Check if application is on its first run [duplicat

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Determine if android app is the first time used 13 answers

I am new to android development and and I want to setup some of application's attributes based on Application first run after installation. Is there any way to find that the application is running for the first time and then to setup its first run attributes?

Answer 1

There is no way to know that through the Android API. You have to store some flag by yourself and make it persist either in a SharedPreferenceEditor or using a database.

If you want to base some licence related stuff on this flag, I suggest you use an obfuscated preference editor provided by the LVL library. It's simple and clean.

Regards, Stephane

Answer 2

This might help you

public class FirstActivity extends Activity {

    SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = null;
    Editor editor;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_login);

        sharedPreferences = getSharedPreferences("com.myAppName", MODE_PRIVATE);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();

        if (sharedPreferences.getBoolean("firstRun", true)) {
         //You can perform anything over here. This will call only first time
                 editor = sharedPreferences.edit();
                 editor.putBoolean("firstRun", false)
                 editor.commit();

        }
    }
}

Answer 3

I'm not sure it's good way to check it. What about case when user uses button "clear data" from settings? SharedPreferences will be cleared and you catch "first run" again. And it's a problem. I guess it's better idea to use InstallReferrerReceiver.

Answer 4

Just check for some preference with default value indicating that it's a first run. So if you get default value, do your initialization and set this preference to different value to indicate that the app is initialized already.