Is there an 'emergency plan' in the Android API? - android

Is there a way to execute a method after the App crashed (a certain number times)?
Example: Sometimes with every run data changes in a way that the app does not crash anymore. So, this way it may recover itself after trying to start it for 2 times for example. The 3rd time would run smoothly again. Just an example!
My only idea right now would be to wrap everything inside the onCreate method in my main Activity in a generic try-catch block (catching Exception) handler. I don't think this is smart for several reasons, for example performance.

To catch every uncaught exception you can use following snippet:
public class App extends Application {
public void onCreate() {
Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler() {
#Override
public void uncaughtException(Thread t, Throwable e) {
Log.e("TAG","Implement your recovery strategy here, e.g. clean database or cache: " + e.toString());
}
});
}
}
Please note, that this is very 'hacky' solution, and if your app is in corrupted state very often there is probably something wrong with your code.

Related

Java - Android : Thread being called (run) twice

I would like some help regarding Java - Android MultiThreading
While learning to develop my app in a multi-threading way in order to take advantage of the ever-growing multi-core devices market share (most devices are quad core now, some even octo-core), I ran in a situation where my threads are either being calling twice or running twice.
I just don't why and how.
[EDIT 3]
Alright, I narrowed down the issue : I called the AsyncTask from the onResume() method. Although my app did not lost focus (which would mean a call to onPause() then back to onResume() upon return of focus in which case my threads would be run twice) during the tests, I solved the issue by moving away the call to FetchFriendsList to another place.
So far so good, but since in my tests the app did not loose focus or perhaps it did but I could not witness it (!), I think there is another reason behind so I'd say my problem is not entirely solved ... at least for the moment. It does work though. Perhaps I did solve the issue but I do not know how :(
[end of EDIT 3]
I am implementing last Facebook SDK and I am using it to fetch the end-user friends list, which seems to do the work.
Since I am running this operation in an AsyncTask, I am not using request.executeAsync().
Instead I am using request.executeAndWait(). Facebook JavaDoc does state that this method must only be used if I am not in a the Main UI Thread which is my case otherwise I would get a NetworkOnMainThreadException.
Anyway, this is where the weird behavior is happening.
private final ArrayList<GraphUser> userFriendsList = new ArrayList<GraphUser>();
public final void fetchFriendsList() {
if (this.session != null && this.session.isOpened()) {
final Request requestUserFriendsList = Request.newMyFriendsRequest(
this.session, new Request.GraphUserListCallback()
public final void onCompleted(final List<GraphUser> users, final Response response) {
if (users != null && users.size() > 0) {
Log.v("Retrieved Friends List -> ", String.valueOf(users.size()));
userFriendsList.addAll(users);
}
}
}
);
if (this.asyncFlag)
requestUserFriendsList.executeAsync();
else
requestUserFriendsList.executeAndWait();
}
}
In my case, asyncFlag is set to false because I need to do stuff synchronously in that specific order :
Fetch User Friends List (not on the Main (UI) Thread)
Save friends list on device (separate new thread)
Save friends list on a server (separate new thread)
Following this pattern, the line userFriendsList.addAll(users); is called twice.
In the logcat, the Log.vis showed twice as well, and finally looking with the debugger, the content of the user friends list is made of duplicates.
But that's not all ... step 2 and 3 are indeed two separate threads which are both created and spawned within the same method : public final void asyncSaveFacebookFriendsList().
And guess what, this method is even called twice !
just why ?
At the beginning I was calling the method for step 2 and 3 like this :
[...]
userFriendsList.addAll(users);
asyncSaveFacebookFriendsList(); // it was private before
[...]
This is where the issue started as both line were running twice.
So I thought, alright, I'll call it later like this :
[...]
fetchFriendsList();
asyncSaveFacebookFriendsList(); // it is now public
[...]
But the issue remains still.
If I don't call public final void asyncSaveFacebookFriendsList(), then nothing is run twice.
Why does this issue happen ? Is there something I did not get in Java Threads ?
I do not think this is somehow related to the Facebook SDK because following the same pattern (and doing it also at the same time), I have the same issues when fetching and storing the end-user Twitter friends list.
So I do believe I am doing something wrong. Does someone have any idea in what possible case a thread is called twice ?
Note : all threads are started this way : thread.start(). I am not using any ThreadPool nor the ExecutorService.
In case you need more background context :
Content of AsyncTask : (no need to wonder why Void and Long, I remove the irrelevant code related to it)
private final class FetchFriendsLists extends AsyncTask<Long, Integer, Void> {
protected final Void doInBackground(final Long... params) {
if (params[0] != Long.valueOf(-1)) {
[...]
twitterAPI.fetchUserFriendsList();
publishProgress(1, -1);
}
if (params[1] == Long.valueOf(0)) {
[...]
facebookAPI.fetchFriendsList();
publishProgress(-1, 0);
}
return null;
}
protected final void onProgressUpdate(Integer... flags) {
super.onProgressUpdate(flags);
if (flags[0] != -1)
twitterAPI.asyncSaveFacebookFriendsList();
if (flags[1] == 0)
facebookAPI.asyncSaveFacebookFriendsList();
}
}
As you can see, I start step 2 and 3 in onPublishProgress() which runs on the Main UI Thread. Brefore it was in the doInBackground() method : the issue happens in both cases!
[EDIT]
After further test, it would seem any kind of code is in fact running twice.
I created a simple method called test in which in print a counter. The counter incremente twice as well !
Why you use onProgressUpdate?¿?
onProgressUpdate(Progress...), [...]. This method is used to display any form of progress in the
user interface while the background computation is still executing.
For instance, it can be used to animate a progress bar or show logs in
a text field.
This is used not at the finish of the petition, but when progress increased.
Read this:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html
You need to use:
protected void onPostExecute(Long result) {

