I have written a function to create a splash screen with a 5 second timeout for my app.
The code works fine, but when the timeout reaches zero and I want to redirect to my main activity, the app crashes with the following error:
Only the original thread that created a view hierarchy can touch its views.
So I looked around a bit and someone suggested nesting this inside my function. It seems like a good Idea, but now methods like sleep / stop won't work.
My code is below, I can provide more / explain more in details if it isn't clear enough just let me know. Thanks for the help.
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
showSplashScreen();
}
protected boolean _active = true;
protected int _splashTime = 5000; // Splash screen is 5 seconds
public void showSplashScreen() {
setContentView(R.layout.splash_layout);
// Thread splashThread = new Thread() {
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
int waited = 0;
while (_active && (waited < _splashTime)) {
Thread.sleep(100);
if (_active) {
waited += 100;
}
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// do nothing
} finally {
showApplication();
}
}
});
}
Probably not what you want to hear, but you should never put a splash screen on your mobile app. With the exception of games, when people use a mobile app they want to get in, do what ever it is they need to do, and get out. If you make that process take longer, people are just going to get frustrated with you app. You should probably reconsider just not using a splash screen.
This will perform sleep on the UI thread. That's never a good idea.
Why not something like this?
new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// start application ...
}
}, _splashTime);
But this answer has a good point. Displaying a splash screen for 5 seconds can be very annoying.
I believe you want AsyncTask for this. The method called on completion of the task will be called on your UI thread, making modifying UI elements much easier.
Use a Handler to post an event to the UI thread that will remove the splash.
Code should be something like...
splash.show()
new Handler().postDelayed(
new Runnable() {
void run() {
splash.remove();
},
delayTime);
I suggest you to make new activity for your spalsh screen, show it in a regular way (with startActivityForResult) and place in it such code (in it, not in your main activity):
new Handler().postDelayed( new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{ finish(); }
}, 5000 );
Also you can handle in this new activity click events for giving opportunity to user to close it faster, tapping on it.
Related
In my project I have a lot of asynctask, which all follow this pattern:
#Override
protected void onPreExecute() {
super.onPreExecute();
crossfade(progressBar, contentView);//hide content, show progress bar
}
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(String... arg0) {
//some work
}
protected void onPostExecute(Void unused) {
crossfade(contentView, progressBar);
}
Code for crossfade:
void crossfade(View contentView, View loadingView){
Runnable r = new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
if(contentView != null){
contentView.setAlpha(0f);
contentView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
contentView.animate()
.alpha(1f)
.setDuration(CROSSFADE_TIME)
.setListener(null);
}
if(loadingView != null){
loadingView.animate()
.alpha(0f)
.setDuration(CROSSFADE_TIME)
.setListener(new AnimatorListenerAdapter() {
#Override
public void onAnimationEnd(Animator animation) {
if(loadingView != null){
loadingView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
}
});
}
}
};
runOnUiThread(r);
}
The problem happens when asynctask executes faster than animation time, causing second crossfade call before the first one is finished, resulting in both views being invisible.
I tried queueing runnables to execute them sequentially, but the problem is if user clicks a lot of buttons or many fragments are being loaded(they use crossfade method too), UI thread becomes overloaded and it may crash my app. The only solution I see so far is to add extra delay to all my asynctasks, using Thread.sleep(CROSSFADE_TIME), however it looks like a really dirty hack and I'm not sure if it's a good user experience.
In case someone needs it in future, adding loadingView.animate().cancel() and contentView.animate().cancel() before animation cancels previous animations and everything works ok.
Why are you running the crossfade animation in a separate thread? Try to do the animation without
Runnable r = new Runnable(){ and runOnUiThread(r);
I am developing a board game that user plays with android. Since android is quite fast, I want to fake that android is performing some tough calculations and thus needs time for its next move.
What I want to do:-
User turn - he moves.
Android turn - android shows text "I am thinking" for 2 seconds
Android hides that text and and only after that moves his turn.
I tried doing:-
onAndroidTurn(){
textView1.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
Thread.sleep(2000);
textView2.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
But what happens is that thread sleeps but text is not shown (okay I know why).
Then searching on stackoverflow, I learnt a way:-
onAndroidTurn(){
textView1.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable(){
void run() {
textView1.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
}, 2000);
}
Now what this does is that it runs that text in another thread and android's turn is updated on screen and after moving it's turn android showing "Thinking" is total stupidity.
What can I do for this?
