Develop Reference

Thread.sleep() vs handler.postDelay() to execute network call in every 30sec

I want perform a network call in every 30sec to push some metrics to Server. Currently I am doing it using thread.sleep(). I found some articles saying thread.sleep() has some drawbacks. I need to know am I doing it right? or Replacing the thread with Handler will improve my code?
public static void startSending(final Context con) {
if (running) return;
running = true;
threadToSendUXMetrics = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
do {
try {
Thread.sleep(AugmedixConstants.glassLogsPushInterval);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
mLogger.error(interrupt_exception + e.getMessage());
}
// to do to send each time, should have some sleep code
if (AugmedixConstants.WEBAPP_URL.equals(AugmedixConstants.EMPTY_STRING)||!StatsNetworkChecker.checkIsConnected(con)) {
Utility.populateNetworkStat();
mLogger.error(may_be_provider_not_login_yet);
} else
sendUXMetrics();
} while (running);
if (!uxMetricsQueue.isEmpty()) sendUXMetrics();
}
});
threadToSendUXMetrics.start();
}

If You are using only one thread in the network, then usage of the thread.sleep() is fine. If there are multiple threads in synchronization, then the thread.sleep() command will block all the other threads that are currently running.
As per the details you've provided, there is only one thread present which isn't blocking any other active threads which are running in synchronization, so using thread.sleep() shouldn't be a problem.

Use Handler.postDelayed to schedule tasks if you are working in UI Thread and Thread.sleep if you are working in background thread.
Apparently you are sending some data using network, you must do it in the background thread, hence Thread.sleep is recommended.

Simple is:
Thread.sleep(millisSeconds): With this method, you only can call in background tasks, for example in AsyncTask::doInBackground(), you can call to delay actions after that. RECOMMENDED CALL THIS METHOD IN BACKGROUND THREAD.
Handler().postDelayed({METHOD}, millisSeconds): With this instance, METHOD will trigged after millisSeconds declared.
But, to easy handle life cycle of Handler(), you need to declare a Handler() instance, with a Runnable instance. For example, when your Activity has paused or you just no need call that method again, you can remove callback from Handler(). Below is example:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
private Handler mHandler = Handler();
public void onStart(...) {
super.onStart(...)
this.mHandler.postDelayed(this.foo, 1000)
}
public void onPaused(...) {
this.mHandler.removeCallback(this.foo)
super.onPaused(...)
}
private Runnable foo = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// your code will call after 1 second when activity start
// end remove callback when activity paused
// continue call...
mHandler.postDelayed(foo, 1000)
}
}
}
The code above just for reference, I type by hand because don't have IDE to write then copy paste.

Object not locked by thread before wait in Android app

In my Android app I am trying to execute a task every 5 seconds.
I tried doing something like this:
#Override
public void onCreate() {
//standard initialization code
letsChange(); //method name
try{
wait(1000);
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printstackstrace();
}
}
But I get the following error message:
java.lang.IllegalMonitorStateException: object not locked by thread before wait()
What do I do to stop this?

When you call wait() inside a class, you are actually calling wait() on the current instance of that class. To do that, it requires a lock on that instance. If another thread has the lock, you will not be able to wait.
Adding synchronized to onCreate() will acquire the lock (the current instance of the Activity) and let you call wait() inside, but this is definitely not want you want to do as it will block the main/UI thread and cause your app to be non-responsive.
What you probably want instead is the following inside your activity:
private boolean isTerminationConditionMet = false;
#Override
public void onCreate() {
//standard Android onCreate code
final Handler handler = new Handler();
final Runnable task = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
//code you want to run every second
if (!isTerminationConditionMet()) {
handler.postDelayed(task, 1000);
}
}
}
handler.postDelayed(task, 1000);
}
This will cause the code inside run() to be run after the desired delay (1000ms) and then every 1000 ms until your termination condition is met.

Android: Forcing the main run loop to run before current thread of execution is complete

On iOS, if I want my current thread of execution to wait (ie. block) and the main loop to run so that the thread of execution next in the main queue can execute, I invoke:
[[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode beforeDate:[NSDate date]];
How would I go about doing the equivalent on Android?

