Develop Reference

Android : can't stop handler when runs progress bar dialog

I make a dialog based on this website http://www.mkyong.com/android/android-progress-bar-example/
When progress bar goes to 100%, dialog closed but a toast still appears continuously. I noticed that after bar goes to 100%, progressHandler still runs looping.
How can I solved this problem?
Thing that I want : When progress bar goes to 100% then dialog closed and Toast shows and closed.
Thread background = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#SuppressWarnings("null")
public void run() {
try {
while (dialog.getProgress() <= dialog.getMax()) {
// wait 500ms between each update
Thread.sleep(100);
// active the update handler
progressHandler.sendMessage(progressHandler.obtainMessage());
}
} catch (java.lang.InterruptedException e) {
// if something fails do something smart
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Error Occurs",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
});
// start the background thread
background.start();
}
// handler for the background updating
Handler progressHandler = new Handler() {
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
dialog.incrementProgressBy(increment);
if(dialog.getProgress()==100){
editor.putInt("lastestSummaryNoSent",summary.getCurrentSummaryNo());
editor.commit();
dialog.dismiss();
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Update Finished", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
};

This error
Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()
is because of the Toast you have provided inside the background Thread. Remove the Toast inside the Catch phrase and you will be good to go.

Progress Bar on Android gets displayed after complete onClick() execution

I have a Button, and upon pressing it, the onClick() would process user's request. However, this takes a little time, so I would like to have a View showing "Please wait, processing..." immediately upon pressing this Button, while its OnClickListener does its thing.
My problem is, this "Please wait, processing..." which I placed at the very beginning of onClick(), only appears AFTER the whole onClick() is done. In other words, after the whole processing is done. So, I was wondering, how do I make a View saying "Please wait, processing..." before the actual processing has begun?

As #Blundell pointed you may process long-running operation on a separate thread to avoid freezing of UI thread. However in Android there's a better alternative for general-purpose Handler which is called AsyncTask. Please refer to this tutorial for details.

You can do this by just using AsyncTask without dealing anything else.
First create new AsyncTask class on "onPreExecute" change ui to show
that you are processing sth
Second do your all backend time consuming job on "doInBackground"
method (do not call any ui updating method from here)
Third change your ui to show that process is finished or whatever you
wanna do.
yourUiButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View arg0) {
new NewTask().execute();
}
});
class NewTask extends AsyncTask<String, Void, Task>{
#Override
protected void onPreExecute() {
super.onPreExecute();
//this part runs on ui thread
//show your "wait while processing" view
}
#Override
protected Task doInBackground(String... arg0) {
//do your processing job here
//this part is not running on ui thread
return task;
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(Task result) {
super.onPostExecute(result);
//this part runs on ui thread
//run after your long process finished
//do whatever you want here like updating ui components
}}

Do the processing on another thread so that the UI can show your dialog.
// Show dialog
// Start a new thread , either like this or with an ASyncTask
new Thread(){
public void run(){
// Do your thang
// inform the UI thread you've finished
handler.sendEmptyMessage();
}
}
When the processing is done you will need to callback to the UI thread to dismiss oyur dialog.
Handler handler = new Handler(){
public void handleMessage(int what){
// dismiss your dialog
}
};

AsyncTasks.
Place the displaying of the progress dialog in onPreExecute
Do your thing in doInBackground
Update whatever needs to be updated in the UI, and close the dialog in onPostExecute

You will need something like this
public void onClick(View v){
//show message "Please wait, processing..."
Thread temp = new Thread(){
#Override
public void run(){
//Do everything you need
}
};
temp.start();
}
or if you want it to run in the UIThread (since it is an intensive task, I don't recommend this)
public void onClick(View v){
//show message "Please wait, processing..."
Runnable action = new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
//Do everything you need
}
};
v.post(action);
}

put ur code inside a thread and use a progress dialogue there...
void fn_longprocess() {
m_ProgressDialog = ProgressDialog.show(this, " Please wait", "..", true);
fn_thread = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
// do your long process here
runOnUiThread(UI_Thread);//call your ui thread here
}catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
Thread thread = new Thread(null, thread1
"thread1");
thread.start();
}
then close your dialogue in the UI thread...hope it helps..

Calling same dialog from different threads

I have an android application with different activities and they all pull data from a web source. This is done by implementing Runnable and creating a thread with the activity as object. The basic class looks like this:
public ActivityX extends Activity implements Runnable {
#Override
public onResume() {
super.onResume();
Thread someThread = new Thread(this);
someThread.start();
}
#Override
public run() {
try {
// pull web content
}
catch(TimeOutException e) {
// >>> create dialog here <<<
// go back to another activity
}
}
}
I tried to create a dialog helper class with a static method that returns the timeout dialog and then call show() like this:
HelperClass.getTimeOutDialog().show();
but the problem is, I can't call it from inside the run() method, as it's in a different thread. If I try to, I will get a runtime exception stating:
Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()
I need to do this dialog for nearly a dozen of activities and I really want to get around using a Handler objects and sending a message to call the dialog every time. Isn't there an easier way to do this? I just can't think of any right now unfortunately.
My code would look something like this:
handler.handleEmptyMessage(1);
This is to call the handler. And the following would handle the message:
private Handler handler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
if(msg.what == 1) {
// show dialog here
}
}
};
Cheers

#Override
public run() {
try {
// pull web content
}
catch(TimeOutException e) {
runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
// >>> create dialog here <<<
// go back to another activity
}
}
}
}
Try the one above if you don't want to use Handler.

private Handler handler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
if(msg.what == 1) {
// show dialog here
}
}
};
Is this code a part of your activity and not in a thread? If it is a part of your non Ui thread, it would give you the error message. Make sure the handler instance is created in your UI thread because a handler contains an implicit reference to the thread they get created in.