Reinstalling and resuming crawling of Android app

I'm currently implementing a UI crawler for hybrid Android apps (i.e., Android apps implemented using PhoneGap), and the crawler requires periodic restarts to generate a model of the UI. Here, by "restart", I mean uninstall the app, do a fresh install of the same app, and resume execution of the crawler. (The idea is to get to the same initial state as before. One could argue that I can just reload the initial HTML page, but this would only work if the app does not save and reuse any data like login information, etc. The data needs to be fresh - i.e., what it was when the app was installed for the first time).
I'm quite new to Android app development, so I decided to test out what is perhaps the most naive method possible. The test code I've written is shown below. The method testReinstall() runs as an Android JUnit test, and I'm using Robotium 4.3 to execute clicks and other events on the app.
package com.example.googleauthenticator.test;
import java.io.IOException;
import android.test.ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2;
import com.example.googleauthenticator.MainActivity;
import com.jayway.android.robotium.solo.By;
import com.jayway.android.robotium.solo.Solo;
public class ReinstallTest extends ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2<MainActivity> {
private Solo solo;
public ReinstallTest() {
super(MainActivity.class);
}
#Override
protected void setUp() throws Exception {
super.setUp();
solo = new Solo(getInstrumentation(), getActivity());
}
public void testReinstall() {
//Reinstall app
Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process pr;
try {
pr = rt.exec("adb uninstall com.example.googleauthenticator"); //Uninstall
pr.waitFor();
pr = rt.exec("adb install GoogleAuthenticator.apk"); //Install
pr.waitFor();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
ie.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Reinstall done!");
//Perform some action
if (solo.waitForWebElement(By.id("add"))) {
solo.clickOnWebElement(By.id("add"));
}
}
#Override
protected void tearDown() throws Exception{
solo.finishOpenedActivities();
super.tearDown();
}
}
I tried running the above code and it seems like it was able to successfully uninstall the app (or, at the very least, I know for a fact that the data/data/com.example.googleauthenticator folder was removed). However, the app does not get reinstalled (i.e., the data/data/com.example.googleauthenticator folder is still not there), and I presume this is related to the fact that by the time the first call to pr.waitFor() is reached, testReinstall() terminates due to a "Process crash", and the following message appears in the LogCat:
11-08 17:08:32.763: W/PluginManager(9285): Can't find plugin: com.example.googleauthenticator
What am I missing here? Is there a better/more correct way?
EDIT: To be clear, I'm also getting the following error message:
11-08 17:33:40.883: D/WebKit(14828): Unabled to create LocalStorage database path /data/data/com.example.googleauthenticator/app_database/localstorage
You cannot remove the application you are testing, infact exiting the application you are testing will mean that your test stops running this is because with instrumentation your test and your application are the same process.
Just because you cannot do what you want via robotium/instrumentation though does not mean what you want to do is impossible, you will just need to use an automation tool not based on instrumentation that runs off device, Calabash for example will automatically reinstall the application for you depending on if you use the correct annotation, this might be a better fit for what you want to do.

