Using Alarmmanager to start a service at specific time

I have searched a lot of places but couldnt find a clean sequential explanation of how to start a service (or if thats not possible then an activity) at a specific time daily using the AlarmManager??

I want to register several such alarms and triggering them should result in a service to be started. I'll be having a small piece of code in the service which can then execute and i can finish the service for good....

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar cur_cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cur_cal.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
Date date = new Date(cur_cal.get(Calendar.YEAR), cur_cal.get(Calendar.MONTH), cur_cal.get(Calendar.DATE), 16, 45);
cal.setTime(date);
Intent intent = new Intent(ProfileList.this, ActivateOnTime.class);
intent.putExtra("profile_id", 2);
PendingIntent pintent = PendingIntent.getService(ProfileList.this, 0, intent, 0);
AlarmManager alarm = (AlarmManager)getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
alarm.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, cal.getTimeInMillis(), pintent);
System.out.println("The alarm set!!");

i tried this code to activate the alarm at 4.45... but its not firing the service... do i have to keep the process running?? M i doing anything wrong???

One more thing, my service gets perfectly executed in case i use the following code:

long firstTime = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime();
alarm.setRepeating(AlarmManager.ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP, firstTime, 30*1000,pintent);

Edit Report

//Create alarm manager
AlarmManager alarmMgr0 = (AlarmManager)getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);

//Create pending intent & register it to your alarm notifier class
Intent intent0 = new Intent(this, AlarmReciever.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent0 = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 0, intent0, 0);

//set timer you want alarm to work (here I have set it to 7.20pm)
Intent intent0 = new Intent(this, OldEntryRemover.class);
Calendar timeOff9 = Calendar.getInstance();
timeOff9.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 19);
timeOff9.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 20);
timeOff9.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);

//set that timer as a RTC Wakeup to alarm manager object
alarmMgr0.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, timeOff0.getTimeInMillis(), pendingIntent0);

Then in your AlarmReciever class which is a broadcastReciever, under onRecieve method put your logic. This will take care of what ever the logic you want to handle when the time comes to 7.20 pm.

If you need to set multiple alarms, create another Calendar instance & set time values appropriately. You also need to create another instance for pendingIntent otherwise timers will overlap. Then set it to same alarmManager with new timer & pendingIntent.

answered 2012-05-25T11:46:25.897

Using Alarmmanager to start a service at specific time

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