TUTORIAL 27
Messages From The Great
Beyond
In this tutorial, we will replace the callback system we used in previous
editions of Patchy with a broadcast Intent. This allows PostMonitor to alert
applications about new status updates without there having to be an
explicit connection between them.
Step-By-Step Instructions........................................................................
First, you need to have completed the previous tutorial. If you are
beginning the tutorials here, or if you wish to not use your existing work,
you can download a ZIP file with all of the tutorial results, and you can copy
the 26-Animation edition of Patchy to use as a starting point.
Step #1: Broadcast the Intent
Sending a broadcast Intent is rather simple, particularly for an application
like PostMonitor that already collects the information to broadcast (in this
case, friend, status, and creation date).
First, we need to choose a name for the action of the broadcast Intent. We
need something that will not collide with other such names, so it is best to
use something that has our namespace in it. Similarly, we need to have