How to delay launching app on at android startup? - android

public class BootUpReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver{
#Override
public void onReceive(final Context context, Intent intent) {
//Delay 10 sec so that device could establish network
Intent i = new Intent(context, SplashActivity.class);
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(i);
}
}
I m starting an activity on android startup but android takes some time to establish network connection therefore I want to delay 10 sec the app launch so that my app can use internet.

Best practice for doing this kind of background processing stuff is to create a splash screen and load it using various animation and =attractive stuff at the start up of heavy activity for a particular amount of time. So that user can wait until background process done.
Your approach seems like lots of coding required.
Hope this would help.

Instead of making some random delay (which is not dependable), you should use another BroadcastReceiver that can detect network state change. For example: NetworkStateReceiver. This will detect when network state is changed. See here: Check INTENT internet connection
So your application should have 2 BroadcastReceivers: BootupReceiver and NetworkStateReceiver.
In BootUpReceiver's onReceive(), set some flag in preferences as true.
Then in NetworkStateReceiver's onReceive(), check the flag, if the flag is true, open your Activity and set the flag as false.
(To set values in SharedPreferences in a BroadcastReceiver, see: Shared preferences inside broadcastreceiver)
Although this will work, but this is not a good practice to automatically starting an Activity. User may not like it.

Make it with a runnable
public class BootUpReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver{
#Override
public void onReceive(final Context context, Intent intent) {
Handler handler = new Handler();
int delay = 100;
handler.postDelayed(startApp, delay);
Runnable startApp = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
Intent i = new Intent(context, SplashActivity.class);
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(i);
}
};
}
}

Related

Why would LocalBroadcastManager not work instead of Context.registerReceiver?

I had to implement a feature to this app which consists of an Activity and a Service working on the background (it implements Service, not IntentService).
I went through a few tutorials on the Internet that are supposed to work, and they all use LocalBroadcastManager, which by the way is the recommended by Android:
If you don't need to send broadcasts across applications, consider
using this class with LocalBroadcastManager instead of the more
general facilities described below.
I literally lost a day to find out the problem why it wouldn't work for me: it only works if I use Context.sendBroadcast(). and Context.registerReceiver() instead of the LocalBroadcastManager methods.
Now my app is working, but I feel I am going against the best practices, and I don't know why.
Any ideas why it could be happening?
EDIT:
After I wrote this question I went further on the problem. LocalBroadcastManager works through a Singleton, as we should call LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).method(). I logged both instances (in the Activity and in the Service) and they have different memory addresses.
Now I came to another question, shouldn't a Service have the same Context as the Activity that called it? From this article a Service runs on the Main Thread, hence I'd think the Context would be
the same.
Any thoughts on that? (sorry for the long post)
Code samples:
MyService
public class MyService extends Service {
...
// When an event is triggered, sends a broadcast
Intent myIntent = new Intent(MainActivity.MY_INTENT);
myIntent.putExtra("myMsg","msg");
sendBroadcast(myIntent);
// Previously I was trying:
// LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).sendBroadcast(myIntent);
}
MyActivity
public class MainActivity {
...
private BroadcastReceiver messageReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Log.d("onReceive", "received!");
// TODO something
}
};
#Override
protected void onResume() {
super.onResume();
registerReceiver(messageReceiver, new IntentFilter(MY_INTENT));
// Previously I was trying:
// LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).registerReceiver(messageReceiver, new IntentFilter(MY_INTENT));
}
}
I've never used LocalBroadcastManager, but it sounds like you have to register your receiver on there (i.e. lbm.registerReceiver(...), not mycontext.registerReceiver(...)). Are you doing that?
Now I came to another question, shouldn't a Service have the same Context as the Activity that called it? From this article a Service runs on the Main Thread, hence I'd think the Context would be the same.
The Context class is not related to threads. In fact, both Service and Activity are (indirect) subclasses of Context -- so they're their own Contexts! That's why you can use "this" as a Context.
But regardless of which context you send into LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(), you should be getting the exact same LBM instance out. I can't think of any reason that you wouldn't -- except if you're running the Activity and Service in different processes?
Declaration:
private BroadcastReceiver receiver;
Initialization:
receiver = new BroadcastReceiver()
{
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent)
{
//todo
}
};
Registration:
LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(context).registerReceiver(receiver, new IntentFilter("RECEIVER_FILTER"));
context can be any type of Context, you can use the application context.
Unregister:
LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(context).unregisterReceiver(receiver);
Broadcast:
Intent intent = new Intent("RECEIVER_FILTER");
intent.putExtra("EXTRA", someExtra);
LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(context).sendBroadcast(intent);
check out if your Service and Activity are run in different process, LocalBroadcastManager can't apply in different process.(you should see it in AndroidManifest.xml file)

AlarmManager - Am I doing it right?

