I am currently trying to integrate a live search functionality in android. I use a customized Autocomplete widget. The widget itself provides me with a threshold to only start a query after a certain amount of characters have been typed in. But what I also want is that a query only starts, say if a user has stopped typing for 2 seconds.
As I load my contents with a AsyncTask I tried blocking the doInBackground function by calling Thread.sleep() right at the beginning. If the user would then continue typing the program would look after an existing task, cancel it and start a new one. This was my idea. But it doesn't quite work the way I expected. Sometimes it sends out queries even if the user is still typing, sometimes queries are canceled after the users stopped typing.
Do you have any ideas on this or maybe a better way to solve this?
Here are the code snippets:
1. The function that is called on text changes:
public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
if(mWidget.enoughToFilter()) {
if(mTask != null && mTask.getStatus() != Status.FINISHED) {
mTask.cancel(true);
}
mTask = new KeywordSearchLoader(mActivity,
mItems);
mTask.execute(s.toString());
}
}
2. doInBrackground
try {
Thread.sleep(Properties.ASYNC_SEARCH_DELAY);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "the process was interrupted while sleeping");
Log.w(TAG, e);
}
Thanks
Phil
Create a Handler and use .postDelayed(..) to run a background task after some delay.
If user presses the key then call handler.removeCallback(..) and then again .postDelayed(..) to add a new delayed callback.
Related
I developed an android turn based game and so far I can make the first move but when I want the user would wait for the second player to play the app crashes.
What I tried to do is when the player finishes his move I call a function like this:
public void TheThread()
{
boolean fy=false;
while(!fy)
{
if(CheckMove2())
fy=true;
}
}
The checkmove2 function connects the parse table and check if is there a turn and return boolean.
I beleive this is not the right way to do it,thanks for your help.
Edit:
ChecKmove2() function:
private boolean CheckMove2() {
fx=false;
ParseQuery query = new ParseQuery("serverturn");
query.whereEqualTo("Receiver", Sender);
query.getFirstInBackground(new GetCallback() {
public void done(ParseObject updatePO, ParseException ParseError) {
if(ParseError == null){
fx=true;
String objID;
x=updatePO.getInt("x");
y=updatePO.getInt("y");
try {
updatePO.delete();
} catch (ParseException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
///here comes the game algorithm.
if(fx)
return true;
return false;
}
Edit: the app not crashes its just stop and alert: "The app is not responding" and then asks if I want to wait or close the app.The checkmove function works perfectly I checked it with other devices,the problem is to use this checkmove function in a while loop so the user would wait for the opponent turn.
Your application is crashing because in that scenario you've caused an endless loop (if there are no other moves waiting). So the OS will, most likely force close your application because it thinks its become unresponsive.
What you're better off doing is this:
Create a background service with an AyncTask to check for other players moves at specific intervals (10 - 15 mins maybe?)
Once a move is found. Alert the player to it by using a Notification which would link to your app via an Intent
As a side note, you should always use background threads/async tasks etc to talk to networks.
On your place i would do next:
In parse cloudCode afterSave or beforeSave of the object you are waiting for, send a socket message to your app when the needed object is updated. For example using pubnub.com
I think this is a decent solution, but running some loopy checking logic seemes so unprofessional.
In general it works like this:
two players subscribe to a channel
when one finishes move, from cloud code send a message to this
channel
catch it in your app.
The message can trigger update from parse or can contain the needed data itself.
I am using an AsynchTask to host a simulator that runs indefinelly and posts the results after each simulation step.
Limiting the simulation loop in background at a maximum of 25Hz, and only calling a javascript function with the results, it works "fine".
Apart from updating a webgl model in a browser, what looks fast enough, I have two more things to update from the Android UI: the FPS indicator and the panel with TextViews representing some of the values. If we forget about the FPS:
The onProgressUpdate() function is already limited to be called at 25Hz, to refresh the model. Now I use another time variable to limit, inside this method, the call to another method that updates the UI panel textViews. It is limited to 1Hz, less than what I actually wanted but fast enough for the kind of information. The method is as clean as possible, all the views are previously loaded to a variable that I keep to not load them every time.
