Develop Reference

Handler stuck in loop within Android Service

I'm currently trying to do an app that keeps track of the phone through the GPS by using a service. in order to get the GPS to update the coordinates, I need to use a handler within the service. Right now the proble I have is that when the I do the Handler.post, it gets stuck in an loop, and after that, it completely ignores the rest of the service code.
When I was debugging, I found out that the handler was alternating messages between methods but nothing useful came out of it, it was just a loop between the same methods over and over again.
Here's my Service code that includes the handler:
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId)
{
ctx = ServicioDeFondo.this;
mHandler = new Handler();
reportarGPS = new Thread(new Runnable() { public void run()
{
try
{
while(true)
{
mHandler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
gps = new GPSTrack(ctx);
latitude = String.valueOf(gps.getLatitude());
longitude = String.valueOf(gps.getLongitude());
}
});
Thread.sleep(10000);
try {
new APISendClass().execute();
Thread.sleep(10000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
//TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
} });
reportarGPS.start();
return START_STICKY;
}
I"ve been stuck here all day, any help would be greatly appreciated!

With your brief description of the problem, it's hard to understand what the expected behavior is. You don't explain what GPSTrack and APISendClass do and what type of objects that are. You state "it gets stuck in a loop". It's not clear what "it" is. With the while (true) statement, the thread will loop until cancelled.
Note that Service methods, such as onStartCommand() run on the main thread. That means that your Handler() constructor associates the handler with the main thread. The runnables you post to that handler run on the main thread. Is that what you wanted?
Also note that stopping the service by stopSelf() or Context.stopService() does not kill the thread. You need to have code to cancel the thread when it is no longer needed. This is often done in onDestroy().
I took the code you posted, replaced the calls to unknown objects with Log statements and ran it. The logcat output alternated between "Get lat/long" and "APISendClass()".
Handler mHandler;
Context ctx;
Thread reportGPS;
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId){
Log.i("TEST", "onStartCommand()");
ctx = this;
// Service methods run on main thread.
// Handler constructor with no args associates Handler
// with current thread, which here is the main thread.
mHandler = new Handler();
reportGPS = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
while (true) {
mHandler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// This runnable is posted to the main thread.
// Is that what you intended?
//gps = new GPSTrack(ctx);
//latitude = String.valueOf(gps.getLatitude());
//longitude = String.valueOf(gps.getLongitude());
Log.i("TEST", "Get lat/long");
}
});
Thread.sleep(2000);
try {
//new APISendClass().execute();
Log.i("TEST", "APISendClass().execute()");
Thread.sleep(5000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
reportGPS.start();
return START_STICKY;
}

Running AsyncTask with button performClick

I have a fragment that contains a Button btn_connect that when it is pressed a WiFi Direct connection is established between 2 devices. This fragment implements ConnectionInfoListener. So it has onConnectionInfoAvailable function where I want to execute an AsyncTask class. The problem that I have is that in one Activity, I am doing:
fragment.mContentView.findViewById(R.id.btn_connect).performClick();
And the button is being clicked and the connection is established so the code goes into the onConnectionInfoAvailable function but the AsyncTask is not being executed.
#Override
public void onConnectionInfoAvailable(final WifiP2pInfo info) {
//..code..
Log.d("Test 1", "Test 1");
new MasterServerTask().execute();
}
public class MasterServerTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... arg0) {
//**************
Log.d("IM INSIDE ASYNCTASK CLASS", "SOCKET");
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(8090);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
while (true) {//wait for clients
Socket socket = null;
try {
socket = serverSocket.accept();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
Log.d("ACCEPTED A SLAVE DEVICE "+num_clients, "ACCEPTED A SLAVE DEVICE "+num_clients);
num_clients++;
OutputStream os=null;
try {
os = socket.getOutputStream();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
proxy.addSlaveOutputStream(os);
}
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {
super.onPostExecute(result);
}
}
mContentView.findViewById(R.id.btn_connect).setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View v) {//Phone that connects first is NOT the group owner
// port = Integer.parseInt(editTextPort.getText().toString());
Log.d("IM IN THE OTHER FRAGMENT", "Connect");
WifiP2pConfig config = new WifiP2pConfig();
config.groupOwnerIntent = 0;
config.deviceAddress = device.deviceAddress;
config.wps.setup = WpsInfo.PBC;
if (progressDialog != null && progressDialog.isShowing()) {
progressDialog.dismiss();
}
progressDialog = ProgressDialog.show(getActivity(), "Press back to cancel",
"Connecting to :" + device.deviceAddress, true, true
);
((DeviceActionListener) getActivity()).connect(config);
}
});
Is there an easy workaround solution for this?

Check how/where you are calling WifiP2pManager.initialize() to create the WifiP2pManager.Channel object. The Looper you provide it is the one which will receive all callbacks for your instance of WifiP2pManager.ConnectionInfoListener. If you are giving it a background thread then the AsyncTask will not execute - it must be started from the main (UI) thread.

The comments on the question were really helpful. The reason why the AsyncTask was not getting executed is because it was called from another task that is currently being executed. So in order for it to work, I replaced the AsyncTask with Thread classes. All the code in the doInBackground() was placed inside the thread's run() function. Now the performClick() executes a Thread, not an AsyncTask and it worked.

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>);
}
}

how can I chnage a TextViews text from a thread?

