Develop Reference

Wait for thread to finish and then move to next position

i am trying to display a Toast on the screen and when Toast fades off then move to the next question. I have tried with Thread but cannot seem to manage.
My code:
next.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View v) {
if (getUserSelection()){
position = position + 3;
if (position < questionsArray.size()) {
curName = questionsArray.get(position).getName();
curArray = questionsArray.get(position).getAnswers();
curIscorrect = questionsArray.get(position).getIscorrect();
setupQuestionView(curName, curArray, curIscorrect);
} else {
StringGenerator.showToast(QuestionsActivity.this, "Your score : " + score + "/" + (questionsArray.size() / 3));
}
}else {
StringGenerator.showToast(QuestionsActivity.this, getString(R.string.noanswerselected));
}
}
});
and the getUserSelectionMethod:
private boolean getUserSelection() {
correct = (RadioButton)findViewById(group.getCheckedRadioButtonId());
if (correct == null){
return false;
}else {
correctAnswerText = correct.getText().toString();
if (map.get(correctAnswerText).equals(Constants.CORRECTANSWER)) {
score++;
setCorrectMessage();
return true;
} else {
setWrongMessage();
return true;
}
}
}
private void setCorrectMessage() {
correctToast = new Toast(QuestionsActivity.this);
correctToastView = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.correct, (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.correctRootLayout));
correctText = (TextView)correctToastView.findViewById(R.id.correctTextView);
correctText.setText(getString(R.string.correctAnswer));
correctToast.setDuration(Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
correctToast.setView(correctToastView);
correctToast.show();
correctThread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
correctToast.cancel();
}
});
correctThread.start();
}
private void setWrongMessage() {
wrongToast = new Toast(QuestionsActivity.this);
wrongToastView = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.wrong, (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.wrongRootLayout));
wrongText = (TextView)wrongToastView.findViewById(R.id.wrongTextView);
wrongText.setText(getString(R.string.wrongAnswer));
wrongToast.setDuration(Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
wrongToast.setView(wrongToastView);
wrongToast.show();
wrongThread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
wrongToast.cancel();
}
});
wrongThread.start();
}
Any suggestion on how to do this?

You can determine the toast visibility:
toast.getView().getWindowToken()
If the result is null, than your toast isn't visible anymore, and than you can run any code you want.

as stated in this answer you can start a thread that waits the duration of the Toast:
Thread thread = new Thread(){
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(3500); // 3.5seconds!
// Do the stuff you want to be done after the Toast disappeared
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT and Toast.LENGTH_LONG are only flags so you have to either hard code the duration or keep them in a constant. The durations are 3.5s (long) and 2s (short).
If you want to manipulate some of your views, you cannot do this in another thread than the "main" UI thread. So you have to implement a kind of callback/polling mechanism to get notified when the SleepThread has finished.
Check this answer to read about a couple of ways to do this. Probably the easiest of them to understand and implement is this:
After you started your Thread you can check if it is still alive and running by calling thread.isAlive(). In this way you can do a while loop that runs while the thread is running:
// start your thread
while(thread.isAlive()){}
// continue the work. The other thread has finished.
Please note that this is NOT the most elegant way to do this! Check the other possibilities in the answer I've mentioned above for more elegant solutions (especially the last one with the listeners is very interesting and worth reading!)

That's because the Thread class is purely executed in the background and you need to manipulate the view in the Main thread. To solve your issue just replace the Thread with AsynTask.
AsyncTask<Void,Void,Void> a = new AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void>() {
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
super.onPostExecute(aVoid);
correctToast.cancel();
}
};
a.execute();
If you look at my code you can see my onPostExecute, this method is called in the Main Thread.

My Error was because i was trying to acess UI Elements through another Thread so modifying the code like this:
Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
QuestionsActivity.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
moveToNextQuestion();
}
});
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
thread.start();
did the trick. I hope my answer helps someone!!!

