I have a solution with two projects in it. A portable areas project, and a web site that references the portable areas project, and Both reference MvcContrib.

The problem I am have is with the embedded resources, they are giving me a 404 error when I try to get to them. It seems like it's trying to access a physical path not the dll. The partial view works fine.

The file I'm trying to access looks like this inside my visual studio solution explorer

AdHocReporting/Areas/AdHocReportBuilder/Content/adhoc.css (the build action is embedded)

**Here is the routing for the portable area:**

```
using System.Web.Mvc;
using MvcContrib.PortableAreas;

namespace AdHocReporting.Areas.AdHocReportBuilder
{
    public class AdHocReportBuilderAreaRegistration : PortableAreaRegistration
    {
        public override string AreaName
        {
            get { return "AdHocReportBuilder"; }
        }

        public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context, IApplicationBus bus)
        {
            RegisterRoutes(context);
            RegisterAreaEmbeddedResources();

        }
        private void RegisterRoutes(AreaRegistrationContext context)
        {
            context.MapRoute(
              AreaName + "_content",
              base.AreaRoutePrefix + "/Content/{resourceName}",
              new { controller = "EmbeddedResource", action = "Index", resourcePath = "Content" },
              new[] { "MvcContrib.PortableAreas" }
          );

            context.MapRoute(
                AreaName + "_default",
                base.AreaRoutePrefix + "/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
            );
        }
    }
}

```

**Here is the Web sites Global.aspx that has the reference to the portable area**

```
namespace AdHocReportingSite
{
    public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
    {
        public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
        {
            filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
        }

        public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
        {
            routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
            routes.MapRoute(
                "Default", // Route name
                "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
                new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
            );

        }
        protected void Application_Start()
        {
            AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
            PortableAreaRegistration.RegisterEmbeddedViewEngine();
            FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
            RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
        }
    }
}

```

**here is an image of what my solution explore looks like:**

![Solution Explorer](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6P0TK.png)
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/14695580', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/937294/']
See below for my original answer - that pattern has worked well, but recently I've started using a different approach to Service/Activity communication:

* Use a [bound service](https://developer.android.com/guide/components/bound-services.html) which enables the Activity to get a direct
reference to the Service, thus allowing direct calls on it, rather
than using Intents.
* Use RxJava to execute asynchronous operations.
* If the Service needs to continue background operations even when no
Activity is running, also start the service from the Application
class so that it does not get stopped when unbound.

The advantages I have found in this approach compared to the startService()/LocalBroadcast technique are

* No need for data objects to implement Parcelable - this is particularly important to me as I am now sharing code between Android and iOS (using RoboVM)
* RxJava provides canned (and cross-platform) scheduling, and easy composition of sequential asynchronous operations.
* This should be more efficient than using a LocalBroadcast, though the overhead of using RxJava may outweigh that.

Some example code. First the service:

```
public class AndroidBmService extends Service implements BmService {

    private static final int PRESSURE_RATE = 500000;   // microseconds between pressure updates
    private SensorManager sensorManager;
    private SensorEventListener pressureListener;
    private ObservableEmitter<Float> pressureObserver;
    private Observable<Float> pressureObservable;

    public class LocalBinder extends Binder {
        public AndroidBmService getService() {
            return AndroidBmService.this;
        }
    }

    private IBinder binder = new LocalBinder();

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        logMsg("Service bound");
        return binder;
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        return START_NOT_STICKY;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        sensorManager = (SensorManager)getSystemService(SENSOR_SERVICE);
        Sensor pressureSensor = sensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_PRESSURE);
        if(pressureSensor != null)
            sensorManager.registerListener(pressureListener = new SensorEventListener() {
                @Override
                public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) {
                    if(pressureObserver != null) {
                        float lastPressure = event.values[0];
                        float lastPressureAltitude = (float)((1 - Math.pow(lastPressure / 1013.25, 0.190284)) * 145366.45);
                        pressureObserver.onNext(lastPressureAltitude);
                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy) {

                }
            }, pressureSensor, PRESSURE_RATE);
    }

    @Override
    public Observable<Float> observePressure() {
        if(pressureObservable == null) {
            pressureObservable = Observable.create(emitter -> pressureObserver = emitter);
            pressureObservable = pressureObservable.share();
        }
         return pressureObservable;
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        if(pressureListener != null)
            sensorManager.unregisterListener(pressureListener);
    }
} 