Try the following:
Show "I'm thinking"
Calculate your move but don't actually do the move, just store it for a while
Schedule timer
When timer runs out remove the text and do the move
Something like this:
onAndroidTurn(){
textView1.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
saveMove(calculateNextMove());
new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable(){
void run() {
textView1.setVisibility(View.GONE);
doNextMove(restoreMove());
}
}, 2000);
}
Maybe you could just use an AsyncTask (like this pseudo-code):
private class ShowTextTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
protected void onPreExecute(Void... result) {
textView.setText("Initital");
}
protected Long doInBackground(Void... urls) {
Thread.sleep(2000);
}
protected void onPostExecute(Void... result) {
textView.setText("After 2 seconds");;
}
}
Okay i did it like this:-
public void androidThinking(){
textView1.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
androidThinking = true; //explained below
new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
droidThink.setVisibility(View.GONE);
//CODE for android's turn
androidThinking = false; //explained below
}
}, 2000);
androidThinking when set to true prevents the user from moving his turn by forcing the listener for user's button to return prematurely
btn.setOnClickListener(new View.onClickListener(){
#Override
public void onClick(View v) {
if(androidThinking)
return;
Thanx everyone for your reply.
I'm making a little game and in it I have to check if a value is zero every second. When it is zero the game should stop and show a dialog instead.
As from now the game never ever shoud work until the app is reinstalled.
So, I have an timer with an timertask which executes a runOnUiThread.
Timer:
private void update(){
Timer timer = new Timer();
timer.schedule(new TimerTask(){
#Override
public void run() {
onChange();
}
},0,(1000* getResources().getInteger(R.integer.remove_speed_inSecond)));
}
runOnUiThread: (with try/catch to catch the exeption at this point but i want to fix and not just ignore it.)
private void onChange(){
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try{
checkupifexpire();
}
catch (Exception ex) {
}
}
});
}
The Method where i show the dialog:
private void checkupifexpire() {
if(eat == 0 || drink == 0 || wash == 0 || care == 0){
dialog = new Dialog(this, android.R.style.Theme_Black_NoTitleBar_Fullscreen);
dialog.setOnCancelListener(new DialogInterface.OnCancelListener()
{
#Override
public void onCancel(DialogInterface dialog)
{
GameEngine.this.finish();
}
});
dialog.setContentView(R.layout.activity_rip);
dialog.show();
}
}
Always when I press the back button or just the home button then the App crashes.
Any Idea how to fix this?
So, the logcat tells us that is crashes on line 306 of GameEngine.java, in the method checkupifexpire, which looks like it is the dialog.show() line.
I'm not 100% sure, but from what you've said, it would seem to me that when back or home is pressed, the app will lose its UI thread. This means that checkuponexpire cannot do what it does.
To solve your crash problem, there are three obvious options:
You could use onPause in your main activity to catch when the app loses the screen. At this point you need to either stop the timer, or switch it to using Toast to communicate information.
Only use Toast in checkuponexpire
Decide that when the back or home is pressed the game is over anyway and cancel the Timer.
To Actually get the dialog, it may also be helpful to change the context you use to create the dialog with. Although it should be used sparingly, it may be that getApplicationContext() is what you need here (possibly this.getApplicationContext()).
Thanks to Neil Townsend and WELLCZECH. :)
My problem was the Lifecycles.
Mostly i had the App running in the onCreat() and had no onStart() method.
Just didn't know that thies methods were as much important as they are.
Also i didn't need a dialog shown. Instead i just have to start a new activity and cancel the old one.
I am following this tutorial to have a loading screen in my program. The tutorial says my activity should Sleep() using the Sleep() command, however it does not recognize Sleep() as a function and provides me with an error, asking if I would like to create a method called Sleep().
Here is the code sample:
public class LoadingScreenActivity extends Activity {
//Introduce an delay
private final int WAIT_TIME = 2500;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
System.out.println("LoadingScreenActivity screen started");
setContentView(R.layout.loading_screen);
findViewById(R.id.mainSpinner1).setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
//Simulating a long running task
this.Sleep(1000);
System.out.println("Going to Profile Data");
/* Create an Intent that will start the ProfileData-Activity. */
Intent mainIntent = new Intent(LoadingScreenActivity.this,ProfileData.class);
LoadingScreenActivity.this.startActivity(mainIntent);
LoadingScreenActivity.this.finish();
}
}, WAIT_TIME);
}
}
You can use one of the folllowing methods:
Thread.sleep(timeInMills);
or
SystemClock.sleep(timeInMills);
SystemClock.sleep(milliseconds) is a utility function very similar to Thread.sleep(milliseconds), but it ignores InterruptedException. Use this function for delays if you do not use Thread.interrupt(), as it will preserve the interrupted state of the thread.
The function is Thread.sleep(long).
Note, however, that you should not perform a sleep on the UI thread.
The code you posted is horrible. Please don't use that on an actual device. You will get an "Application Not Responding" error if you run something similar to this.