What is the effect: looks like updating 5 textViews takes like one second where all the UI freezes, the touch moves are very very laggy...
I decreased the priority of the background task with:
#Override
protected Boolean doInBackground(ModelSimulation... params) {
Thread.currentThread().setPriority(Thread.MIN_PRIORITY);
...
And used Thread.yield() at the end of the doInBackground method. This improves the behavior to what I explained, without these commands, the behavior is even worst.
My questions are:
-Can I reduce even more the priority if instead of using a background task I use a handler and my own Thread?
-Will a service improve the behavior of the UI?
-Why updating 5 textViews takes so long compared with calling a javascript function that finally will have to use the gpu to change the webgl model?
-Is Android not prepared in any sens to do dynamic applications? How applications like the ones to test sensors update so fast the UI? because there are not standar components like the textViews? (like browser going faster than a textView)
Note: even reducing the refreshing limitations, it produce a laggy effect every time the HUD is updated. In fact I talk about 5 textViews but only updating the FPS indicator produces the same pause. Looks like the only fact of having to switch to the UI thread already consumes this time.
Edit 1:
#Override
protected Boolean doInBackground(ModelSimulation... params) {
Thread.currentThread().setPriority(Thread.MIN_PRIORITY);
if(simulator.getSimulatorStatus().equals(SimulatorStatus.Connected)){
try {
while (true){
//TODO Propagate
long dur = (System.nanoTime()-time_tmp_data);
if(dur<Parameters.Simulator.min_hud_model_refreshing_interval_ns){
try {
long sleep_dur = (Parameters.Simulator.min_hud_model_refreshing_interval_ns-(System.nanoTime()-time_tmp_data))/1000000;
if(sleep_dur>0){
Thread.sleep(sleep_dur);
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
time_tmp_data = System.nanoTime();
SpacecraftState sstate = propagate();
int progress = (int)((extrapDate.durationFrom(finalDate)/mission.sim_duration)*100);
if(sstate!=null){
SimResults results = new SimResults(sstate, progress);
simulator.getSimulationResults().updateSimulation(results.spacecraftState, results.sim_progress);
publishProgress();
}
if(isCancelled())
break;
Thread.yield();
}
} catch (OrekitException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
simulator.showMessage(simulator.getContext().getString(R.string.sim_orekit_prop_error)+": "+e.getMessage());
}
}
return true;
}
#Override
protected void onProgressUpdate(Void... values) {
//Update model by push
simulator.getSimulationResults().pushSimulationModel();
//Update GUI HUD
if(time_tmp_gui==0 || (System.nanoTime()-time_tmp_gui)>Parameters.Simulator.min_hud_panel_refreshing_interval_ns){
time_tmp_gui = System.nanoTime();
simulator.getSimulationResults().updateHUD();
}
}
If I comment the line simulator.getSimulationResults().updateHUD(); or directly the contents of the method, it works "fine". And this method is only changing some textviews text:
public synchronized void updateHUD(){
//Log.d("Sim",System.currentTimeMillis()+": "+"pre update gui 1");
activity.runOnUiThread( new Runnable() {
#SuppressLint("ResourceAsColor")
public void run() {
if(view != null){
if(panel_time != null)
panel_time.setText(info.time.replace("T", " "));
if(panel_progress != null)
panel_progress.setProgress(info.progress);
if(panel_vel != null){
panel_vel.setText("Vel. "+String.format("%.2f", info.velocity)+" Km/s");
if(info.velocity>config.limit_velocity)
panel_vel.setTextColor(activity.getResources().getColor(R.color.panel_limit));
else
panel_vel.setTextColor(activity.getResources().getColor(R.color.panel_value));
}
if(panel_accel != null){
panel_accel.setText("Accel. "+String.format("%.2f", info.acceleration)+" Km/s2");
if(info.acceleration>config.limit_acceleration)
panel_accel.setTextColor(activity.getResources().getColor(R.color.panel_limit));
else
panel_accel.setTextColor(activity.getResources().getColor(R.color.panel_value));
}
if(panel_radium != null)
panel_radium.setText("Orbit radium: "+String.format("%.1f", info.orbit_radium)+" Km");
if(panel_mass != null)
panel_mass.setText("Mass: "+String.format("%.1f", info.mass)+" Kg");
if(panel_roll != null)
panel_roll.setText("Rol: "+String.format("%.1f", (180*info.roll/Math.PI))+"º");
if(panel_pitch != null)
panel_pitch.setText("Pitch: "+String.format("%.1f", (180*info.pitch/Math.PI))+"º");
if(panel_yaw != null)
panel_yaw.setText("Yaw: "+String.format("%.1f", (180*info.yaw/Math.PI))+"º");
}
}
});
//Log.d("Sim",System.currentTimeMillis()+": "+"post update gui 1");
}
Edit 2: I can actually remove the runOnUiThread since it is already at that thread, but the effect is the same, this is not the problem.
