AuthenticatorService running but nothing in Account Settings

Question

It makes ten hours in a row that I try to create a Custom Account Type on my app.

My references are here : http://docs.huihoo.com/android/4.2/training/id-auth/custom_auth.html

And the Android Developpers example here.

My steps are :

1. Create an Authenticator class which extends AbstractAccountAuthenticator and overrides 7 methods.
2. Create AuthenticatorService class which extends Service class where I initialize Authenticator class
3. Create AuthenticatorActivity which extends AccountAuthenticatorActivity and where I create the user interface to enter credentials.
4. Add the service, permission and activity in AndroidManifest.xml
5. Create the @xml/authenticator file and set informations

With all of that well made, the only thing to do is to find a way to start the service. So I created an other activity and start it in onCreate() method.

Time to test the app, I decided to run it on emulator (API16). The MainActivity is launched and we can see in Running Processes the app process, and the app service too !

So I go to DevTools/AccountsTester to insert credentials... But nothing here. Just Corporate and Email apps by default. I thought it was because of the emulator, so tried on my GS3 to add an account but it was the same.

In my logcat there's no error, and we can see the service is running(using Log class in my service class).

My code is exactly the same as my 2nd reference, I just change the server requests by returning a simple true instead, so in my case the service doesn't use external server to get response about submitted credentials.

Is there any step which I missed in my work ?

Answer 1

I finally found the little mistake. When you use Android Studio and you make a new XML ressource file (in the example, the authenticator.xml file), some code is auto-generated :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ressources>

</ressources>

My mistake was to insert my account-authenticatior item in ressources, instead of let it as root.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<account-authenticator xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:accountType="e@string/account_type"
    android:icon="@drawable/myIcon"
    android:smallIcon="@drawable/myIcon"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    />

I let this answer for people who could miss that like me. I also delete the startService() method in my MainActivity, because the AuthenticatorService is auto-launched.