Hilt: Cannot start service outside of application

Kotlin version: 1.3.72 Hilt (android, compiler, and plugin) version: 2.28.3-alpha

I’m trying to run a service in the background. I am using an application just so I can leverage Hilt for DI, but it will have no UI.

When I tried to run: adb shell am startservice test.testflight/.TestFlightService

I got: Starting service: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=test.testflight/.TestFlightService }

But my application crashed with:

07-30 23:41:01.169 3359-3359/test.testflight E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: test.testflight, PID: 3359
    java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create service test.testflight.TestFlightService: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Hilt service must be attached to an @AndroidEntryPoint Application. Found: class android.app.Application
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2887)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap4(ActivityThread.java)
        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1427)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5422)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616)
     Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Hilt service must be attached to an @AndroidEntryPoint Application. Found: class android.app.Application
        at dagger.hilt.internal.Preconditions.checkState(Preconditions.java:83)
        at dagger.hilt.android.internal.managers.ServiceComponentManager.createComponent(ServiceComponentManager.java:65)
        at dagger.hilt.android.internal.managers.ServiceComponentManager.generatedComponent(ServiceComponentManager.java:58)
        at test.testflight.Hilt_TestFlightService.generatedComponent(Hilt_TestFlightService.java:54)
        at test.testflight.Hilt_TestFlightService.inject(Hilt_TestFlightService.java:49)
        at test.testflight.Hilt_TestFlightService.onCreate(Hilt_TestFlightService.java:28)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2877)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap4(ActivityThread.java) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1427) 
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102) 
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5422) 
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) 
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726) 
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616) 

My application class looks like:

package test.testflight

import android.app.Application
import dagger.hilt.android.HiltAndroidApp

/**
 * This is only used for Hilt graph creation.  This will run as a service in the background without a UI.
 */
@HiltAndroidApp
class TestFlight : Application() {}

My service class looks like:

package tests.testflight

import android.app.Service
import android.content.Intent
import android.os.IBinder
import dagger.hilt.android.AndroidEntryPoint
import sharedfunctions.logging.LogManager

@AndroidEntryPoint
class TestFlightService : Service() {

    override fun onStartCommand(intent: Intent?, flags: Int, startId: Int): Int {
        // always try to restart the service IF its killed by the OS
        // (we should not run into this but just in case)
        LogManager.d(TAG, "Test Flight Service started")
        return START_STICKY
    }

    override fun onBind(intent: Intent): IBinder? {
        return null
    }

    companion object {
        private const val TAG = "TestFlightService"
    }
}

[bcorso]

Sorry, I’m not really sure. I think the first thing to figure out is why Android is not using your application class, which shouldn’t be related to Hilt. You might have luck asking on StackOverflow to see if anyone has run into similar issues.

I’m going to close this for now, but if you find more evidence that suggests this is related to Hilt we can reopen it.

[LandonPatmore]

@bcorso I pulled a bug dumb…I accidentally removed the android:name from the AndroidManifest file without realizing it… -_-