Edit 3: I tried to comment all the lines of the method updateHUD() and leave only these two:
if(panel_time != null)
panel_time.setText(info.time.replace("T", " "));
The effect is almost the same, if I touch any textView, the animation goes by steps like periodically freezing
Edit 4:
I noticed that the process inside the AsyncTask was taking longer than the available step time so it was never sleeping. I established a safe guard time of 10ms that is slept even if the simulation step is longer than the available time. So, I have minimum 10ms free of each 100ms. The efect stills the same. I am updating at 25Hz the browser and 1Hz a single textview text. If I disable the textview update, the webgl model animates smoothly. On the other hand, if I enable the textview update too, every time the text is updated, there are some miliseconds where the browser animation and its response to touches are blocked. This effect gets worst if I increase the task priority. I tried setting a huge guard of 500ms but the freezing effect stills appearing. I am using XWalkView, can it be something blocking the interaction of this view when UI Thread is acting?
I can't understand why a 4 core 2 RAMgb device needs way more time to compute the same simulation than in Linux or windows desktop PC. I have 25Hz-->40ms of available time and the steps take almost 70ms. In a PC I could keep the simulation at 25Hz in real time. Is there so much shit running in background in Android compared to other OS?
There must be another issue with your code. Try posting your AsyncTask in here.
You could also try something very basic like:
Create a new Thread that loops every 25Hz and update your UI by using the post() method of your UI elements or the runInUiThread() of your Activity. See if there's any code still running inside the UI Thread, that could do heavy work, that can be done outside the UI Thread.
I tried literally everything except for the most logic thing, trying the application without the debugger connected.
The reason to have slower simulation than in a PC, to freese UI events... all because the debugger takes a lot of resources from the device. So, I guess that from this point and avobe I will have to test the application without debugger, what forces me to reboot the phone each time to avoid the "waiting for debugger to connect".
Thank to all who tried.
I could be wrong, but I think that yours problem in synchronization on simulator.getSimulationResults() object. I can't see the realization of the simulator class and realization of the object returned by getSimulationResults(), but I suppose that getSimulationResults() returns the same object every time? If so, then it can be looks like this:
In the AsyncTaks call simulator.getSimulationResults().updateSimulation(...). If this method is synchronized, then this call will be lock the SimulationResults object for AsyncTaks thread.
updateSimulation(...) returns, and publishProgress() is called, but publishProgress() is only schedule the onProgressUpdate(Void... values) in the UI thread.
The new iteration in the AsyncTaks thread can be started befor the UI thread gets the control and executes onProgressUpdate(Void... values). So, AsyncTaks thread goes to the first step.
The UI thread gets the control and executes the onProgressUpdate(Void... values) and synchronized void updateHUD() methods, but updateHUD() can't be executed, because SimulationResults object is locked by the AsyncTaks thread in the updateSimulation(...) method. So the UI thread returns the control to the OS. This may occur many times.
So, onProgressUpdate(Void... values) method and all events in the UI thread can be executed only if the UI thread gets the control in the right moment when updateSimulation(...) method is not called in the AsyncTask thread.