I had setup AlarmManager in my MainActivity class.
A class called AlarmReceiver gets fired up for every set interval of time.
I have to perform an operation when that class is fired up. That code is in in another class Parsing.java
Now in AlarmReceiver.java, I'm doing this :
public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Parsing obj = new Parsing(context);
obj.execute();
}
}
I cannot write the code directly in AlarmReceiver.java, because AlarmReceiver.java is already extending BroadcastReceiverand my code which is Parsing.java is extending another class.
So, I'm creating an object for Parsing class and calling that method.
Is my approach correct?
I'll furnish further information in case needed.
Please let me know if my approach is correct?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT:
Parsing.java
public class Parsing extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
//some code
}
Starting an AsyncTask from a BroadcastReceiver is wrong for two reasons:
1. The thread on which onReceive() runs is terminated after the method returns, effectively ending any long-running task which may have been started from there. To quote the official docs:
A BroadcastReceiver object is only valid for the duration of the
call to onReceive(Context, Intent). Once your code returns from this
function, the system considers the object to be finished and no longer
active ..... anything that requires asynchronous operation is not
available, because you will need to return from the function to handle
the asynchronous operation, but at that point the BroadcastReceiver
is no longer active and thus the system is free to kill its process
before the asynchronous operation completes.
2. The Context instance that onReceive() provides is not the same as
the Context of an Activity or Service, i.e. Activity.this or
Service.this. You need that proper Context for performing many of
the common useful operations that we usually do from an Activity or
Service. So, for example, the correct way to start a Service in
onReceive() is:
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Intent i = new Intent(context.getApplicationContext(), ParsingService.class);
context.getApplicationContext().startService(i);
}
and not
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Intent i = new Intent(context, ParsingService.class);
context.startService(i);
}
I don't know how you wrote your Parsing.java, it looks fine but remember this
This method is always called within the main thread of its process, unless you explicitly asked for it to be scheduled on a different thread using registerReceiver. When it runs on the main thread you should never perform long-running operations in it (there is a timeout of 10 seconds that the system allows before considering the receiver to be blocked and a candidate to be killed). You cannot launch a popup dialog in your implementation of onReceive()
To me, i think it's a better way to handle this is calling another service inside onReceive method, like this
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Intent i = new Intent(context, ParsingService.class);
context.startService(i);
}

Start Activity from BroadcastReceiver only once using locks --Android

Scenario :
When two alarms are set at the same time, then only of them should be shown.
My Problem:
I have a broadcastreceiver which forwards an intent to AlarmGoOffActivity when its time. However, I need to check if AlarmGoOffActivity is already running before forwarding an intent. From one of the answers I saw in SO. I tried this approach.Earlier, both alarms fired. Now, neither alarm fires now.
Code
MyBroadCastReceiver.java
if (AlarmGoOffActivity.running) {
BLog("AlarmActivity running");
} else {
BLog("AlarmActivity not running ");
//set this variable true so that new broadcasts are not entertained
AlarmGoOffActivity.running = true;
Intent intent1 = new Intent(context, AlarmGoOffActivity.class);
intent1.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent1.putExtra(DBHelper.COLUMN_ID, id);
String ext = extras.getString(DBHelper.TASK_TITLE);
if (ext != null) {
intent1.putExtra(DBHelper.TASK_TITLE, ext);
}
BLog("Starting alarm fire");
context.startActivity(intent1);
}
AlarmGoOffActivity.java
public class AlarmGoOffActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
public static boolean running = false;
.....
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy();
//changing the lock to false here. So a new one can start from
//broadcastreceiver
running = false;
}
}
I was expecting the first one to fire. Now, neither one fires. Why is this not working? Is it because of the static variable (some concept I missed?) or is it because of the time gap of a 10 or less milliseconds between the broadcasts. Thanks for your help.
The receiver should handle the intent and then exit quickly. It should not try to determine if the Activity is visible or active or whatever.
Instead, you should have the Activity handle re-notifications. In particular, you will probably find onNewIntent useful for processing new intents sent from the receiver. In your activity you can set flags to determine how to handle re-notifications versus the state the Activity is currently in.

WakefulBroadcastReceiver intent not starting only in some cases (strange)

