Instantiate Android push using an activity class instead of an Application class (Exact Target)

Question

We are trying to instantiate the Exact Target push service on Android, with the call ETPush.readyAimFire, in an Activity class instead of the Application one. We want to use as an Activity class instead of an Application one as we are thinking of possible integrations with clients that are using a framework that doesn't provide a way to extend the Application class.

We tried to implement it, and it works perfectly if you have the application running, but once you close it, the push notification is not shown. We can in the logs that we receive the message (GCM message com.testsalesforce 0:1424704288668625%f408837ef9fd7ecd), but we cannot see the logs for the broadcast receiver handling the notification.

Urban Airship has a class for this type of situation, you can see it's documentation here: http://docs.urbanairship.com/reference/libraries/android/latest/reference/com/urbanairship/Autopilot.html

We appreciate any information/help anyone can give us.

Thanks

Answer 1

The SDK requires an Application Class as the context in readyAimFire().

We completed additional testing of this scenario, and have found that you cannot call readyAimFire() within an Activity class, even if you pass in activity.getApplicationClass(). You must call readyAimFire() from the Application class.

This is because the application class will be instantiated for background work (eg. receivers) and if you have readyAimFire() in the activity class, Android will be unable to instantiate the SDK to process the work required in these receivers.

Answer 2

Thanks for your answer. But we have already looked at the sample app and in that case you instantiate the push in the application class and this does not apply to our case. As for the logs we already have the debug turned on so that is how we know your broadcast receiver is not handling the message.

As requested here is our manifest file. Please let us know if there is anything in this we need to address:

  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"/>
  <permission android:name="${packageName}.permission.C2D_MESSAGE" android:protectionLevel="signature"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="${packageName}.permission.C2D_MESSAGE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS"/>

  <application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    tools:replace="icon">

    <meta-data
      android:name="com.google.android.gms.version"
      android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version" />

    <activity
      android:name="com.kaldorgroup.pugpig.products.StartViewController"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize|screenLayout">
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
      </intent-filter>
    </activity>

    <receiver
      android:name="com.exacttarget.etpushsdk.ET_GenericReceiver"
      android:permission="com.google.android.c2dm.permission.SEND">
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE"/>
        <action android:name="com.google.android.c2dm.intent.REGISTRATION"/>
        <category android:name="${packageName}"/>
      </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

    <receiver android:name="com.exacttarget.etpushsdk.ETSendDataReceiver"/>

    <receiver
      android:name="com.exacttarget.etpushsdk.ETOpenReceiver">
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="${packageName}.MESSAGE_OPENED" />
      </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

    <service android:name="com.exacttarget.etpushsdk.ETSendDataIntentService"/>

    </application>

</manifest>