Handling errors in GLThread.run()

I just released a new version of my application to the Android market, and my new version has a GLSurfaceView in the activity. Even though I'm not doing anything fancy, I have a large user base, there's a lot of substandard Android phones out there, and I'm invariably getting exceptions in GLThread.run().
What is the recommended way to catch/handle these exceptions without crashing the entire app? Ideally I'd like to be able to catch the error, remove the surface view from the activity and switch off the component that uses OpenGL. I did a bit of searching but mostly found exception reports for Firefox on Android and stuff like that. :)
I'm thinking of just using an uncaught exception handler, switching a shared preferences flag to false, and letting it crash; the next run I won't try to add that GLSurfaceView.
I ended up working around the problem with the following code:
final UncaughtExceptionHandler defaultHandler = Thread.getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler();
Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new UncaughtExceptionHandler() {
#Override
public void uncaughtException(Thread thread, Throwable ex) {
if (thread.getName().startsWith("GLThread")) {
disableOpenGLStuff();
}
// You could wrap this in an else, but I'm not sure how good of an idea it is to leave the application running when a thread has crashed.
defaultHandler.uncaughtException(thread, ex);
});

Does setting Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler prevent Google's error-reporting from work?

In my Android application I utilize setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler to store information about unhandled exceptions locally on a user device. After some feedback I suspect that this code prevents the built-in Google's error-reporting feature from work, because I do not see error reports in the developer console, while exceptions are reported by users. Their devices are well past 2.2, where the error-reporting was introduced. Could it be that specific device with, say, 4.0.3 does not support this feature? If yes, how can I detect this programmatically?
I can't find information regarding this in Android documentation. I'd like both standard error-reporting and my custom handling work together. In my custom exception handler I call Thread.getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler() to get default handler, and in my implementation of uncaughtException I propagate exception to this default handler as well.
I first tried calling System.exit(1); as mentioned in this SO answer, but that didn't work.
Finally solved it by calling the uncaughtException(Thread thread, Throwable ex) again on Androids default UncaughtExceptionHandler (found it by checking the ACRA source code.
Example Activity
public class MainActivity extends Activity implements Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler {
private Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler _androidUncaughtExceptionHandler;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
_androidUncaughtExceptionHandler = Thread.getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler();
Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(this);
// Rest onCreate
setContentView(R.layout.main_activity);
}
//#Override
public void uncaughtException(Thread thread, Throwable ex) {
try {
// Do your stuff with the exception
} catch (Exception e) {
/* Ignore */
} finally {
// Let Android show the default error dialog
_androidUncaughtExceptionHandler.uncaughtException(thread, ex);
}
}
}
Yes, this will stop the inbuilt error report. The user is given a dialog when your app crashes, with an option to report the error via Google Play. However, if you use setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler() then the exception is handled within your app, and no option is given to report it.
I recommend that you integrate ACRA into your project, as it allows you to easily receive error reports upon crashes.

AsyncTask doesn't stop

I've created an AsyncTask that loads messaging history from a database and then shows it on the device screen:
private void loadHistoryFromDB(Date lastUpdateDate)
{
final class DBAsyncTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, List<XMPPMessage>>
{
#Override
protected List<XMPPMessage> doInBackground(Void... arg0)
{
List<XMPPMessage> messages = null;
try
{
messages = PersistenceManager.getXMPPMessagesFromDB(userInfo, 0, messagingActivity);
}
catch (SQLException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
catch (LetsDatabaseException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return messages;
}
It seems to work fine, but after being executed, it leaves 2 running threads and I can't finish the activity because of that. How can I fix it?
As long as your tasks are executing properly (exits from onPostExecute), this shouldn't be something you have to worry about. Once executed, AsyncTask thread(s) will stick around for possible reuse in the form of a thread pool or single thread, depending on platform version. This is normal behaviour - they will eventually be cleaned-up/reused.
First off, make sure you are calling super.doInBackGround() at the top of your overridden method call.
If that isn't it, it's likely because you are maintaining the connecting to the database.
That is, you still have a lock established on the database.
See if you can explicitly unlock the database, that may fix your problem.
You could put it in the onPostExecute() method.
This problem is most likely due to confusion surrounding the cancel method of AsyncTask.
You need to break down your background task into loopable segments, then Before each loop iteration starts doing your task,you need to check if the task is cancelled and if it is you need to break the loop. There doesn't seem to be any other way to stop an AsyncTask from executing.
I've posted a detailed guide to this problem with code examples here:
http://tpbapp.com/android-development/android-asynctask-stop-running-cancel-method/

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