Develop Reference

Getting instance of MainActivity

Hi I am kind of new to android, still learning. And my problem is that, for example I have a method which was created in the MainActivity and I need to call it from another class.
Is it a good practice to get the instance of the MainActivity so that I may be able to call the method in the MainActivity from another class?
This is an example:
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private static MainActivity inst;
public static MainActivity instances()
{
return inst;
}
#Override
public void onStart() {
super.onStart();
inst = this;
}
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
public void showToast (String text){
Toast.makeText(inst, text, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
Then this is the other class:
public class broadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
MainActivity instance = new MainActivity();
instance.showToast(AnyText);
}
}
I saw this type of coding while looking at tutorials and wondered if it's a good practice or maybe there might be a better way? Since I get the warning of Do not place Android Context Classes in static classes
Thanks in advance for any insight or help! :D

I guess You want to make A singleton of Activity Class
but as Mention in All Pattern Design
using Singleton
If and Only If its only way to Make A Global Variable
Singleton is based on Lazing Initialing and Load On Memory
so I guess If you cant to Interact With Activiy You can Use
BroadCast Or Intents

You can call method from another class like this:
MainActivity instance = new MainActivity();
String data = instance.data();
and create data method in that class:
public String data() {
return mangaId;
}

Is it a good practice to get the instance of the MainActivity so that
I may be able to call the method in the MainActivity from another
class?
You totally can do this but you don't need to make it static and use a constructor. Just create a new instance like follows and you'll access the public methods
MainActivity mainActivity = new MainActivity();
mainActivity.showToast(text);
About the warning
It suggests avoiding having context fields defined as static. The warning itself explains why: It's a memory leak. If you make it static it will be accessible anywhere in your app and some methods can hold the reference to this context for a really long time and it won't be garbage collected. It will lead to a outofmemory exception and the app could crash. But here you're trying to invoke showToast() from broadcastreceiver so you can just get rid of static references. And it you need them in the future you safe ways to inject context

You cannot create instances of an Activity using the new operator.
You have to use an Intent to let an Activity to be created.
So you cannot get a reference to an instance of your activity.
The only methods you can use of your activity class are static ones.

Public Methods for all activities

I have a class called myConstants and in it i list all my constants so when i need them I just reference MyConstants.MYCONSTANT. However, i would like to implement something like this for methods. i am repeating a lot of code, for instance, i have a formatCalendarString(Calendar c) method in 3 activities. seems redundant and unecessary. but i cant make them static because i get static calling non-static errors and the only other way i can think is to make a MyConstant object then call public functions off that object, like this...
MyConstants myConstants = new MyConstants();
myConstants.formatCalendarString(Calendar.getInstance());
is there some way i can just call the formatCalendarString() inside MyConstants class without generating an object?

You can use singleton pattern to cache instances. Keeping methods in something like parent activity does not make any sense (as primary role of activity is user interaction).
Example:
public class MyConstants {
private static MyConstants ourInstance;
private MyConstants() {
//private constructor to limit direct instantiation
}
public synchronized static MyConstants getInstance() {
//if null then only create instance
if (ourInstance ==null) {
ourInstance = new MyConstants();
}
//otherwise return cached instance
return ourInstance;
}
}
You just need a private constructor and public static method that would only generate instance if it is null.
Then, call MyConstants.getInstance().whateverMethod(). It will create only single instance.
However when using singleton, please keep memory leaks in mind. Do not pass activity context directly inside singletons.

If you want to have all methods in activities, you can put then in abstract class BaseActivity, which extends Activity, and then make your activities extends BaseActivity. However, if these methods doesn't correspond to something about activity, I suggest some Singleton or Util class

I agree with Pier Giorgio Misley. It's also good to add a private constructor, because you don't obviously want to instantiate an object.

Can't you just use a parent class? That way you can just inherit the methods and manage in one source. Then you don't have to use static functions then.
Edit: Like Tomasz Czura said, just extend the Class.
public class ParentClass {
public void commonMethod(){
}
}
public class OtherClass extends ParentClass{
}

You can use the Static keyword.
Static methods can be referenced from outside without istantiating the new object.
Just create a class:
public class MyClassContainingMethods{
public static String MyStaticMethod(){
return "I am static!";
}
}
Now call it like
String res = MyClassContainingStaticMethods.MyStaticMethod();
Hope this helps
NOTE
You CAN call non-static from static by doing something like this:
public static void First_function(Context context)
{
SMS sms = new SMS();
sms.Second_function(context);
}
public void Second_function(Context context)
{
Toast.makeText(context,"Hello",1).show(); // This i anable to display and cause crash
}
Example taken from here, you will obiouvsly have to fit it into your needs

How to pass a value to an activity from another WITHOUT starting it?