```

And an Activity that binds to the service and receives pressure altitude updates:

```
public class TestActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private ContentTestBinding binding;
    private ServiceConnection serviceConnection;
    private AndroidBmService service;
    private Disposable disposable;

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        if(disposable != null)
            disposable.dispose();
        unbindService(serviceConnection);
        super.onDestroy();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        binding = DataBindingUtil.setContentView(this, R.layout.content_test);
        serviceConnection = new ServiceConnection() {
            @Override
            public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName componentName, IBinder iBinder) {
                logMsg("BlueMAX service bound");
                service = ((AndroidBmService.LocalBinder)iBinder).getService();
                disposable = service.observePressure()
                    .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                    .subscribe(altitude ->
                        binding.altitude.setText(
                            String.format(Locale.US,
                                "Pressure Altitude %d feet",
                                altitude.intValue())));
            }

            @Override
            public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName componentName) {
                logMsg("Service disconnected");
            }
        };
        bindService(new Intent(
            this, AndroidBmService.class),
            serviceConnection, BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
    }
}

```

The layout for this Activity is:

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    >
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context="com.controlj.mfgtest.TestActivity">

        <TextView
            tools:text="Pressure"
            android:id="@+id/altitude"
            android:gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

    </LinearLayout>
</layout>

```

If the service needs to run in the background without a bound Activity it can be started from the Application class as well in `OnCreate()` using [`Context#startService()`](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Context.html#startService(android.content.Intent)).

---

**My Original Answer (from 2013):**

**In your service:** (using COPA as service in example below).

Use a LocalBroadCastManager. In your service's onCreate, set up the broadcaster:

```
broadcaster = LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this);

```

When you want to notify the UI of something:

```
static final public String COPA_RESULT = "com.controlj.copame.backend.COPAService.REQUEST_PROCESSED";

static final public String COPA_MESSAGE = "com.controlj.copame.backend.COPAService.COPA_MSG";

public void sendResult(String message) {
    Intent intent = new Intent(COPA_RESULT);
    if(message != null)
        intent.putExtra(COPA_MESSAGE, message);
    broadcaster.sendBroadcast(intent);
}

```

**In your Activity:** 

Create a listener on onCreate:

```
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    super.setContentView(R.layout.copa);
    receiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
        @Override
        public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
            String s = intent.getStringExtra(COPAService.COPA_MESSAGE);
            // do something here.
        }
    };
}

```

and register it in onStart:

```
@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();
    LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver((receiver), 
        new IntentFilter(COPAService.COPA_RESULT)
    );
}

@Override
protected void onStop() {
    LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).unregisterReceiver(receiver);
    super.onStop();
}

```
My solution might not be the cleanest but it should work with no problems.
The logic is simply to create a static variable to store your data on the `Service` and update your view each second on your `Activity`.

Let's say that you have a `String` on your `Service` that you want to send it to a `TextView` on your `Activity`. It should look like this

Your Service: 

```
public class TestService extends Service {
    public static String myString = "";
    // Do some stuff with myString

```

Your Activty:

```
public class TestActivity extends Activity {
    TextView tv;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        tv = new TextView(this);
        setContentView(tv);
        update();
        Thread t = new Thread() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    while (!isInterrupted()) {
                        Thread.sleep(1000);
                        runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                            @Override
                            public void run() {
                                update();
                            }
                        });
                    }
                } catch (InterruptedException ignored) {}
            }
        };
        t.start();
        startService(new Intent(this, TestService.class));
    }
    private void update() {
        // update your interface here
        tv.setText(TestService.myString);
    }
}

```