How to execute some code in Android UI thread async?

I'm new to Android development. I've be working on Swing and SWT for several years. Both Swing and SWT has a stratage to execute code in UI thread sync and async. The typical usage is doing some time-consume staff in one thread then display the result in UI thread async.
So my question is, is there similiar stratage in Android? Here is my code. Parameter runnable is some time-consume code. This method will display a waiting dialog during the execution then EXPECT to show a Toast after it is finished. But the Toast need to be show in UI thread. So how to do that?
public static void showWaitingDialog(final Activity parent, final Runnable runnable, String msg) {
if (StringUtils.isEmpty(msg)) {
msg = "processing...";
}
final ProgressDialog waitingDialog = ProgressDialog.show(parent, "Please Wait...", msg, true);
// execute in a new thread instead of UI thread
ThreadPoolUtil.execute(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
// some time-consume operation
runnable.run();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
waitingDialog.dismiss();
}
// TODO: How to display a Toast message here? execute some code in UI Thread.
}
});
}
And is there some words about Android UI system? Such as is it Thread-Safe, how thread works together and so on. Many Thanks!

There are several ways for doing that,
AsyncTask -
AsyncTask enables proper and easy use of the UI thread. This class
allows to perform background operations and publish results on the UI
thread without having to manipulate threads and/or handlers. Example for using AsyncTask
Service -
A Service is an application component representing either an
application's desire to perform a longer-running operation while not
interacting with the user or to supply functionality for other
applications to use. Example for Using Service.
IntentService -
IntentService is a base class for Services that handle asynchronous
requests (expressed as Intents) on demand. Clients send requests
through startService(Intent) calls; the service is started as needed,
handles each Intent in turn using a worker thread, and stops itself
when it runs out of work. Example for using IntentService.

You can use AsyncTask like this.
To call AsyncTask
new getAsynctask().execute("");
and here is the class for geting result.
class getAsynctask extends AsyncTask<String, Long, Integer> {
protected void onPreExecute() {
super.onPreExecute();
loading = ProgressDialog.show(Pass.this, null, "Please wait...");
}
protected Integer doInBackground(String... params) {
try {
// do your coding
return null;
} catch (Exception e) {
return null;
}
}
protected void onPostExecute(Integer result) {
super.onPostExecute(result);
try {
if (loading != null && loading.isShowing())
loading.dismiss();
} catch (Throwable t) {
Log.v("this is praki", "loading.dismiss() problem", t);
}
}
}

Whenever you are working with Separate thread which is not your UI thread the best way is to use Handler. Whenever you want to intimate user from your Thread, suppose a progress then send a message to Handler to so. Inside Handler you can handle message and write a code snippet to Change anything on UI. This is the preferred way for Android. see these link1 , link2 & link3

You use this AsynTask as a inner class of your activity. In do in background do the time consuming task you want to do and then in on postexecute you can show the text message.
call this from your main activity
initTask = new InitTask();
initTask.execute(this);
protected class InitTask extends AsyncTask<Context, Integer, String> {
#Override
protected String doInBackground(Context... params) {
// Do the time comsuming task here
return "COMPLETE!";
}
// -- gets called just before thread begins
#Override
protected void onPreExecute() {
super.onPreExecute();
}
// -- called from the publish progress
// -- notice that the datatype of the second param gets passed to this
// method
#Override
protected void onProgressUpdate(Integer... values) {
}
// -- called if the cancel button is pressed
#Override
protected void onCancelled() {
super.onCancelled();
}
// -- called as soon as doInBackground method completes
// -- notice that the third param gets passed to this method
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
super.onPostExecute(result);
// Show the toast message here
}
}

Use a handler:
static final int SHOW_TOAST = 0;
public static void showWaitingDialog(final Activity parent, final Runnable runnable, String msg) {
if (StringUtils.isEmpty(msg)) {
msg = "processing...";
}
final ProgressDialog waitingDialog = ProgressDialog.show(parent, "Please Wait...", msg, true);
// execute in a new thread instead of UI thread
ThreadPoolUtil.execute(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
// some time-consume operation
runnable.run();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
waitingDialog.dismiss();
}
handler.sendMessage(handler.obtainMessage(SHOW_TOAST));
}
});
}
public Handler handler = new Handler() {
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
switch (msg.what) {
case SHOW_TOAST:
//Toast here
break;
}
}
};

The Painless threading article from the android developer resources provides different alternatives depending on the specific SDK version.

android preference activity

I have a preference activity and want that if one of its items is clicked it will start a background work and show a nice progress bar in foreground until the background task finishes. how to do it???
Code writtenis:
public boolean onPreferenceClick(Preference preference) {
showProgressDialog();
new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
doSomething();
hideProgressDialog();
} //Runnable.run()
}).start();
return false;
}
});
But the above code is not showing progress dialog. and ANR error occurs.
Thanks.

Add following code in your activity class:
// Need handler for callbacks to UI Threads
// For background operations
final Handler mHandler = new Handler();
// Create Runnable for posting results
final Runnable mUpdateDone = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
progDialog.hide();
// Do your task here what you want after the background task is finished.
}
};
Write following code in onPreferenceClick:
progDialog = ProgressDialog.show(AddPhoto.this, "", "Uploading Photo...");
new Thread() {
public void run() {
// Start your task here.....
mHandler.post(mUpdateDone);
}
}.start();
Let me know if doesn't work for you!

I have not implemented a progress dialog yet (plan to later today), but this example looks like a good one. I plan to use it myself. I note that it does a number of things that your code does not.