Develop Reference

Notify when all onCreateViewHolder inside a RecylerView have finished

RecyclerView calls onCreateViewHolder a bunch of times and then just keeps binding the data to these views. My view creation is slightly expensive and hence I need to defer rest of the UI tasks until my RecyclerView is done creating all the views.
I tried adding a ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener but this callback gets called before even the first onCreateViewHolder() call.
Any idea how do I go about it?

After some research I've found out a solution with Handler. As you I'm looking for a beautiful code and this is a bit messy for me. But works perfectly anyway.
Handler is a class that you can use in a way to post message and/or Runnable, which will be added in a queue, then executed when that queue is finished.
My plan is, given that the adapter works on the UI, (inflate ect...) the creation and initialization (all onCreateViewHolder and onBindViewHolder) are added at a moment in the handler of the main thread.
That means that if you post a message in the main thread queue (the same obligatory used by your adapter), then the message will be executed after any previous request (after your adapted has finished to initialize everything).
Exemple :
Main activity
Initialization of the handler :
private Handler mHandler;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle iSavedInstanceState) {
...
mHandler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
}
Initialization of your CustomAdapter :
private void initializeAdapter(...) {
MyCustomAdapter lMyNewAdapter = new MyCustomAdapter(...)
...
lNewAdapter.SetOnFirstViewHolderCreation(new
MyCustomAdapter.OnFirstViewHolderCreation {
#Override
public void onCreation() {
mHandler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// Finally here, the code you want to execute
// At the end of any Create and Bind VH of your
// Adapter
}
});
}
});
}
MyCustomAdapter
private boolean mIsViewHolderCreationStarted;
private OnFirstViewHolderCreation mOnFirstViewHolderCreation;
public CustomItemViewAdapter onCreateViewHolder(
#NonNull ViewGroup iViewGroup, int iI) {
...
if (!mIsViewHolderCreationStarted) {
mIsViewHolderCreationStarted = true;
if (mOnFirstViewHolderCreation != null) {
// It's at this point that we want to add a new request
// in the handler. When we're sure the request of the
// adapter has begun.
mOnFirstViewHolderCreation.onCreation();
}
}
}
public void setOnFirstViewHolderCreation(OnFirstViewHolderCreation iAction) {
mOnFirstViewHolderCreation = iAction;
}
public interface OnFirstViewHolderCreation {
void onCreation();
}
Note
Be aware that this solution will execute a code at the end of the first initialization of the enteer page that it is possible to show in a case of a RecyclerView.
A onCreateViewHolder might be called in case the screen is scrolled.
Which means that this solution does not guarantee you this handler message is executed after all possible onCreateViewHolder.
It only helps you to avoid an overload on the MainThread, during the greedy work of the adapter init.
Something else, in case you're using animations with your adapter to make it appears smoothly or something else (one of the good reasons to use this way to do), don't forget to put your RecyclerView in VISIBLE and not GONE, otherwise, the initialization of the adapter never happens.

Why is Fragment.onResume() not displaying my GUI until after onResume finishes completely?

I am writing an Android application that interfaces with the Motorola EMDK, and I am running into an issue with timing/threading. I have an activity that adds a fragment to perform a very specific function using the EMDK, displays a screen that tells the user what is happening and then is cleaned up by the activity after about 15 seconds.
I am noticing a 1-2 second delay between when the EMDK action occurs, in this case the device cradle is being unlocked, and when the GUI is displayed that says "The cradle is now unlocked."
I have done some research about how Android handles drawing to the screen for fragments, and everything I can find says that onResume is called "when the fragment becomes visible." This does not match my experience, however. According to how I understand the code below should work, the screen should be drawn and then the EMDKManager.getEMDKManager() method is called, which constructs a pointer to the EMDK service and creates a new thread to perform the unlock:
#Override
public void onResume() {
super.onResume();
EMDKManager.getEMDKManager(getActivity().getApplicationContext(), this);
}
It looks more like the screen is drawn to only once onResume() completes in entirety, ie EMDKManager.getEMDKManager() finishes its call as well.
As the fragment is the EMDKListener object that is required for the second parameter for the method, I am struggling finding a way to thread this correctly. I need the GUI to be drawn first or at the same time that the cradle unlock occurs.
Are there any other methods that can be overridden or interfaced with to get the equivalent to an onViewDrawn() event for the fragment?
Thank you very much.

All the lifecycle method onCreate(), onResume() onStop() etc. are called by the main thread, which is also responsible for drawing the UI.
By preforming a long operation in those method, you block the UI thread from handling touch input as well as drawing the app
you can start your long operation on another thread by doing so:
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// do long operations here
}
}.start();
note that if that operation wants to update the UI components it MUST be done on the UI thread, you can do so by passing a runnable to the activity
activity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// do UI updating but, do not block it here
}
});
(or you can create an handler if it's a Service or you want to delay those runnables)

Although I have huge concerns about memory use/leaks, I did this in order to get the timing right:
private EMDKManager.EMDKListener getThis() {
return this;
}
private Runnable initEMDK = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
EMDKManager.getEMDKManager(getActivity().getApplicationContext(), getThis());
}
};
#Override
public void onResume() {
super.onResume();
Log.v(LOGTAG, "Starting");
new Thread(initEMDK).start();
}
I feel like there is a standard way of doing the getThis() method. If you know it, I would love to know.
Thank you.