If you're using Handlers, keep in mind that a Handler is created on the thread where it runs. So calling new Handler().post(... on the UI thread will execute the runnable on the UI thread, including this "long running operation". The advantage is that you can create a Handler to the UI Thread which you can use later, as shown below.
To put the long running operation into a background thread, you need to create a Thread around the runnable, as shown below. Now if you want to update the UI once the long running operation is complete, you need to post that to the UI Thread, using a Handler.
Note that this functionality is a perfect fit for an AsyncTask which will make this look a lot cleaner than the pattern below. However, I included this to show how Handlers, Threads and Runnables relate.
public class LoadingScreenActivity extends Activity {
//Introduce a delay
private final int WAIT_TIME = 2500;
private Handler uiHandler;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
uiHandler = new Handler(); // anything posted to this handler will run on the UI Thread
System.out.println("LoadingScreenActivity screen started");
setContentView(R.layout.loading_screen);
findViewById(R.id.mainSpinner1).setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
Runnable onUi = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// this will run on the main UI thread
Intent mainIntent = new Intent(LoadingScreenActivity.this,ProfileData.class);
LoadingScreenActivity.this.startActivity(mainIntent);
LoadingScreenActivity.this.finish();
}
};
Runnable background = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// This is the delay
Thread.Sleep( WAIT_TIME );
// This will run on a background thread
//Simulating a long running task
Thread.Sleep(1000);
System.out.println("Going to Profile Data");
uiHandler.post( onUi );
}
};
new Thread( background ).start();
}
use Thread.sleep(1000);
1000 is the number of milliseconds that the program will pause.
try
{
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch(InterruptedException ex)
{
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
Keep in mind: Using this code is not recommended, because it is a delay of time but without control and may need more or less time.
The example is pretty straightforward: i want to let the user know about what the app is doing by just showing a text (canvas.drawText()). Then, my first message appears, but not the other ones. I mean, i have a "setText" method but it doesn't updates.
onCreate(Bundle bundle) {
super.onCreate(bundle);
setContentView(splash); // splash is the view class
loadResources();
splash.setText("this");
boundWebService();
splash.setText("that"):
etc();
splash.setText("so on");
}
The view's text drawing works by doing just a drawText in onDraw();, so setText changes the text but doesn't show it.
Someone recommended me replacing the view with a SurfaceView, but it would be alot of trouble for just a couple of updates, SO... how the heck can i update the view dinamically at runtime?
It should be quite simple, just showing a text for say 2 seconds and then the main thread doing his stuff and then updating the text...
Thanks!
Update:
I tried implementing handler.onPost(), but is the same story all over again. Let me put you the code:
public class ThreadViewTestActivity extends Activity {
Thread t;
Splash splash;
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
splash = new Splash(this);
t = new Thread(splash);
t.start();
splash.setTextow("OA");
try { Thread.sleep(4000); } catch (InterruptedException e) { }
splash.setTextow("LALA");
}
}
And:
public class Splash implements Runnable {
Activity activity;
final Handler myHandler = new Handler();
public Splash(Activity activity) {
this.activity=activity;
}
#Override
public void run() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
public synchronized void setTextow(final String textow) {
// Wrap DownloadTask into another Runnable to track the statistics
myHandler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
TextView t = (TextView)activity.findViewById(R.id.testo);
t.setText(textow);
t.invalidate();
}
});
}
}
Although splash is in other thread, i put a sleep on the main thread, i use the handler to manage UI and everything, it doesn't changes a thing, it only shows the last update.
I haven't hit this yet, but I think the usual pattern is to do lengthy initialization in a background thread, and use Handler.post() to update the UI. See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/ProgressBar.html for a different, but possibly related, example.
Also see this answer, especially the first paragraph:
The problem is most likely that you
are running the splash screen (some
sort of Dialog such as ProgressDialog
I assume) in the same thread as all
the work being done. This will keep
the view of the splash screen from
being updated, which can keep it from
even getting displayed to the screen.
You need to display the splash screen,
kick off an instance of AsyncTask to
go download all your data, then hide
the splash screen once the task is
complete.
Update (based on your update and your comment): You are not supposed to update the UI in any thread except the one where your Activity is created. Why is it impossible for you to load your resources in a background thread?
First: onCreate is executed on main UI thread of application so no UI updates until you leave it. Basically you need one thread to execute long running tasks and some mechanism to push updates into the UI.
Most usual approach is to extend AsyncTask see this link for further info
i suppose that your view is an extended view and you call onDraw for drawing the view, so, maybe the view isn´t 'refresh' their state, so try this
onCreate(Bundle bundle) {
setContentView(splash); // splash is the view class
loadResources();
splash.setText("this");
splash.invalidate();
boundWebService();
splash.setText("that"):
splash.invalidate();
etc();
splash.setText("so on");
splash.invalidate();
}