Develop Reference

Android Timed Async Task

Hi currently i have the following code which utilizes Asycn Task and Timer.
My async task is basically trying to send a HTTP GET method from a URL where the response from the server could varies depending on connection and load.
What i would like to do is to have a timed async task. Where, it will schedule an AsyncTask every X second BUT if there is currently an Async Task in progress i would have to kill it first. Then start a new one.
Here is the code that i have at the moment:
private static boolean running = false;
Timer myTimer;
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
/* REST OF CODE OMITTED */
MyTimerTask myTask = new MyTimerTask();
myTimer = new Timer();
myTimer.schedule(myTask, 0, 10000);
}
/* REST OF CODE OMITTED */
private class MyTimerTask extends TimerTask {
public void run() {
if(!running){
Log.i("TAG", "NEW TIMER STARTED.");
RetrieveChatMessage task = new RetrieveChatMessage();
task.execute();
running = true;
}else{
running = false;
}
}
}
private class RetrieveChatMessage extends AsyncTask<String, Void, ArrayList<Chat>> {
#Override
protected ArrayList<Chat> doInBackground(String... params) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
ArrayList<Chat> cList = null;
String jResult = null;
Log.i("TAG", "RETRIEVING CHAT MESSAGE");
try {
jResult = ((new HttpRetriever())).getChatList(mAccount.email, mAccount.passwd);
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
try {
if(jResult != null){
Log.i("TAG", "JSON DATA: " + jResult);
cList = (new ChatHandlers()).getChatList(jResult);
}else{
cList = null;
}
} catch (JSONException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
Log.e("TAG", "JSON Exception " + e.toString());
}
return cList;
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(final ArrayList<Chat> result) {
Log.i("TAG", "ON POST EXECUTE");
if(result != null){
// Do something here
}
}
}
To be honest the code above works with slight issues:
1. It seems to execute the Async randomly, instead of every 10 seconds.
2. When i go to another activity, somewhat it prevents other Async task from doing its job (Which is also trying to retrieve JSON response from server).
I am not too worried about the later problem (and that is not the question i am asking). I just would like to know how to have a proper timed Async Task. Can anyone point me to a direction.
Thank you.
EDIT #1:
after reading #thepoosh comment's i tried the following (i put it in onCreate):
scheduleTaskExecutor= Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(5);
scheduleTaskExecutor.scheduleAtFixedRate(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// Parsing RSS feed:
// myFeedParser.doSomething();
Log.w("THUMBQOO", "NEW TASK STARTED");
retrieveChat();
}
}, 0, 15, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
Result: i have a consistent execution of Task. However, it seems that retrieveChat(); is never be called after the first execution.

Actually AsyncTask is not used for long operations .Check Here
You should use a Thread that uses a interface to notify UI or you can simply use a Handler which is the most Preffered way in android. Simply you can do a task repeatedly for every 10 seconds by
handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// do work
handler.postDelayed(10000);
}
}, 10000);

Declare a Handler object to maintain future task executor...
private Handler mTimerHandler = new Handler();
Write a thread which will execute your future task...
private Runnable mTimerExecutor = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
//write your code what you want to do after the specified time elapsed
if(!running){
RetrieveChatMessage task = new RetrieveChatMessage();
task.execute();
running = true;
}else{
running = false;
}
}
};
Call your future tast executor with time using hanlder...
mTimerHandler.postDelayed(mTimerExecutor, 10000);
You can cancle your future task executor any time by this...
mTimerHandler.removeCallbacks(mTimerExecutor);

I am not sure if this is a very good way of accomplishing this (my answer here below) :
Use a Handler, create a HandlerThread and keep posting messages to this handler.
For the handlers "handleMessage" method, you can do your task and again send a message back to the MessageQueue.
HandlerThread thread = new HandlerThread(<name>);
thread.start();
Looper looper = thread.getLooper();
CustomHandler handler = new CustomHandler(looper);
// The CustomHandler class
class CustomHandler extends Handler {
public CustomHandler(Looper looper) {
super(looper);
}
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
//Do your operation here
handler.sendEmptyMessageDelayed(msg, <delayTime>);
}
}

