0; i &lt; N; i++) {
              try {
                  switch (msg.what) {
                  case Config.ACTION_LOGIN:
                      mCallbacks.getBroadcastItem(i).userLogIn( msg.getData().getString("response"));
                      break;
                  default:
                      super.handleMessage(msg);
                      return;
  
                  }
              } catch (RemoteException e) {
              }
          }
          mCallbacks.finishBroadcast();
      }
      public String post(String url, HashMap&lt;String, String&gt; namePairs) {...}
      public String get(String url) {...}
  };
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>A couple of AIDL files:</p>
  
  <pre><code>package com.something.android
  
  oneway interface IRemoteServiceCallback {
      void userLogIn(String result);
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and </p>
  
  <pre><code>package com.something.android
  import com.something.android.IRemoteServiceCallback;
  
  interface IRestfulService {
      void doLogin(in String username, in String password);
      void registerCallback(IRemoteServiceCallback cb);
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and the service manager:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class ServiceManager {
  
      final RemoteCallbackList&lt;IRemoteServiceCallback&gt; mCallbacks = new RemoteCallbackList&lt;IRemoteServiceCallback&gt;();
      public IRestfulService restfulService;
      private RestfulServiceConnection conn;
      private boolean started = false;
      private Context context;
  
      public ServiceManager(Context context) {
          this.context = context;
      }
  
      public void startService() {
          if (started) {
              Toast.makeText(context, "Service already started", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
          } else {
              Intent i = new Intent();
              i.setClassName("com.something.android", "com.something.android.RestfulAPIService");
              context.startService(i);
              started = true;
          }
      }
  
      public void stopService() {
          if (!started) {
              Toast.makeText(context, "Service not yet started", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
          } else {
              Intent i = new Intent();
              i.setClassName("com.something.android", "com.something.android.RestfulAPIService");
              context.stopService(i);
              started = false;
          }
      }
  
      public void bindService() {
          if (conn == null) {
              conn = new RestfulServiceConnection();
              Intent i = new Intent();
              i.setClassName("com.something.android", "com.something.android.RestfulAPIService");
              context.bindService(i, conn, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
          } else {
              Toast.makeText(context, "Cannot bind - service already bound", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
          }
      }
  
      protected void destroy() {
          releaseService();
      }
  
      private void releaseService() {
          if (conn != null) {
              context.unbindService(conn);
              conn = null;
              Log.d(LOG_TAG, "unbindService()");
          } else {
              Toast.makeText(context, "Cannot unbind - service not bound", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
          }
      }
  
      class RestfulServiceConnection implements ServiceConnection {
          public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder boundService) {
              restfulService = IRestfulService.Stub.asInterface((IBinder) boundService);
              try {
              restfulService.registerCallback(mCallback);
              } catch (RemoteException e) {}
          }
  
          public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName className) {
              restfulService = null;
          }
      };
  
      private IRemoteServiceCallback mCallback = new IRemoteServiceCallback.Stub() {
          public void userLogIn(String result) throws RemoteException {
              mHandler.sendMessage(mHandler.obtainMessage(Config.ACTION_LOGIN, result));
  
          }
      };
  
      private Handler mHandler;
  
      public void setHandler(Handler handler) {
          mHandler = handler;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Service init and bind:</p>
  
  <pre><code>// this I'm calling on app onCreate
  servicemanager = new ServiceManager(this);
  servicemanager.startService();
  servicemanager.bindService();
  application = (ApplicationState)this.getApplication();
  application.setServiceManager(servicemanager);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>service function call:</p>
  
  <pre><code>// this lot i'm calling as required - in this example for login
  progressDialog = new ProgressDialog(Login.this);
  progressDialog.setMessage("Logging you in...");
  progressDialog.show();
  
  application = (ApplicationState) getApplication();
  servicemanager = application.getServiceManager();
  servicemanager.setHandler(mHandler);
  
  try {
      servicemanager.restfulService.doLogin(args[0], args[1]);
  } catch (RemoteException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
  }
  
  ...later in the same file...
  
  Handler mHandler = new Handler() {
      public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
  
          switch (msg.what) {
          case Config.ACTION_LOGIN:
  
              if (progressDialog.isShowing()) {
                  progressDialog.dismiss();
              }
  
              try {
                  ...process login results...
                  }
              } catch (JSONException e) {
                  Log.e("JSON", "There was an error parsing the JSON", e);
              }
              break;
          default:
              super.handleMessage(msg);
          }
  
      }
  
  };
  </code></pre>