AsyncTask onPostExecute not reached

I'm trying to execute this AsyncTask to connect to the server but it is stuck and doesn't reach onPostExecute().
class UnoConnection extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Boolean> {
#Override
protected void onPreExecute() {
IP = enterIP.getText().toString();
Response = "";
Log.i("Network", "Available");
}
#Override
protected Boolean doInBackground(Void... params) {
try {
InetAddress serverAddress = InetAddress.getByName(IP);
Log.i("Socket", "Trying to create...");
socket = new Socket();
socket.connect(new InetSocketAddress(serverAddress, 4444), 2000);
Log.i("Socket", "Created: " + socket.toString());
return true;
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
return false;
}
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(Boolean aBoolean) {
Log.i("Socket", "Post..." + aBoolean);
super.onPostExecute(aBoolean);
if (aBoolean) {
connect.setChecked(true);
showToast("Connected :)", "long");
enable(controls);
enterIP.setEnabled(false);
} else {
showToast("Unable to connect...!", "long");
connect.setChecked(false);
disable(controls);
enterIP.setEnabled(true);
}
Log.i("Socket", "Post..." + aBoolean);
}
}
The Method calling this AsyncTask is below:
switch (thisView.getId()) {
case R.id.connect:
UnoCon = new UnoConnection();
UnoCon.execute();
while (!(UnoCon.getStatus().equals(AsyncTask.Status.FINISHED))) {
Log.i("UnoCon",UnoCon.getStatus().toString());
}
if (socket == null) break;
cmdSend = new commandSender();
cmdSend.execute('2', 'R');
while (!(cmdSend.getStatus().equals(AsyncTask.Status.FINISHED))) {
Log.i("cmdSend", "Not Finished Yet");
}
if (commandSent) {
respRec = new responseReceiver();
respRec.execute();
while (!(respRec.getStatus().equals(AsyncTask.Status.FINISHED))) {
Log.i("respRec", "Not Finished Yet");
}
switch (Response) {
case "1":
Relay1.setChecked(true);
break;
case "0":
Relay1.setChecked(false);
break;
default:
break;
}
}
Log.i("Socket", socket.getInetAddress().toString());
break;
So when enabling the above //Log.i("UnoCon",UnoCon.getStatus().toString()); it always give running.
When I tried using some breakpoints I realized that it:
Enters doInBackground & does everything with no exception
return true then move to return false without even writing the stacktrace
jumps to AsyncTask class & then I don't know what happens

Maybe you called cancel() on your AsyncTask
See: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html#cancel(boolean)

the problem is this line:
while (!(UnoCon.getStatus().equals(AsyncTask.Status.FINISHED))) {
Log.i("UnoCon",UnoCon.getStatus().toString());
}
you start the stuff on the bakcgorund thread, but then you block the UI thread.
First that is completely wrong. Blocking the UI thread with a while loop waiting for something from the background thread is just as bad as doing the background work directly on the UI thread.
Then the reason onPostExecute doesn't execute is because this method is on the queue to be processed on the UI thread, but you're blocking the UI thread.
To fix it you have to remove this loop and find another way of processing whatever you're processing after the background thread finishes.

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>);
}
}

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

Ideal way to cancel an executing AsyncTask

I am running remote audio-file-fetching and audio file playback operations in a background thread using AsyncTask. A Cancellable progress bar is shown for the time the fetch operation runs.
I want to cancel/abort the AsyncTask run when the user cancels (decides against) the operation. What is the ideal way to handle such a case?

Just discovered that AlertDialogs's boolean cancel(...); I've been using everywhere actually does nothing. Great.
So...
public class MyTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
private volatile boolean running = true;
private final ProgressDialog progressDialog;
public MyTask(Context ctx) {
progressDialog = gimmeOne(ctx);
progressDialog.setCancelable(true);
progressDialog.setOnCancelListener(new OnCancelListener() {
#Override
public void onCancel(DialogInterface dialog) {
// actually could set running = false; right here, but I'll
// stick to contract.
cancel(true);
}
});
}
#Override
protected void onPreExecute() {
progressDialog.show();
}
#Override
protected void onCancelled() {
running = false;
}
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
while (running) {
// does the hard work
}
return null;
}
// ...
}

If you're doing computations:
You have to check isCancelled() periodically.
If you're doing a HTTP request:
Save the instance of your HttpGet or HttpPost somewhere (eg. a public field).
After calling cancel, call request.abort(). This will cause IOException be thrown inside your doInBackground.
In my case, I had a connector class which I used in various AsyncTasks. To keep it simple, I added a new abortAllRequests method to that class and called this method directly after calling cancel.

