Unable to start the timer in a service in android

Question

I dont know whats wrong going on... I am not able to start a timer in my service. Following the code

public class BkgService extends Service{

private Timer ServUpdTimer = new Timer();
private static  long TMR_INTERVAL = 10*60*1000;

public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    StartServUpdateTask();
    }

private void StartServUpdateTask() {

        if(ServUpdTimer != null)
            ServUpdTimer.cancel();


        ServUpdTimer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new TimerTask() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
            }
        }, 0, TMR_INTERVAL);
    }
}

But when I reach to the line ServUpdTimer.scheduleAtFixedRate() I am getting the following exception

03-03 23:32:14.851: E/AndroidRuntime(6083): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start service mt.android.app.BkgService@40544838 with Intent { cmp=mt.android.app/.BkgService }: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Timer was canceled

I would be very grateful if someone can throw some light on this...

Answer 1

From the Javadoc for Timer.cancel():

Once a timer has been terminated, its execution thread terminates gracefully, and no more tasks may be scheduled on it.

From the Javadoc for Timer.scheduleAtFixedRate():

Throws: IllegalStateException - if task was already scheduled or cancelled, timer was cancelled, or timer thread terminated.

The Timer is cancelled immediately: you need to create a new instance:

private void StartServUpdateTask() {

    if(ServUpdTimer != null)
    {
        ServUpdTimer.cancel();
    }
    ServUpdTimer = new Timer();

    ...
}