This is indeed possible to do in Android. Shachar's answer is on the right track. The problem is not that the main loop will block (unless the code was executed on the main thread, but that's not what the question is proposing). The problem is that the other thread doesn't block, but is simply looping and burning CPU cycles in the while loop. Here is a blocking run on main method I use in my app:
/**
* Runs the runnable on the main UI thread. If called from a thread other than the UI thread,
* this method will block the calling thread and return only after the runnable has completed
* execution on the main UI thread.
* #param runnable Runnable to run on the main UI thread
*/
public static void blockingRunOnMain(Runnable runnable) {
if (Looper.myLooper() == Looper.getMainLooper()) { // Already on UI thread run immediately
runnable.run();
}
else { // Queue to run on UI thread
final MainRunMonitor lock = new MainRunMonitor();
Handler mainHandler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
mainHandler.post(runnable);
// Task to notify calling thread when runnable complete
mainHandler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
synchronized (lock) {
lock.mRunComplete = true;
lock.notify();
}
}
});
// Block calling thread until runnable completed on UI thread
boolean interrupted = false;
try {
synchronized (lock) {
while (!lock.mRunComplete) {
try {
lock.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// Received interrupt signal, but still haven't been notified, continue waiting
interrupted = true;
}
}
}
} finally {
if (interrupted) {
Thread.currentThread().interrupt(); // Restore interrupt to be used higher on call stack (we're not using it to interrupt this task)
}
}
}
}
MainRunMonitor is a simple class, in my case a private inner class to the class that implements blockingRunOnMain():
/**
* Monitor to lock calling thread while code is executed on UI thread.
*/
private static class MainRunMonitor {
private boolean mRunComplete = false;
}
blockingRunOnMain() is used by passing it a Runnable to run on the main thread:
blockingRunOnMain(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
workToDoSynchronouslyOnMain();
}
});
The first part of the blockingRunOnMain() method checks if the method is being called from the main thread and if so, simply executes the code immediately. Since the function of blockingRunOnMain() is to synchronously run the Runnable code before the method returns, this will have this same result even if called from the main thread itself.
If the method is called from a thread other than the main thread, we then post the Runnable to a Handler which is bound to the main thread's Looper. After posting the Runnable parameter, we then post another Runnable that will execute after the Runnable parameter completes execution, since the Handler executes posted Messages and Runnables in order. This second Runnable serves to notify the blocked thread that the work has been completed on the main thread.
After posting the second Runnable we now block the background thread and wait until we're notified. It's important to synchronize the operations performed on lock so that the operations are atomic on each thread.
The background thread calls wait() on the monitor and waits until mRunComplete == true. If it gets an InterruptedException, it's important to continue waiting and restore the interrupted state of the thread after we're done, since we're not using the interrupt mechanism ourselves to cancel our task, restoring it allows another method higher on the call stack to handle the interrupt. See "Dealing with InterruptedException".
When the Runnable parameter has completed execution and the second posted Runnable executes, it simply sets mRunComplete to true and notifies the blocked thread to continue execution, which finding mRunComplete == true now returns from blockingRunOnMain(), having executed the Runnable parameter synchronously on the main UI thread.

One short workaround is to have a boolean that is changed by the next main thread loop.
running on main thread can be done with runOnUIthread (or getting the main looper yourself)
moving to the next loop can b easely done with handler.postDelayed(Runnable run, long delayMills), and a no-time delay.
so you could do this:
nextMainLoopDone = false;//This should be changed to a thread safe boolean, could use AtomicBoolean
new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).postDelayed(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
nextMainLoopDone = true;
}
}, 1/* delay for no time, just to next loop*/);
while(!nextMainLoopDone) {
;
}

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it is not possible to do what you're asking for in Android.