Hide custom search bar if all items in adapter are showing

The problem I have is that listView.getLastVisiblePosition always returns -1 so I can't hide the searchView. I check this right after setting the adapter and anywhere I have tried to put this it still returns -1. I didn't see in the Docs why this would be but I imagine it would return -1 if the ListView is not showing any items. However, listView.getFirstVisiblePosition() returns 0 always, even when there is more than one item showing.
I have tried both methods Here but it doesn't make a difference when getting the wrong value.
#SuppressLint("NewApi") private void setFilters(String curType, Object curFilter)
{
// initialize several lists
itemsAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<Rowdata>(this, R.layout.list_item_text, foodItems);
listView.setAdapter(itemsAdapter);
int numItems = listView.getLastVisiblePosition() - listView.getFirstVisiblePosition();
if (numItems > foodItems.length)
{ searchField.setVisibility(View.GONE); }
else
{ searchField.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); }
}
This method is called any time a Button is pressed or text is changed that can filter through the list. So the question is why would listView.getLastVisiblePosition() always return -1 and why would listView.getFirstVisiblePosition() always return 0? No errors/exceptions, everything runs fine except for not getting the expected results. Note: itemsAdapter.getCount() returns the correct value.
Also, I have to support API >=10
Edit
If anyone needs clarification, let me know. But basically, I have an EditText I use to search through the list. I want to hide this when there aren't more items in the list than what fit on the screen. listView.getLastVisiblePosition() always returns -1
I would really like to know the cause of the original problem but if anyone has any better way of hiding the search box when items all fit on the screen, I am open to suggestions.
Update
I put a breakpoint in onItemClick() and there I get the correct values for getFirstVisiblePosition(), getLastVisiblePosition(), and listView.getChildCount(). Before this, I get 0, -1, and null respectively.

What you need to do is roughly
listview.post(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
listview.getLastVisiblePosition();
}
});
Why this way and not directly?
Android apps run in a big event loop known as the UI / main thread. Everything that is executed in there is the result of some event. For example when your Activity needs to be created that's some sort of Activity creation event. The loop will execute code that handles this event and will for example once your are considered "created" call the onCreate method. It might call more than one method within the same iteration but that's not really important.
When you setup things like the UI in any of those onSomething methods nothing is actually drawn directly. All you do is set some state variables like a new Adapter. Once you return from those on methods the system gains back control and will check what it needs to do next.
The system will for example check if the window needs to be redrawn and if so will enqueue a redraw event in the event queue which is at a later point executed by the loop. If nothing needs to be drawn it's just idle and will wait for example for touch events that are enqueued for that loop as well.
Back to your problem: By calling .setAdapter() you essentially reset all states of the ListView. And since actual updates of the ListView will only happen after you hand control back to the system you will get nothing useful out of .getLastVisiblePosition().
What needs to happen before is that ListView is instructed to be redrawn or to measure it's new size, count the amount of items it has and so on. Once it has done that it will be able to give you the required information.
.post(Runnable r) simply enqueues a Runnable into the eventqueue which is then executed by the loop once it's first in the queue.
a Runnable does not require a Thread, it's just a regular Object with a method named run() and the contract of a Runnable is simply that something (which often happens to be a Thread) can call the run() method to execute whatever you want to run. Magical loop does that.
Result of you posting a runnable is looks inn pseudo code somewhat like this:
void loop() {
yourActivity.onSomething() { loop.enqueue(runnable) }
ListView.redraw() // |
runnable.run() // <--+
}

My suggestion to resolve this problem will not be professional or light weight.
I am suggesting that you should get count of all views in listView and check every one of them are they visible.
example:
private int getIndexOfLastVisibleView(ListView view){
int count = view.getChildCount()-1;
for(int i = count ; i>=0 ; i--){
View checkedView = view.getChildAt(i);
if(checkedView.isShown()){
return i;
}
}
return -1;
}
May not be perfect but I hope that it will work.

You can refer to my answer here Strange problem with broadcast receiver in Android not exactly the same but you can get the idea why your code not working.
To make it more clear, when you set the adapter to the ListView, nothing has been drawn yet and the method getLastVisiblePosition() can only return the correct value after the listview finish drawing all of it's visible children and know which one is the last visible one.
So, the most appropriate approach I can suggest here is trigger a callback after the listView finished drawing and we get the correct value then.
The ListView with listener after drawing:
static class MyListView extends ListView {
private OnDrawCompletedListener mOnDrawCompletedListener;
public MyListView(Context context) {
super(context);
}
#Override
protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.onDraw(canvas);
if (mOnDrawCompletedListener != null) {
mOnDrawCompletedListener.onDrawCompleted();
}
}
public void setOnDrawCompletedListener(OnDrawCompletedListener listener) {
mOnDrawCompletedListener = listener;
}
public static interface OnDrawCompletedListener {
public void onDrawCompleted();
}
}
The sample code for getting last visible position
mListView.setAdapter(new EfficientAdapter(this));
//Will get -1 here
Log.e("Question-17953268",
"getLastVisiblePosition = "
+ mListView.getLastVisiblePosition());
mListView.setOnDrawCompletedListener(new OnDrawCompletedListener() {
#Override
public void onDrawCompleted() {
//Will get correct value here
Log.e("Question-17953268",
"getLastVisiblePosition = "
+ mListView.getLastVisiblePosition());
}
});

