Stopping services

As with most tasks, sometimes we have to stop doing them. This may be because it is no longer necessary or because there are problems.

How to do it...

In order to stop a Service instance, an instance needs to be executing a task, otherwise the command will be ignored. Stopping a service can be done using a reference to the Context instance or from within the service:

1. We first need a Service instance, such as an IntentService instance:

   [Service]
   public class XamarinService : IntentService {
     private bool stopping = false;
     protected override void OnHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
       // some long-running task
       while (!stopping) {
       }
     }
   }

2. Then, we can start it as follows:

   StartService(new Intent(this, typeof(XamarinService)))

3. Now, we can stop it in a very similar manner using the StopService() method on the Context type:

   StopService(new Intent(this, typeof(XamarinService)));

4. We can also stop the service from inside the service using the StopSelf() method:

   StopSelf();

5. If we use...