You can check this idea by replacing the public synchronized void update HUD() on the public void update HUD(), and write something randomly in the TextView.
In any case, the use of AsyncTask in this case is not the best idea. AsyncTask's are executed in the TheadPool, but in the Android system this pool can consist from only one thread. So, all AsyncTask's will be executed one by one in the one thread.
The UI I am creating includes a button, which once pressed, is supposed to find and display values repetitively until the user presses the button again.
This is my button's initialization with the listener:
pollOn = false;
pollButton = (Button) findViewById( R.id.pollButton );
pollButton.setOnClickListener( new OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
Log.i( "POLL BUTTON", "onClick" );
if( !pollOn ) {
Log.i( "POLL BUTTON", "!pollOn" );
pollOn = true;
methodToReadAndDisplayData();
} else {
Log.i( "POLL BUTTON", "else pollOn" );
pollOn = false;
}
}
});
It is not shown here to make things easier to read, but the way I currently have it working is to call the methodToReadAndDisplayData() 5 times in a for loop and then stop.
So when I press the pollButton initially, the UI freezes and Log.i("POLL BUTTON", "onClick") is displayed at the top of LogCat. I then press the pollButton while it appears to be frozen, and after all of the work is done and the UI unfreezes, Log.i("POLL BUTTON", "onClick") is shown at the very end of my LogCat. The way I am interpretting this is that the button click is entered into a queue, and the onClick method is called after all 5 iterations of the for loop have been completed.
Another large part of this problem is that the work being done is mainly in a native library, and is called using the NDK. I am unsure if this has anything to do with the UI freezing, but it definitely increases the processing time needed.
If anything is unclear or confusing please let me know and I will try to clarify things.
Any information on this situation would be greatly appreciated.
Doing some stuff while keeping the UI responsive can achieved by many methods, two of them are very common. Async Task and threads.
AsyncTask:
It's a class which have a few methods which help you to do time consuming work while updating the UI at the same time. For Example: If you want to search a specific word in a big document, do the reading and searching stuff in doInBackground() (a method of AsyncTask class) and you can display a progress bar and notify the user with your progress with onProgressUpdate(). This gives your app more professional feel and at the same time helps you executing time consuming task in background.
Threads:
They are simple runnable threads. You can execute non UI stuff with these threads but you can't perform UI tasks in them (as UI is not thread safe). For dealing with UI in these threads, you will have to use Handlers, which is quite cumbersome for beginners to get a grip and understanding of them.
So depending on your needs and app you can choose the one best suits you.
Because you're running on the main thread the system UI freezes, you'd be better off running in a new thread which would leave your UI running as normal. Below is an example of how to run your method in a new thread.
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
methodToReadAndDisplayData();
}
}).start();
Note that if your method interacts with the UI in any way, you need to do it via the following:
When you want to update your UI:
Handler threadHandler = new Handler();
threadHandler.post(updateRunnable);
Update your UI here:
Runnable updateRunnable = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
example.setText(newValue);
}
};
Try that and see if there's any improvement. I've not worked with the NDK, just the standard SDK so there may be difference I'm unaware of.
Do it on another thread. Use an AsyncTask to call methodToReadAndDisplayData.
I've created an AsyncTask that loads messaging history from a database and then shows it on the device screen:
private void loadHistoryFromDB(Date lastUpdateDate)
{
final class DBAsyncTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, List<XMPPMessage>>
{
#Override
protected List<XMPPMessage> doInBackground(Void... arg0)
{
List<XMPPMessage> messages = null;
try
{
messages = PersistenceManager.getXMPPMessagesFromDB(userInfo, 0, messagingActivity);
}
catch (SQLException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
catch (LetsDatabaseException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return messages;
}
It seems to work fine, but after being executed, it leaves 2 running threads and I can't finish the activity because of that. How can I fix it?