Android- Thread.join() causes Application to hang

I have a thread which handles my game loop, when i call .join() on this thread the application stops responding.
I've been trying to fix a problem where the programs never get to the code, I.E the thread never ends.
System.out.println("YAY");
My Thread for the Game Loop:
This thread successfully prints out "Game Ended" but never seems to finish.
Runnable startGameLoop = new Runnable() {//game loop
#Override
public void run() {
AiFactory ai = new AiFactory();
final Button play = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Play);
final Button pass = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Pass);
while(finish==false){
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
currentPlayer = game.getPlayer();
if(currentPlayer.isPlayer()==false){
//System.out.println("passCount:" +game.getPasscount());
ai.decide(nextPlay, game.getPreviousPlayed(), currentPlayer, game.getPasscount() );
if(nextPlay.size()!=0){
runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
changeArrow();
if(nextPlay.size() ==1){
play1Card();
}
else if(nextPlay.size()==2){
play2Card();
}
else if(nextPlay.size()==3){
play3Card();
}
else if(nextPlay.size()==5){
play5Card();
}
}
}
else{
game.addPassCount();
game.nextTurn();
runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
changeArrow();
}
});
}
}
else if (currentPlayer.isPlayer()==true){
runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
changeArrow();
play.setClickable(true);
if(game.getPasscount()==3){
pass.setClickable(false);
}
else{
pass.setClickable(true);
}
}
});
}
}
System.out.println("Game Ended");
}
};
Starting and joining the thread to the main thread:
Thread myThread = new Thread(startGameLoop);
myThread.start();
try {
myThread.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("YAY");
}
To my understanding .join() makes the current thread wait till the new thread has finished before carrying on.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, i'm quite new to threading.

When you call myThread.join() inside Activity.onCreate you block the main UI thread. Of course it looks like your application has stopped responding because the UI thread is the one responsible for redrawing UI. All your calls runOnUiThread never happen because your UI thread is busy waiting on your game loop.

Thread.join makes the current thread wait until the thread you call it on ends. It does not cause the thread you call it on to end. So if that thread is never ending (as you say at the top), calling join will make it hang forever.
If you want to actually end the thread, call cancel on it. But that requires your thread to occasionally call isCanceled() and exit its run function if it returns true.

mythread.join() does not ensure that your "mythread" is ended.
You need to place a notify() in your game loop.
...
...
System.out.println("Game Ended");
synchronized(mythread){
mythread.notify();
}
Basically, when you make a call to wait(), the code waits on the thread's monitor, and a call to notify() causes a thread waiting on the object's monitor to wake up.
Also, you can use notifyAll() to wake up all the waiting threads.
Alternatively, you can use timeout version of wait(), where the thread waits either till it gets notified or it times out.

Android: Pause the thread for several seconds

ExecutorService exec = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(8);
List<Future<Object>> results = new ArrayList<Future<Object>>();
// submit tasks
for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
results.add(exec.submit(new ThreadTask()));
}
...
// stop the pool from accepting new tasks
exec.shutdown();
// wait for results
for(Future<Object> result: results) {
Object obj = result.get();
}
class ThreadTask implements Callable<Object> {
public Object call() {
// execute download
//Inside this method I need to pause the thread for several seconds
...
return result;
}
}
As shown above in the comment I need to pause the thread for several seconds. Hope you can help me with this.
Thanks for your time!

Just call Thread.sleep(timeInMillis) - that will pause the current thread.
So:
Thread.sleep(5000); // Sleep for 5 seconds
Obviously you shouldn't do this from a UI thread, or your whole UI will freeze...
Note that this simple approach won't allow the thread to be woken up other by interrupting it. If you want to be able to wake it up early, you could use Object.wait() on a monitor which is accessible to whichever code needs to wake it up; that code could use Object.notify() to wake the waiting thread up. (Alternatively, use a higher-level abstraction such as Condition or Semaphore.)

you could implement a new thread, which is not the UI thread..
something like this might do it for you..
class ThreadTask implements Callable<Object> {
public Object call() {
Thread createdToWait= new Thread() {
public void run() {
//---some code
sleep(1000);//call this function to pause the execution of this thread
//---code to be executed after the pause
}
};
createdToWait.start();
return result;
}