I am having a scenario. I am trying to lock my application using an PinActivity which I created. I am running a service which has a counter timer for 5mins. If there is no activity by the user in app for 5 mins. I will show him the PINActivity which he has to unlock and enter the app. I am launching the PINActivity like this:
Intent loginIntent = new Intent(this, PINActivity.class);
loginIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(loginIntent);
So when the user comes back to the app and see the PINActivity he will unlock it and enter the app. But what if the user doesn't enter the PIN and leave the app again ideal for more then 5 mins(Note: my service starts the counter timer the moment user brings the app to foreground). I don't want to add multiple instance of the same PINActivity at top. How can I make sure I have only one PINActivity at the top?
You should use FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP. This will prevent Android from launching PINActivity if there is already an instance of PINActivity on top of the stack.
Intent loginIntent = new Intent(this, PINActivity.class);
loginIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
startActivity(loginIntent);
Please don't try to use special launch modes like singleTask or singleInstance as others have suggested. This won't help and will complicate the problem for you.
You can specify android:launchMode="singleTop" in the manifest entry for PINActivity as well. This has the same effect as FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP.
Add launchMode="singleInstance" in your activity in manifest like this:
<activity
android:launchMode="singleInstance"
android:name=".MainActivity"
..... />
add android:launchMode="singleInstance" in manifest
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleInstance"/>
When you launch activity you can use this :
Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyActivity.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT);
startActivity(intent);
If activity is already there then it will use the same instance else create new one and no duplication will be there.
In manifest add attribute of singleInstance in activity tag.
<activity
android:launchMode= "singleInstance" />
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I have an Activity with launch mode singleTop which shows permission dialog.
But when permission dialog is present and a new Intent comes for that activity , another instance is created .
onNewIntent() doesn't get called.
Any workaround for this?
Below is the manifest entry.
<activity
android:name=".auth.activity.AJRAuthActivity"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="#style/Theme.PageIndicatorDefaults"
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize" />
The way I start this activity:
Intent loginIntent = new Intent(context, AJRAuthActivity.class);
context.startActivity(loginIntent);
Showing the permission dialog usually starts another Activity (a system Activity) on top of your Activity. In this case, your Activity will be paused (onPause() is called). At that point, your Activity is no longer the top Activity on the stack, so that another launch of the Activity will create another instance, even if "singleTop" launch mode and/or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP is specified.
See Request permission dialog pauses my activity
To get around this, you should ensure that you have all the permissions that you might need as early as possible, or rearchitect your application so that you don't have the problem of multiple instances.
I have an android application with several activities .Each and every activity has Application Icon in action bar which helps user to return back to main activity directly instead of pressing back button.My problem is that when I use the icon to start my home activity it does not uses the previous instance from the stack and start creating it again.
My Action bar app icon code is :
startActivity(new Intent(this, DashBoard.class)
.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP));
this above code starts Dashboard activity and calls its both onCreate() and onResume().But If I uses back button to return to this activity from any activity it just calls onResume().
Activity definition from manifest file:
<activity
android:name=".DashBoard"
android:configChanges="keyboardHidden"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait" >
</activity>
Why is this happening?Am I missing something to prevent it from not creating it again?Please help
Thanks
Use setFlags(), instead of addFlags(). You are on right track. Use the following code.
Intent intent = new Intent(this, DashBoard.class);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
startActivity(intent);
Remove the FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP.
I've been trying to find the solution for the following problem, but with no success:
I have an activity class that is showing web pages(presentation) which need to be logged (what user entered, duration, etc.). On some pages there are buttons which should open new presentation.
Calling activity - CLMWebView.class:
Intent intent = new Intent(this, CLMWebView.class);
this.startActivity(intent);
Between those lines of code are some intent.putExtra which are, I belive, not relevant for this.
As you can see, I am trying to start new activity with the same class as the calling activity. However, nothing happens. Any ideas?
EDIT:
Android manifest for CLMWebView.class
<activity android:name="com.msoft.views.CLMWebView"
android:configChanges="orientation|keyboard"
android:icon="#drawable/svicon"
android:launchMode="singleTop">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.PICK"/>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.CHOOSER" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.WEB_SEARCH" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
singleTop activity, visible, and in same task is not recreated.