Update UI from running thread

I want to write a download manager app, in the activity I add a progress bar which show the current progress to the user, now if user touch the back button and re-open the activity again this ProgressBar won't be updated.
To avoid from this problem I create a single thread with unique name for each download that keep progress runnable and check if that thread is running in onResume function, if it is then clone it to the current thread and re-run the new thread again but it won't update my UI either, Any ideas !?
#Override
public void onResume()
{
super.onResume();
Set<Thread> threadSet = Thread.getAllStackTraces().keySet();
Thread[] threadArray = threadSet.toArray(new Thread[threadSet.size()]);
for (int i = 0; i < threadArray.length; i++)
if (threadArray[i].getName().equals(APPLICATION_ID))
{
mBackground = new Thread(threadArray[i]);
mBackground.start();
downloadProgressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
Toast.makeText(showcaseActivity.this
, "Find that thread - okay", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
private void updateProgressBar()
{
Runnable runnable = new updateProgress();
mBackground = new Thread(runnable);
mBackground.setName(APPLICATION_ID);
mBackground.start();
}
private class updateProgress implements Runnable
{
public void run()
{
while (Thread.currentThread() == mBackground)
try
{
Thread.sleep(1000);
Message setMessage = new Message();
setMessage.what = mDownloadReceiver.getProgressPercentage();
mHandler.sendMessage(setMessage);
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
catch (Exception e)
{/* Do Nothing */}
}
}
private Handler mHandler = new Handler()
{
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message getMessage)
{
downloadProgressBar.setIndeterminate(false);
downloadProgressBar.setProgress(getMessage.what);
if (getMessage.what == 100)
downloadProgressBar.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
};
Download button code:
downloadBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener()
{
#Override
public void onClick(View arg0)
{
downloadProgressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
downloadProgressBar.setIndeterminate(true);
downloadProgressBar.setMax(100);
Intent intent = new Intent(showcaseActivity.this, downloadManagers.class);
intent.putExtra("url", "http://test.com/t.zip");
intent.putExtra("receiver", mDownloadReceiver);
startService(intent);
updateProgressBar();
}
});

I'd strongly recommend reading the Android Developer blog post on Painless Threading. As it states, the easiest way to update your UI from another thread is using Activity.runOnUiThread.

Sending Message from Service to Activity

I have a Service and i try to send message to my primary Activity just like this:
public void callAsynchronousTask() {
final Handler handler = new Handler();
Timer timer = new Timer();
TimerTask doAsynchronousTask = new TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
handler.post(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
Message m = new Message();
m.arg1 = 10;
m.arg2 = 15;
handler.sendMessage(m);
Log.i("Sent", "!");
} catch (Exception e) {}
}
});
}
};
timer.schedule(doAsynchronousTask, 0, 3000);
}
How can i fetch this message data in my Activity ?

In your activity, you should make a handler like this, and pass the reference to the handler to the service before you start it...
handler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
//msg.arg1
}
};
but right now you are creating a handler inside the service but thats not what you wanted to do!

Another way would be to bind your Activity to your Service so that they can communicate.
Reference
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Context.html#bindService(android.content.Intent, android.content.ServiceConnection, int)

put your data in message.obj and take it from this field in your activity. Your data can be a class that you can define how you want it.

There is simple example project (which is created by CommonsWare) which shows how to send messages from Service to Activity via Handler. Check it out

//use this code to send data to activity
Bundle data = new Bundle();
data.putString("data", result);
Message msg = Message.obtain();
msg.setData(data);
replyTo.sendMessage(msg); //replyTo is handler declared in your main_Activity
//Pass this **replyTo** handler when you call your service from mainActivity..
Handler replyTo= new Handler() {
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
//get data here and do what you want..
};
};
Hope it helps..!

how to create a thread to refresh data in 3 second interval

I need a thread (it does httppost ,and parse the answer xml and refresh listview to set the changes from parsed xml) in 3 sec interval
I have already tried this code
Timer timer = new Timer();
timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(
new TimerTask() {
public void run() {
try {
httpPostList(url);
saxParseList();
list.invalidateViews();
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (Exception ie) {
}
}
}, 1000, 1000 * 30);

I would appreciate you to create a Service with an AsyncTask in it.
Async Tasks are the Android Synonym to normal Java Tasks, Documentation finding here: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html
Services are Background Processes, seeing this Doc:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html

Try using handlers:
Handler handler;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// ...
handler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
updateUI();
}
};
Thread thread = new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
while(true) {
Message msg = new Message();
handler.sendMessage(msg);
try {
sleep(3*1000); // 3 seconds
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
};
thread.start();
}
private synchronized void updateUI() {
// ...
}

Finally I made it using "Async task".

Android: handler not working

I am trying to load an object from a server in Android. This object is loaded in a thread. When loading is finished, an _objectHandler is called to get some key - values from the object, for example, the _filename key. Every time a filename is retrieved, I want to display it. For this reason, I am looping over the element of the loaded object in a second thread, and calling a _handler every time a value is loaded. What I want to get is all the _filename values, but what I am getting is only the last value of the _fielName. what I am doing wrong?
ArrayList <myObject> object;
String filename;
Thread thread = new Thread (MyActivity.this);
thread.start();
public void run() {
Looper.prepare();
try {
object = getObjectFromServer();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
_objectHandler.sendEmptyMessage(0);
Looper.loop();
}
Handler _objectHandler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
for (int i = 0; i < object.size(); i++) {
myObject obj= object(i);
new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
filename= obj.getFileName();
Message msg = new Message();
_handler.sendEmptyMessage(0);
}
}).start();
}
}
};
Handler _handler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
Log.i("The fielname is ", " filename" + filename
}
};

you can use android.os.Handler class. This will provide you a mechanism for enqueue an action to be performed on a different thread than your own.