The thing is that AsyncTask.cancel() call only calls the onCancel function in your task. This is where you want to handle the cancel request.
Here is a small task I use to trigger an update method
private class UpdateTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
private boolean running = true;
#Override
protected void onCancelled() {
running = false;
}
#Override
protected void onProgressUpdate(Void... values) {
super.onProgressUpdate(values);
onUpdate();
}
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
while(running) {
publishProgress();
}
return null;
}
}

Simple: don't use an AsyncTask. AsyncTask is designed for short operations that end quickly (tens of seconds) and therefore do not need to be canceled. "Audio file playback" does not qualify. You don't even need a background thread for ordinary audio file playback.

The only way to do it is by checking the value of the isCancelled() method and stopping playback when it returns true.

This is how I write my AsyncTask
the key point is add Thread.sleep(1);
#Override protected Integer doInBackground(String... params) {
Log.d(TAG, PRE + "url:" + params[0]);
Log.d(TAG, PRE + "file name:" + params[1]);
downloadPath = params[1];
int returnCode = SUCCESS;
FileOutputStream fos = null;
try {
URL url = new URL(params[0]);
File file = new File(params[1]);
fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
URLConnection ucon = url.openConnection();
InputStream is = ucon.getInputStream();
BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(is);
byte[] data = new byte[10240];
int nFinishSize = 0;
while( bis.read(data, 0, 10240) != -1){
fos.write(data, 0, 10240);
nFinishSize += 10240;
**Thread.sleep( 1 ); // this make cancel method work**
this.publishProgress(nFinishSize);
}
data = null;
Log.d(TAG, "download ready in"
+ ((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) / 1000)
+ " sec");
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.d(TAG, PRE + "Error: " + e);
returnCode = FAIL;
} catch (Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
} finally{
try {
if(fos != null)
fos.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.d(TAG, PRE + "Error: " + e);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
return returnCode;
}

Our global AsyncTask class variable
LongOperation LongOperationOdeme = new LongOperation();
And KEYCODE_BACK action which interrupt AsyncTask
#Override
public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) {
LongOperationOdeme.cancel(true);
}
return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}
It works for me.

I don't like to force interrupt my async tasks with cancel(true) unnecessarily because they may have resources to be freed, such as closing sockets or file streams, writing data to the local database etc. On the other hand, I have faced situations in which the async task refuses to finish itself part of the time, for example sometimes when the main activity is being closed and I request the async task to finish from inside the activity's onPause() method. So it's not a matter of simply calling running = false. I have to go for a mixed solution: both call running = false, then giving the async task a few milliseconds to finish, and then call either cancel(false) or cancel(true).
if (backgroundTask != null) {
backgroundTask.requestTermination();
try {
Thread.sleep((int)(0.5 * 1000));
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
if (backgroundTask.getStatus() != AsyncTask.Status.FINISHED) {
backgroundTask.cancel(false);
}
backgroundTask = null;
}
As a side result, after doInBackground() finishes, sometimes the onCancelled() method is called, and sometimes onPostExecute(). But at least the async task termination is guaranteed.

With reference to Yanchenko's answer on 29 April '10:
Using a 'while(running)' approach is neat when your code under 'doInBackground' has to be executed multiple times during every execution of the AsyncTask. If your code under 'doInBackground' has to be executed only once per execution of the AsyncTask, wrapping all your code under 'doInBackground' in a 'while(running)' loop will not stop the background code (background thread) from running when the AsyncTask itself is cancelled, because the 'while(running)' condition will only be evaluated once all the code inside the while loop has been executed at least once. You should thus either
(a.) break up your code under 'doInBackground' into multiple 'while(running)' blocks or
(b.) perform numerous 'isCancelled' checks throughout your 'doInBackground' code, as explained under "Cancelling a task" at https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html.
For option (a.) one can thus modify Yanchenko's answer as follows:
public class MyTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
private volatile boolean running = true;
//...
#Override
protected void onCancelled() {
running = false;
}
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
// does the hard work
while (running) {
// part 1 of the hard work
}
while (running) {
// part 2 of the hard work
}
// ...
while (running) {
// part x of the hard work
}
return null;
}
// ...
For option (b.) your code in 'doInBackground' will look something like this:
public class MyTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
//...
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
// part 1 of the hard work
// ...
if (isCancelled()) {return null;}
// part 2 of the hard work
// ...
if (isCancelled()) {return null;}
// ...
// part x of the hard work
// ...
if (isCancelled()) {return null;}
}
// ...