Setting up notifications for Android

Question

Here is AlarmService for setting up notifications on my phone. Currently, the code works and is functional. However, I noticed my code looks different than a few examples I found online. Should I be using Notification Compact builder instead?

Also, any advice on how to make it better/cleaner would be great.

import android.app.Notification;
import android.app.NotificationManager;
import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.app.Service;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.IBinder;


public class AlarmService extends Service
{

    private NotificationManager mManager;

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0)
    {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate()
    {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.onCreate();
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("static-access")
    @Override
    public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId)
    {
        super.onStart(intent, startId);

        mManager = (NotificationManager) this.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(this.getApplicationContext().NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        Intent intent1 = new Intent(this.getApplicationContext(),ScoreCollectionPager.class);

        Notification notification = new Notification(R.drawable.clock,"Score Collection!", System.currentTimeMillis());
        intent1.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP| Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

        PendingIntent pendingNotificationIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity( this.getApplicationContext(),0, intent1,PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
        notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;
        notification.setLatestEventInfo(this.getApplicationContext(), "Score Collection!", "Please enter scores at this time!", pendingNotificationIntent);

        //Default notification alerts to vibrate and make a notification sound
        notification.defaults |= Notification.DEFAULT_VIBRATE;
        notification.defaults |= Notification.DEFAULT_SOUND;

        mManager.notify(0, notification);
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy()
    {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.onDestroy();
    }

}

Answer 1

I don't know much about Android, so I can't answer that specific question, but there's still some things to change.

 @Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0)
{
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    return null;
}

@Override
public void onCreate()
{
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    super.onCreate();
}

@Override
public void onDestroy()
{
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    super.onDestroy();
}

It looks like your IDE generated these for you, but you don't need them. Get rid of them, they're just clutter.

PendingIntent pendingNotificationIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity( this.getApplicationContext(),0, intent1,PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

Ouch! In Java, we put one space after each comma in the argument list, and sometimes spaces in expressions. This line should look like

PendingIntent pendingNotificationIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this.getApplicationContext(), 0, intent1, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

Also, if you put spaces around an operator, it should be one space on each side, so Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP| Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP should be Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP

notification.setLatestEventInfo(this.getApplicationContext(), "Score Collection!", "Please enter scores at this time!", pendingNotificationIntent);

If I recall correctly, on Android all user-facing strings should be handled by the OS so that you can localize them easily.

Other than that, this code looks pretty good.