Quoting the official docs:
Similarly, a new instance of a "singleTop" activity may also be
created to handle a new intent. However, if the target task already
has an existing instance of the activity at the top of its stack, that
instance will receive the new intent (in an onNewIntent() call); a new
instance is not created. In other circumstances — for example, if an
existing instance of the "singleTop" activity is in the target task,
but not at the top of the stack, or if it's at the top of a stack, but
not in the target task — a new instance would be created and pushed on
the stack.
A better alternative will be to place the functionality in a fragment, and add a new fragment to back stack each time.
My main activity A has as set android:launchMode="singleTask" in the manifest. Now, whenever I start another activity from there, e.g. B and press the HOME BUTTON on the phone to return to the home screen and then again go back to my app, either via pressing the app's button or pressing the HOME BUTTONlong to show my most recent apps it doesn't preserve my activity stack and returns straight to A instead of the expected activity B.
Here the two behaviors:
Expected: A > B > HOME > B
Actual: A > B > HOME > A (bad!)
Is there a setting I'm missing or is this a bug? If the latter, is there a workaround for this until the bug is fixed?
FYI: This question has already been discussed here. However, it doesn't seem that there is any real solution to this, yet.
This is not a bug. When an existing singleTask activity is launched, all other activities above it in the stack will be destroyed.
When you press HOME and launch the activity again, ActivityManger calls an intent
{act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER]flag=FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK|FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_IF_NEEDED cmp=A}
So the result is A > B > HOME > A.
It's different when A's launchMode is "Standard". The task which contains A will come to the foreground and keep the state the same as before.
You can create a "Standard" activity eg. C as the launcher and startActivity(A) in the onCreate method of C
OR
Just remove the launchMode="singleTask" and set FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP|FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP flag whenever call an intent to A
From http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html on singleTask
The system creates the activity at the root of a new task and routes the intent to it. However, if an instance of the activity already exists, the system routes the intent to existing instance through a call to its onNewIntent() method, rather than creating a new one.
This means when the action.MAIN and category.LAUNCHER flags targets your application from the Launcher, the system would rather route the intent to the existing ActivityA as opposed to creating a new task and setting a new ActivityA as the root. It would rather tear down all activities above existing task ActivityA lives in, and invoke it's onNewIntent().
If you want to capture both the behavior of singleTop and singleTask, create a separate "delegate" activity named SingleTaskActivity with the singleTask launchMode which simply invokes the singleTop activity in its onCreate() and then finishes itself. The singleTop activity would still have the MAIN/LAUNCHER intent-filters to continue acting as the application's main Launcher activity, but when other activities desire calling this singleTop activity it must instead invoke the SingleTaskActivity as to preserve the singleTask behavior. The intent being passed to the singleTask activity should also be carried over to the singleTop Activity, so something like the following has worked for me since I wanted to have both singleTask and singleTop launch modes.
<activity android:name=".activities.SingleTaskActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:noHistory="true"/>
public class SingleTaskActivity extends Activity{
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Intent intent = getIntent();
intent.setClass(this, SingleTop.class);
startActivity(intent);
}
}
And your singleTop activity would continue having its singleTop launch mode.
<activity
android:name=".activities.SingleTopActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:noHistory="true"/>
Good luck.
Stefan, you ever find an answer to this? I put together a testcase for this and am seeing the same (perplexing) behavior...I'll paste the code below in case anyone comes along and sees something obvious:
AndroidManifest.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example" >
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3"/>
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="testSingleTask">
<activity android:name=".ActivityA"
android:launchMode="singleTask">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".ActivityB"/>
</application>
</manifest>
ActivityA.java:
public class ActivityA extends Activity implements View.OnClickListener
{
#Override
public void onCreate( Bundle savedInstanceState )
{
super.onCreate( savedInstanceState );
setContentView( R.layout.main );
View button = findViewById( R.id.tacos );
button.setOnClickListener( this );
}
public void onClick( View view )
{
//Intent i = new Intent( this, ActivityB.class );
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setComponent( new ComponentName( this, ActivityB.class ) );
startActivity( i );
}
}
ActivityB.java:
public class ActivityB extends Activity
{
#Override
public void onCreate( Bundle savedInstanceState )
{
super.onCreate( savedInstanceState );
setContentView( R.layout.layout_b );
}
}
I tried changing minSdkVersion to no avail. This just seems to be a bug, at least according to the documentation, which states the following:
As noted above, there's never more than one instance of a "singleTask" or "singleInstance" activity, so that instance is expected to handle all new intents. A "singleInstance" activity is always at the top of the stack (since it is the only activity in the task), so it is always in position to handle the intent. However, a "singleTask" activity may or may not have other activities above it in the stack. If it does, it is not in position to handle the intent, and the intent is dropped. (Even though the intent is dropped, its arrival would have caused the task to come to the foreground, where it would remain.)
