Best Notifications Tutorial in Android

Using the Notification Manager in Android

This article describes how to use the Notification Manager in Android. It is based on Eclipse 4.2, Java 1.6 and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).

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Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites for this tutorial

2. Notification Manager

2.1. Notification Manager

2.2. Setting up Notifications

3. Pending Intent

4. Example: NotificationManager

5. Thank you

6. Questions and Discussion

7. Links and Literature

7.1. Source Code

7.2. Android Resources

7.3. vogella Resources

1. Prerequisites for this tutorial

The following assumes that you have already basic knowledge in Android development. Please check theAndroid development tutorial to learn the basics.

2. Notification Manager

2.1. Notification Manager

Android allows to put notification into the titlebar of your application. The user can expand the notification bar and by selecting the notification the user can trigger another activity.

2.2. Setting up Notifications

Notifications in Android are represented by the Notification class. To create notifications you use theNotificationManager class which can be received from the Activity via thegetSystemService() method.

NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) 
  getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE); 

The Notification.Builder provides an builder interface to create an Notification object. You use a PendingIntent to specify the action which should be performed once the user select the notification. Notification.Builder allows to add up two three buttons with definable actions to the notification.

// Prepare intent which is triggered if the
// notification is selected

Intent intent = new Intent(this, NotificationReceiver.class);
PendingIntent pIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, intent, 0);

// Build notification
// Actions are just fake
Notification noti = new Notification.Builder(this)
        .setContentTitle("New mail from " + "test@gmail.com")
        .setContentText("Subject").setSmallIcon(R.drawable.icon)
        .setContentIntent(pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "Call", pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "More", pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "And more", pIntent).build();
    
  
NotificationManager notificationManager = 
  (NotificationManager) getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

// Hide the notification after its selected
noti.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;

notificationManager.notify(0, noti); 

You can also set your notification to use more space (up to 256 dp) by setting the style.

String longText = "...";

Notification noti = new Notification.Builder(this).
.....
.setStyle(new Notification.BigTextStyle().bigText(longText)) 

3. Pending Intent

A PendingIntent is a token that you give to another application (e.g. Notification Manager, Alarm Manager or other 3rd party applications), which allows this other application to use the permissions of your application to execute a predefined piece of code.

To perform a broadcast via a pending intent so get a PendingIntent viaPendingIntent.getBroadcast(). To perform an activity via an pending intent you receive the activity via PendingIntent.getActivity().

4. Example: NotificationManager

Create a new project called de.vogella.android.notificationmanager with the Activity class calledCreateNotificationActivity. This Activity should use the main.xml layout file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:onClick="createNotification"
        android:text="Create Notification" >
    </Button>

</LinearLayout> 

Create the following result.xml layout file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="This is the result activity opened from the notification" >
    </TextView>

</LinearLayout> 

Create a new Activity called NotificationReceiverActivity with the following coding. Don't forget to register the Activity in the AndroidManfest.mf.

package de.vogella.android.notificationmanager;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class NotificationReceiverActivity extends Activity {
  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.result);
  }
} 

Change the CreateNotificationActivity class to the following coding.

package de.vogella.android.notificationmanager;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Notification;
import android.app.NotificationManager;
import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;

public class CreateNotificationActivity extends Activity {
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
  }

  public void createNotification(View view) {
    // Prepare intent which is triggered if the
    // notification is selected
    Intent intent = new Intent(this, NotificationReceiverActivity.class);
    PendingIntent pIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, intent, 0);

    // Build notification
    // Actions are just fake
    Notification noti = new Notification.Builder(this)
        .setContentTitle("New mail from " + "test@gmail.com")
        .setContentText("Subject").setSmallIcon(R.drawable.icon)
        .setContentIntent(pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "Call", pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "More", pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "And more", pIntent).build();
    NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    // Hide the notification after its selected
    noti.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;

    notificationManager.notify(0, noti);

  }
} 

Run your application and press the button. A new notification is created. If you select it your second activity will be displayed.