intentService : why my onHandleIntent is never called?

If you got here and nothing worked, check your manifest looks like this:

    <service android:name=".subpackage.ServiceClassName" >
    </service>

And not like this:

    <service android:name=".subpackage.ServiceClassName" />

There's a problem with xml closing tags. The first one works. The second is legal but doesn't work.

Get rid of onStart(). First, it is obsolete. Second, you are not chaining to the superclass, thereby preventing IntentService from doing its work.

In case someone else wants the result here is what I should have done. Adding superclass to onCreate super.onCreate() and change onStart by onStartCommand (plus its superclass super.onStartCommand()), now it works as a charm

package tfe.rma.ciss.be;

import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException;
import org.xmlrpc.android.MethodCall;
import org.xmlrpc.android.XMLRPCServer;

import android.app.IntentService;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.util.Log;
import android.widget.Toast;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.StringReader;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.util.ArrayList;

import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;

public class Server extends IntentService {
    public String myData="";
    public String streamTitle = "",path="";

    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        Log.d("Server", ">>>onCreate()");
    }

    public Server() {
        super("Server");
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        super.onStartCommand(intent, startId, startId);
        Log.i("LocalService", "Received start id " + startId + ": " + intent);

        return START_STICKY;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
        Log.d("Server", ">>>handlingIntent()");
        try {
            ServerSocket socket = new ServerSocket(8214);
            XMLRPCServer server = new XMLRPCServer();
            Log.d("Server", ">>>opening on port" + socket);

            while (true) {
                Socket client = socket.accept();
                MethodCall call = server.readMethodCall(client);
                String name = call.getMethodName();

                if (name.equals("newImage")) {
                    ArrayList<Object> params = call.getParams();
                    // assume "add" method has two Integer params, so no checks done
                    myData = (String)( params.get(0));
                    //int i1 = (Integer) params.get(1);
                    server.respond(client, new Object[] {200});
                    /*intent = new Intent (this, ParseFunction.class);
                    startService (intent);  */

                    Toast.makeText(this, myData, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();  
                    Log.d("ParseFunction", ">>>Started()"); 

                    Intent i = new Intent( this, B.class );
                    i.putExtra( "Azo", myData);
                    i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
                    startActivity( i );
                } else {
                    server.respond(client, null);
                }
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (XmlPullParserException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}