I have a very strange bug happening in my app. I am building an Alarm APP and I am using SQLite to store alarm data and broadcast receivers to manage the alarm manager calls.
The code of onReceive strangely does not behave in the same way in some cases. I try to start an Activity when the receiver receives a broadcast, nearly 90% of cases everything goes well and I manage to start the Activity, but in some cases strangely enough the receiver executes the instruction "startActivity(i)" but nothing happens.
It is really hard to reproduce the BUG and during my debugging I have learned what I have mentioned, but more than this is really difficult for me to understand how a call to startActivity() in most cases works and in some cases does not work. I have searched through the Stack community but no one seamed to have this kind of problem, everybody just had problems in starting the activity because they had not set the flag or because they had not registered the receiver in the manifest. Below I am posting the code.
public class AlarmReceiver extends WakefulBroadcastReceiver {
// The app's AlarmManager, which provides access to the system alarm services.
private AlarmManager alarmMgr;
// The pending intent that is triggered when the alarm fires.
private PendingIntent alarmIntent;
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Utils.logToFile("Received Alarm ,I am in onReceive(), ALARM ID: "+intent.getExtras().getInt(Constants.ALARM_ID));
Intent intent = new Intent(context, StopAlarm.class);
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putInt(Constants.ALARM_ID, intent.getExtras().getInt(Constants.ALARM_ID));
if(intent.getExtras().containsKey(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM)){
b.putString(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM, intent.getExtras().getString(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM));
}
i.putExtras(b);
//this flag is needed to start an Activity from a BroadcastReceiver
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(intent);
//this method reads from the DB and sets the next alarm
//I tried commenting this method so that no DB action is
//performed and still the bug happened
setAlarm(context.getApplicationContext());
//this method just logs data into a file that I have created to keep track of events
//since not always the device is connected with LogCat
Utils.logToFile("Received Alarm, Intent(context, StopAlarm.class);");
}
Do I need to set any other flag and how is it possible that startActivity(intent) behaves incorrectly in some cases?
EDIT
<activity
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:name="package.activity.StopAlarm"
android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"
android:screenOrientation="sensorPortrait">
</activity>
<receiver android:name="package.receivers.AlarmReceiver" />
I have finally solved the issue by creating an IntentService and by starting the activity from the IntentService and setting two flags to the Intent. After doing this I placed the code which reads from DB in the activity that is started from the IntentService. I have tested nearly 60 times the behaviour and in all the tests the app behaved correctly. I am posting the code below.
public class MyAlarmReceiver extends WakefulBroadcastReceiver {
// The app's AlarmManager, which provides access to the system alarm services.
private static AlarmManager alarmMgr;
// The pending intent that is triggered when the alarm fires.
private static PendingIntent alarmIntent;
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Intent i = new Intent(context, AlarmIntentService.class);
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putInt(Constants.ALARM_ID, intent.getExtras().getInt(Constants.ALARM_ID));
if(intent.getExtras().containsKey(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM)){
b.putString(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM, intent.getExtras().getString(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM));
}
i.putExtras(b);
i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startWakefulService(context, i);
}
This is the IntentService I needed to implement
public class AlarmIntentService extends IntentService {
public AlarmIntentService() {
super("AlarmIntentService");
}
#Override
protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
Intent i = new Intent(this, StopAlarm.class);
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putInt(Constants.ALARM_ID, intent.getExtras().getInt(Constants.ALARM_ID));
if(intent.getExtras().containsKey(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM)){
b.putString(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM, intent.getExtras().getString(Constants.SNOOZE_ALARM));
}
i.putExtras(b);
//THESE ARE THE FLAGS NEEDED TO START THE ACTIVITY AND TO PREVENT THE BUG
//(CLEAR_TASK is crucial for the bug and new task is needed to start activity from outside of an activity)
i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);
startActivity(i);
MyAlarmReceiver.completeWakefulIntent(intent);
}
}
This is the activity started by the IntentService. Here I set the next alarm.
public class StopAlarm extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.stop_alarm);
//this method reads from the DB and sets the next alarm
MyAlarmReceiver.setAlarm(getApplicationContext());
...
I had a similar issue. From my experience the problem is,that startActivity(i) is asynchronous. So in this case the program will simultaneously call activities onCreate(),onStart(), etc. but also call QlokAlarmReceiver.completeWakefulIntent(intent) (without waiting for the activity to be closed), which will release the wakeLock. Because of that the device can go to sleep during executing the activities onCreate() or onStart().
Rubin, I know, that my answer is a contradiction of your solution, but my logs clearly indicated such order of events:
- startActivity called
- onCreate of the activity called
- completeWakefulIntent(intent); called in between logs from onStart of the activity
My workaround this is to start a wakelock with a timeout of eg 20 seconds just before calling startActivity and then start another wakeLock in the activities onCreate, which will be released in the onDestroy method.
I'm not sure if my solution goes along with best practises, but I haven't found a better solution so far.

Start Activity from a Broadcast Receiver

I've got the following scenario for Android: I have an app that when launched starts a service. That service checks a url every 30 minutes. If it gets a specific response, it sends a Broadcast which the app receives and processes. That scenario is working great for me.
I'd also like my service to continue running after the user has stopped running the application (app out of foreground.) Which I've got working as well.
The problem that I'm facing is that when the Activity receives the Broadcast message, I can't get the Activity to move back to the foreground. I've tried various combinations of intents, but haven't figured it out. What am I doing wrong?
My BroadcastReceiver code looks like this:
private BroadcastReceiver broadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
launchApp();
}
};
private void launchApp() {
Intent vukaniActivity = new Intent(this, Vukani.class);
// I've tried multiple different flags to no avail.
vukaniActivity.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(vukaniActivity);
}
The flags you want are:
vukaniActivity.setFlags( Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK
| Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP
| Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
Also, make sure you're running on the UI Thread.
runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
launchApp();
}
});

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