I want to pass a value from activity A to activity B without actually starting the activity B (therefore this rules out the use of Intents and putExtra). The activity B may or may not be started but when it does it needs to display the value passed to it by activity A.
I searched high and low but couldn't find any relevant solution to this seemingly simple question. Any help will be appreciated!

You can't find a solution, because it's something that goes against any logic.
Activity B can't do anything if not started and visible. Activity B might even already be destroyed by the system without you knowing.
You can use a lot of things to set some variables, which your Activity B can read such as in your Application, somewhere in your XML or simply any random class.
Still, you can not actually DO anything with any of these options, until you start Activity B and when you can, it will just effectively be the same as giving the extra data in the Intent.

Use global class like :
public class AppConfig {
Context context;
public AppConfig(Context mxt) {
context = mxt;
}
public static String filepath = null;
Then, in activity A before onCreate() :
AppConfig config;
Context context;
and in onCreate() method put this :
context = getApplicationContext();
config = new AppConfig(context);
And, in second Activity B before onCreate() :
AppConfig config;
Context context;
And, in onCreate() method put this :
context = getApplicationContext();
config = new AppConfig(context);
And set the value where you want. Hope this will help you.

You can use shared Preferences. Using this one Activity can set Value into it, and other activity can read from it.

So you need to keep a value for an activity . If it starts it means you have to use those values, otherwise you will discard those values. For this you can use a separate class with a variable of datatype that you want and you can create getter setter for that and you can use it.
Make use of the classes
public class GetSet {
public GetSet() {
super();
}
private static boolean passwordSet = false;
public static boolean isPasswordSet() {
return passwordSet;
}
public static void setPasswordSet(boolean passwordSet) {
GetSet.passwordSet = passwordSet;
}
}
You can access ths using GetSet.setPasswordSet(false);
and Boolean flag = GetSet.isPasswordSet();

Set the value as Global:
public class Global {
public static int mValue;
public static int getValue() {
return mValue;
}
public static void setValue(int mValue) {
Global.mValue = mValue;
}
}

I was looking for answers to that but I couldn't find it. So I found a way to do that.
First Activity
Intent intent = new Intent(this, SecondActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("Flag" , true);
startActivity(intent);
Second Activity
boolean flag;
flag = getIntent().getBooleanExtra("Flag" ,false);
if(flag == true)
{
this.finish();
}
So now you may send any data you want it will open the Second Activity and then immediately close it after you wouldn't even realize it. You may use Shared prefences to save your data for after usage.

is it possible to fetch the object value without calling a new activity?

I know that stuff of calling the new activity and pass the object value from one activity to another by using putExtra and getExtra function. but i want to pass the value without calling and start the new activity. Is it possible ?
If yes then let me know how i can do it ?

You can also use the Application class for declaring global variables
class Globalclass extends Application {
private String myState;
public String getState(){
return myState;
}
public void setState(String s){
myState = s;
}
}
class TempActivity extends Activity {
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle b){
...
MyApp appState = ((MyApp)getApplicationContext());
String state = appState.getState();
...
}
}
UPDATED :
Checkout this nice Tutorial about how to do that.
Application Class Using as Global

for this you can use static variable or SharedPreferences or if you heavy data then you can use SQlite.

You can take the help of database like SQLite or you may go for Constant class concept where you can make a public static variable and store your data in one activity and access in other activity.Hope this will help you.

There're a lot of ways to pass a value to an activity:
You can use an Intent with FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT. In this case onNewIntent() method will be called for already started activity.
You can use static fields or static methods to pass new data to your activity. But it's not a good method really because sometimes application is terminated even if it's foreground and all static data is lost.
You can send new data to an activity using broadcast messages. In this case the activity must register a BroadcastReceiver.
I think it's not very difficult to make up a few more ways to pass arguments.

You may want to use handler's handleMessage() and pass the object in a message .
Handler handler = new Handler(){
#Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
}
};
You can then call handler.handleMessage(msg), you can assign any object to msg.onj

Can I use an activity to initialize some objects then finish?

If I initialize some static objects in an activity and then call finish(), do those objects still exist elsewhere in the application? Like say I want to access them later on in a service.
If not, are there any other solutions where I could initialize some static objects one time that other classes will have access to?

Yes, doing that is possible. But for the static objects to continue to exist, there should be at least one Activity/Service in the application to be running. What I normally do for such variables is to create a class to hold static methods and variables. Something like this:
public class Utils
{
public static String s;
public static int i;
public static initStatics()
{
s = "";
i = 0;
}
}
This you can call from your other Activity/Service like this:
public class CustomService extends Service
{
#Override
public void onStart()
{
Utils.initStatics();
}
}
So, these variables will be available as long as your app is running. Hope that helped. Good luck!

For things of that nature you can use static member variables on the Application object. You will have to clean up manually (since onDestroy is never called), and you will need to make sure there is at least one Activity/Service in the application running to prevent the app's process from being destroyed by the OS.