I think this is the behaviour you want:
singleTask resets the stack on home press for some retarded reason that I don't understand.
The solution is instead to not use singleTask and use standard or singleTop for launcher activity instead (I've only tried with singleTop to date though).
Because apps have an affinity for each other, launching an activity like this:
Intent launchIntent = context.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageName);
if(launchIntent!=null) {
launchIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_TASK_IF_NEEDED);
}
will cause your activty stack to reappear as it was, without it starting a new activity upon the old one (which was my main problem before). The flags are the important ones:
FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK Added in API level 1
If set, this activity will become the start of a new task on this
history stack. A task (from the activity that started it to the next
task activity) defines an atomic group of activities that the user can
move to. Tasks can be moved to the foreground and background; all of
the activities inside of a particular task always remain in the same
order. See Tasks and Back Stack for more information about tasks.
This flag is generally used by activities that want to present a
"launcher" style behavior: they give the user a list of separate
things that can be done, which otherwise run completely independently
of the activity launching them.
When using this flag, if a task is already running for the activity
you are now starting, then a new activity will not be started;
instead, the current task will simply be brought to the front of the
screen with the state it was last in. See FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK
for a flag to disable this behavior.
This flag can not be used when the caller is requesting a result from
the activity being launched.
And:
FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_TASK_IF_NEEDED Added in API level 1
If set, and this activity is either being started in a new task or
bringing to the top an existing task, then it will be launched as the
front door of the task. This will result in the application of any
affinities needed to have that task in the proper state (either moving
activities to or from it), or simply resetting that task to its
initial state if needed.
Without them the launched activity will just be pushed ontop of the old stack or some other undesirable behaviour (in this case of course)
I believe the problem with not receiving the latest Intent can be solved like this (out of my head):
#Override
public void onActivityReenter (int resultCode, Intent data) {
onNewIntent(data);
}
Try it out!
I've found this issue happens only if the launcher activity's launch mode is set to singleTask or singleInstance.
So, I've created a new launcher activity whose launch mode is standard or singleTop. And made this launcher activity to call my old main activity whose launch mode is single task.
LauncherActivity (standard/no history) -> MainActivity (singleTask).
Set splash screen to launcher activity. And killed launcher activity right after I call the main activity.
public LauncherActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Intent intent = new Intent(this, HomeActivity.class);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_TASK_ON_HOME);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
}
<activity
android:name=".LauncherActivity"
android:noHistory="true"
android:theme="#style/Theme.LauncherScreen">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<!-- Launcher screen theme should be set for the case that app is restarting after the process is killed. -->
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:theme="#style/Theme.LauncherScreen"/>
Pros: Can keep the MainActivity's launch mode as singleTask to make sure there always is no more than one MainActivity.
If both A and B belong to the same Application, try removing
android:launchMode="singleTask"
from your Activities and test because I think the default behavior is what you described as expected.
Whenever you press the home button to go back to your home screen the activity stack kills some of the previously launched and running apps.
To verify this fact try to launch an app from the notification panel after going from A to B in your app and come back using the back button ..........you will find your app in the same state as you left it.
When using launch mode as singleTop make sure to call finish() (on current activity say A) when starting the next activity (using startActivity(Intent) method say B). This way the current activity gets destroyed.
A -> B -> Pause the app and click on launcher Icon, Starts A
In oncreate method of A, you need to have a check,
if(!TaskRoot()) {
finish();
return;
}
This way when launching app we are checking for root task and previously root task is B but not A. So this check destroys the activity A and takes us to activity B which is currently top of the stack.
Hope it works for you!.
This is how I finally solved this weird behavior. In AndroidManifest, this is what I added:
Application & Root activity
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:alwaysRetainTaskState="true"
android:taskAffinity="<name of package>"
Child Activity
android:parentActivityName=".<name of parent activity>"
android:taskAffinity="<name of package>"
Add below in android manifest activity, it will add new task to top of the view destroying earlier tasks.
android:launchMode="singleTop" as below
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.NoActionBar">
</activity>
In child activity or in B activity
#Override
public void onBackPressed() {
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), Parent.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
<activity android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTop">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
//Try to use launchMode="singleTop" in your main activity to maintain single instance of your application. Go to manifest and change.