As long as your tasks are executing properly (exits from onPostExecute), this shouldn't be something you have to worry about. Once executed, AsyncTask thread(s) will stick around for possible reuse in the form of a thread pool or single thread, depending on platform version. This is normal behaviour - they will eventually be cleaned-up/reused.
First off, make sure you are calling super.doInBackGround() at the top of your overridden method call.
If that isn't it, it's likely because you are maintaining the connecting to the database.
That is, you still have a lock established on the database.
See if you can explicitly unlock the database, that may fix your problem.
You could put it in the onPostExecute() method.
This problem is most likely due to confusion surrounding the cancel method of AsyncTask.
You need to break down your background task into loopable segments, then Before each loop iteration starts doing your task,you need to check if the task is cancelled and if it is you need to break the loop. There doesn't seem to be any other way to stop an AsyncTask from executing.
I've posted a detailed guide to this problem with code examples here:
http://tpbapp.com/android-development/android-asynctask-stop-running-cancel-method/
I'm trying to get my user interface to react to events (like button presses, thread completions, etc.) in real time in Android (obviously).
I have a button layout, and one of the buttons is used to copy an unknown number of files from a remote computer using FTP. The FTP part of all this is working very well, but I just cannot find a way to let the user know the state of things:
The states, as I see them are:
1) Selected "Download Files" from "normal" menu.
2) Pressed Confirm (the download process may be quite lengthy and perhaps I don't want to select it by mistake -- however now it's a separate thread so may need to re-think that.
3) Downloading
4) Download complete, restore normal menu
One of the things I hoped would work would be to run the FTP code in a separate thread, and by using the thread.isAlive() construction, wait for the thread to complete and change the display accordingly.
The only thing I haven't been able to do is display that files are downloading. Regardless of what I try, the display jumps from the "Confirm Download" view to the "Normal Menu" view. (Please note, these are not Views as Android defines them in any way.)
Code follows:
Btn.setOnClickListener (new View.OnClickListener()
{
#Override
public void onClick (View v)
{
hideTempWidgets();
Btn01.setVisibility (View.GONE);
Btn02.setVisibility (View.GONE);
Btn03.setVisibility (View.GONE);
verfBtn.setVisibility (View.VISIBLE);
verfBtn.setText ("Press to Verify");
verfBtn.setOnClickListener (null);
verfBtn.setOnClickListener (new View.OnClickListener()
{
#Override
public void onClick (View v)
{
runOnUiThread (new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
verfBtn.setText ("Downloading...");
}
});
Thread temp = new Thread (new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
try
{
FileTransfer.getFiles (getAddr().trim());
}
catch (SQLException e)
{ }
}
}, "ftp");
temp.start();
while (temp.isAlive());
verfBtn.setVisibility (View.GONE);
Btn01.setVisibility (View.VISIBLE);
Btn02.setVisibility (View.VISIBLE);
Btn03.setVisibility (View.VISIBLE);
alert (true, VIBE_BLIP);
}
});
}
});
Has anybody faced this and come up with a decent solution??
What's not happening is the setText to "Downloading...", or at least, if it does, not when I want it to and too fast to see... Finally, what's especially frustrating is that that command does work properly when I remove the code to run the FTP thread.
Thanks,
R.
This task seems to be perfect for Async Task. Basically Async Task is a Thread with a built in, thread safe component to allow you to publish updates to the UI and notify when the task is complete.
A popular idea is to show a spinner or progress bar, until the AsyncTask is complete, then dismiss it.
For more information about Async Task see: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html
I think your mistake is here:
temp.start();
while (temp.isAlive());
The code inside onClick() is already running on graphical Thread, so there is no need for a runOnUIThread() method and you should not block it with the while() statement, which in fact is blocking the UI thread till the Thread completes.
My advice: you can start an AsyncTask instead and update the UI accordingly.
Since it is a very long file transfer, I'd suggest you consider a service to do the work. If you use thread, user will be bound to keep your application on top of others. Otherwise your thread can be just killed. Worst of all, there is not much you can do to prevent user from going to home screen or other application (some tricks are possible but user will be pissed).
If you use service, you can always use notification to show progress and go back to your application.