I'm trying to write code to pull a server every second for updated messages. The messages then get displayed in a text view. If I do not change the text in the text view it runs fine. It will crash if I try to change the textview on the thread. IF i change it not on the thread works fine.
I'm assuming the thread cannot access the main threads memory? How can I set the text in the view with the text just loaded over the internet?
In the code below I have a thread that does a endless loop with a sleep. It calls a method called SendMessage. Send Message loads in text over the internet and at the end tries to update the View with it. It causes a exception when this happens.
code:
public class cChat extends cBase implements OnClickListener {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
TextView mUsers;
TextView mComments;
int i=0;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.chat);
mUsers=( TextView) findViewById(R.id.viewusers);;
mComments=( TextView) findViewById(R.id.viewchats);;
Thread thread = new Thread()
{
#Override
public void run() {
try {
int t=0;
while(true)
{
SendMessage();
sleep(1000*5);
t++;
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
thread.start();
}
public void onClick(View v) {
} // end function
// send a uypdate message to chat server
// return reply in string
void SendMessage()
{
try {
URL url = new URL("http://50.63.66.138:1044/update");
System.out.println("make connection");
URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
// set timeouts to 5 seconds
conn.setConnectTimeout(1000*5);
conn.setReadTimeout(5*1000);
conn.setDoOutput(true);
BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
// String line;
String strUsers=new String("");
String strComments=new String("");
String line=new String();
int state=0;
while ((line= rd.readLine() ) != null) {
switch(state){
case 0:
if ( line.contains("START USER"))
state=1;
if ( line.contains("START COMMENTS"))
state=2;
break;
case 1:
if ( line.contains("END USER"))
state=0;
else
{
strUsers+=line;
strUsers+="\n";
}
break;
case 2:
if ( line.contains("END COMMENTS"))
state=0;
else {
strComments+=line;
strComments+="\n";
}
break;
} // end switch
} // end loop
// the next line will cause a exception
mUsers.setText(strUsers);
mComments.setText(strComments);
} catch (Exception e) {
i++; // use this to see if it goes here in debugger
// System.out.println("exception");
// System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
} // end methed
}

use runOnUiThread as
YOUR_CURRENT_ACTIVITY.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// the next line will cause a exception
mUsers.setText(strUsers);
mComments.setText(strComments);
//....YOUR UI ELEMENTS
}
});
EDIT :
see doc runOnUiThread

You can use a handler to post tasks (Runnables) to the UI/Main Thread:
private Handler handler = new Handler();
//...
Thread thread = new Thread()
{
#Override
public void run() {
try {
int t=0;
while(true)
{
handler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
SendMessage();
}
});
sleep(1000*5);
t++;
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};

You can't touch an UI widget from a thread different than the one used to create it (the UI thread). But if you have a reference to the Activity, you can simply do:
activity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
mUsers.setText(strUsers);
mComments.setText(strComments);
}
});
which would require strUsers to be accessible by the anonymous class. For that you can simply do:
final String finalUseres = strUsers;
and use finalUsers within run().

Try using a Service to continuously pull/send data to server. This will reduce the load on your UI-Thread.

the Andoid UI toolkit is not thread-safe. So, you
must not manipulate your UI from a worker thread
To fix this problem, Android offers several ways to access the UI thread from other threads. Here is a list of methods that can help:
Activity.runOnUiThread(Runnable)
View.post(Runnable)
View.postDelayed(Runnable, long)
you can also use AsyncTask.
see this tutorial on process and threads in android.

While Loop inside Thread not working?

I have a very simple UI and i need to constantly run a check process, so I am trying to use a Thread with a while loop.
When I run the loop with nothing but a Thread.sleep(1000) command, it works fine, but as soon as I put in a display.setText(), the program runs for a second on the emulator then quits. I cannot even see the error message since it exits so fast.
I then took the display.setText() command outside the thread and just put it directly inside onCreate, and it works fine (so there is no problem with the actual command).
here is my code, and help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
on=(Button) findViewById(R.id.bon);
off=(Button) findViewById(R.id.boff);
display=(TextView) findViewById(R.id.tvdisplay);
display2=(TextView) findViewById(R.id.tvdisplay2);
display3=(TextView) findViewById(R.id.tvdisplay3);
stopper=(Button) findViewById(R.id.stops);
stopper.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View v) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
if(boo=true)
{
boo=false;
display3.setText("System Off");
}
else{
boo=true;
}
}
});
Thread x = new Thread() {
public void run() {
while (boo) {
display3.setText("System On");
try {
// do something here
//display3.setText("System On");
Log.d(TAG, "local Thread sleeping");
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "local Thread error", e);
}
}
}
};
display3.setText("System On");
display3.setText("System On");
x.start();
}

You can't update the UI from a non-UI thread. Use a Handler. Something like this could work:
// inside onCreate:
final Handler handler = new Handler();
final Runnable updater = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
display3.setText("System On");
}
};
Thread x = new Thread() {
public void run() {
while (boo) {
handler.invokeLater(updater);
try {
// do something here
//display3.setText("System On");
Log.d(TAG, "local Thread sleeping");
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "local Thread error", e);
}
}
}
};
You could also avoid a Handler for this simple case and just use
while (boo) {
runOnUiThread(updater);
// ...
Alternatively, you could use an AsyncTask instead of your own Thread class and override the onProgressUpdate method.

Not 100% certain, but I think it is a case of not being able to modify UI controls from a thread that did not create them?

When you are not in your UI thread, instead of display3.setText("test") use:
display3.post(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
display3.setText("test");
{
});

You should encapsulate this code in an AsyncTask instead. Like so:
private class MyTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
private Activity activity;
MyTask(Activity activity){
this.activity = activity;
}
protected Long doInBackground() {
while (true){
activity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
display3.setText("System On");
}
});
try{
Thread.sleep(1000);
}catch (InterruptedException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "local Thread error", e);
}
}
}
Then just launch the task from your onCreate method.

In non-UI thread,you can't update UI.In new Thread,you can use some methods to notice to update UI.
use Handler
use AsyncTask
use LocalBroadcast
if the process is the observer pattern,can use RxJava