Thanks to zapl's answer I was able to get what I needed. I thought I would post the full code in case it helps anyone
listView.post(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
int numItemsVisible = listView.getLastVisiblePosition() -
listView.getFirstVisiblePosition();
if (itemsAdapter.getCount() - 1 > numItemsVisible)
{ searchField.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); }
else
{
searchField.setVisibility(View.GONE);
setFilters("searchtext", "");
}
}
});

To invoke a method of the main Thead From child thread

In my app i am using soap webservice call , based on the webservice call reply i have to display some messages .,
But after the reply i could not able to do this from the spawned child thread
So how to get back to the main thread and display this after the reply i got
Hope this is clear.. help me how to achieve my requirement
{
Thread t1 = new Thread() {
public void run() {
String threadName = Thread.currentThread().getName();
// There will be delay in this statement while fetching a data from webservice
String returnfromWebservice = webservice(xmlDetails, "generateid");
Log.v("returnfromWebservice",returnfromWebservice);
if( ! returnfromWebservice.equalsIgnoreCase("nil")){
gotid = returnfromWebservice;
gotReply=true;
// dothis();// I could able to do this because this method contains widgets
// I am gettin the error : Only the original thread that created a view hierarchy can touch its views.
//I understand this is because childthread has no controls on widget
/**Suggest me how to get back to main thread*/
}
}};
t1.start();
dothis();// so i am doin here after the completion of it
}
public void dothis{
if(gotReply){
idtext.setText(gotid);
genId.setEnabled(false);
Toast.makeText(WelcomeScorer.this, "Generated ", 500).show();
}
else{
Toast.makeText(WelcomeScorer.this, "Try Once More ", 500).show();
idtext.setText(gotid);
}
}
I am new to android, Is there any best approach in android api to handle this situation ??

You should use the following code to touch your ui elements from another thread
youractivityname.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
});
If your thread is in same activity you can use this. Otherwise you should use your activity class object to run the above method.From your code you should call dothis(); after thread has done its job. From your it will call the dothis method immediately after thread has started it wont care whether thread has done its job or not.

The various methods are documented in this article. Using runOnUiThread is probably the simplest.

Implementing a while loop in android

I can't understand the implementation of a while loop in android.
Whenever I implement a while loop inside the onCreate() bundle, (code shown below)
public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
super.onCreate(icicle);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
TextView=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.TextView);
while (testByte == 0)
updateAuto();
}
nothing boots up, and the program enters a "hanging" state after a while and I can't understand why. Testbyte is as follows:
byte testByte == 0;
and updateAuto() is supposed to update the code per 1 second and display inside the textView portion. I've been using setText inside updateAuto() as shown below and everything works fine, but once i implement the while loop all i see is a black screen and then an option to force close after a few seconds due to it "not responding".
TextView.setText(updateWords);
I've changed it to a button format (meaning i have to click on the button to update itself for now), but i want it to update itself instead of manually clicking it.
Am i implementing the while loop in a wrong way?
I've also tried calling the while loop in a seperate function but it still gives me the black screen of nothingness.
I've been reading something about a Handler service... what does it do? Can the Handler service update my TextView in a safer or memory efficient way?
Many thanks if anyone would give some pointers on what i should do on this.

Brace yourself. And try to follow closely, this will be invaluable as a dev.
While loops really should only be implemented in a separate Thread. A separate thread is like a second process running in your app. The reason why it force closed is because you ran the loop in the UI thread, making the UI unable to do anything except for going through that loop. You have to place that loop into the second Thread so the UI Thread can be free to run. When threading, you can't update the GUI unless you are in the UI Thread. Here is how it would be done in this case.
First, you create a Runnable, which will contain the code that loops in it's run method. In that Runnable, you will have to make a second Runnable that posts to the UI thread. For example:
TextView myTextView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.myTextView); //grab your tv
Runnable myRunnable = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
while (testByte == 0) {
Thread.sleep(1000); // Waits for 1 second (1000 milliseconds)
String updateWords = updateAuto(); // make updateAuto() return a string
myTextView.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
myTextView.setText(updateWords);
});
}
}
};
Next just create your thread using the Runnable and start it.
Thread myThread = new Thread(myRunnable);
myThread.start();
You should now see your app looping with no force closes.

You can create a new Thread for a while loop.
This code will create a new thread to wait for a boolean value to change its state.
private volatile boolean isClickable = false;
new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
super.run();
while (!isClickable) {
// boolean is still false, thread is still running
}
// do your stuff here after the loop is finished
}
}.start();