Android Fragments. Retaining an AsyncTask during s

Question

I'm working on a Smartphone / Tablet app, using only one APK, and loading resources as is needed depending on screen size, the best design choice seemed to be using Fragments via the ACL.

This app has been working fine until now being only activity based. This is a mock class of how I handle AsyncTasks and ProgressDialogs in the Activities in order to have them work even when the screen is rotated or a configuration change occurs mid communication.

I will not change the manifest to avoid recreation of the Activity, there are many reasons why I dont want to do it, but mainly because the official docs say it isnt recomended and I've managed without it this far, so please dont recomend that route.

public class Login extends Activity {

    static ProgressDialog pd;
    AsyncTask<String, Void, Boolean> asyncLoginThread;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
        super.onCreate(icicle);
        setContentView(R.layout.login);
        //SETUP UI OBJECTS
        restoreAsyncTask();
    }

    @Override
    public Object onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() {
        if (pd != null) pd.dismiss();
        if (asyncLoginThread != null) return (asyncLoginThread);
        return super.onRetainNonConfigurationInstance();
    }

    private void restoreAsyncTask();() {
        pd = new ProgressDialog(Login.this);
        if (getLastNonConfigurationInstance() != null) {
            asyncLoginThread = (AsyncTask<String, Void, Boolean>) getLastNonConfigurationInstance();
            if (asyncLoginThread != null) {
                if (!(asyncLoginThread.getStatus()
                        .equals(AsyncTask.Status.FINISHED))) {
                    showProgressDialog();
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public class LoginThread extends AsyncTask<String, Void, Boolean> {
        @Override
        protected Boolean doInBackground(String... args) {
            try {
                //Connect to WS, recieve a JSON/XML Response
                //Place it somewhere I can use it.
            } catch (Exception e) {
                return true;
            }
            return true;
        }

        protected void onPostExecute(Boolean result) {
            if (result) {
                pd.dismiss();
                //Handle the response. Either deny entry or launch new Login Succesful Activity
            }
        }
    }
}

This code is working fine, I have around 10.000 users without complaint, so it seemed logical to just copy this logic into the new Fragment Based Design, but, of course, it isnt working.

Here is the LoginFragment:

public class LoginFragment extends Fragment {

    FragmentActivity parentActivity;
    static ProgressDialog pd;
    AsyncTask<String, Void, Boolean> asyncLoginThread;

    public interface OnLoginSuccessfulListener {
        public void onLoginSuccessful(GlobalContainer globalContainer);
    }

    public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState){
        super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
        //Save some stuff for the UI State
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        //setRetainInstance(true);
        //If I setRetainInstance(true), savedInstanceState is always null. Besides that, when loading UI State, a NPE is thrown when looking for UI Objects.
        parentActivity = getActivity();
    }

    @Override
    public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
        super.onAttach(activity);
        try {
            loginSuccessfulListener = (OnLoginSuccessfulListener) activity;
        } catch (ClassCastException e) {
            throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString() + " must implement OnLoginSuccessfulListener");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        RelativeLayout loginLayout = (RelativeLayout) inflater.inflate(R.layout.login, container, false);
        return loginLayout;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
        //SETUP UI OBJECTS
        if(savedInstanceState != null){
            //Reload UI state. Im doing this properly, keeping the content of the UI objects, not the object it self to avoid memory leaks.
        }
    }

    public class LoginThread extends AsyncTask<String, Void, Boolean> {
            @Override
            protected Boolean doInBackground(String... args) {
                try {
                    //Connect to WS, recieve a JSON/XML Response
                    //Place it somewhere I can use it.
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    return true;
                }
                return true;
            }

            protected void onPostExecute(Boolean result) {
                if (result) {
                    pd.dismiss();
                    //Handle the response. Either deny entry or launch new Login Succesful Activity
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

I cant use onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() since it has to be called from the Activity and not the Fragment, same goes with getLastNonConfigurationInstance(). I've read some similar questions here with no answer.

I understand that it might require some working around to get this stuff organized properly in fragments, that being said, I would like to maintain the same basic design logic.

What would be the proper way to retain the AsyncTask during a configuration change, and if its still runing, show a progressDialog, taking into consideration that the AsyncTask is a inner class to the Fragment and it is the Fragment itself who invokes the AsyncTask.execute()?

Answer 1

My first suggestion is to avoid inner AsyncTasks, you can read a question that I asked about this and the answers: Android: AsyncTask recommendations: private class or public class?

After that i started using non-inner and... now i see A LOT of benefits.

The second is, keep a reference of your running AsyncTask in the Application Class - http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Application.html

Everytime you start an AsyncTask, set it on the Application and when it finishes it set it to null.

When a fragment/activity starts you can check if any AsyncTask is running (by checking if it's null or not on the Application) and then set the reference inside to whatever you want (activity, fragment etc so you can do callbacks).

This will solve your problem: If you only have 1 AsyncTask running at any determined time you can add a simple reference:

AsyncTask<?,?,?> asyncTask = null;

Else, have in the Aplication a HashMap with references to them.

The progress dialog can follow the exact same principle.

Answer 2

I've recently posted an article describing how to handle configuration changes using retained Fragments. It solves the problem of retaining an AsyncTask across a rotation change nicely.

The TL;DR is to use host your AsyncTask inside a Fragment, call setRetainInstance(true) on the Fragment, and report the AsyncTask's progress/results back to it's Activity (or it's target Fragment, if you choose to use the approach described by @Timmmm) through the retained Fragment.

Answer 3

I write samepl code to solve this problem

First step is make Application class:

public class TheApp extends Application {

private static TheApp sTheApp;
private HashMap<String, AsyncTask<?,?,?>> tasks = new HashMap<String, AsyncTask<?,?,?>>();

@Override
public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    sTheApp = this;
}

public static TheApp get() {
    return sTheApp;
}

public void registerTask(String tag, AsyncTask<?,?,?> task) {
    tasks.put(tag, task);
}

public void unregisterTask(String tag) {
    tasks.remove(tag);
}

public AsyncTask<?,?,?> getTask(String tag) {
    return tasks.get(tag);
}
}

In AndroidManifest.xml

<application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme"
        android:name="com.example.tasktest.TheApp">

Code in activity:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

private Task1 mTask1;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    mTask1 = (Task1)TheApp.get().getTask("task1");

}

/*
 * start task is not running jet
 */
public void handletask1(View v) {
    if (mTask1 == null) {
        mTask1 = new Task1();
        TheApp.get().registerTask("task1", mTask1);
        mTask1.execute();
    } else
        Toast.makeText(this, "Task is running...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

}

/*
 * cancel task if is not finished
 */
public void handelCancel(View v) {
    if (mTask1 != null)
        mTask1.cancel(false);
}

public class Task1 extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void>{

    @Override
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
        try {
            for(int i=0; i<120; i++) {
                Thread.sleep(1000);
                Log.i("tests", "loop=" + i);
                if (this.isCancelled()) {
                    Log.e("tests", "tssk cancelled");
                    break;
                }
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onCancelled(Void result) {
        TheApp.get().unregisterTask("task1");
        mTask1 = null;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {
        TheApp.get().unregisterTask("task1");
        mTask1 = null;
    }
}

}

When activity orientation changes variable mTask is inited from app context. When task is finished variable is set to null and remove from memory.

For me its enough.

Answer 4

I came up with a method of using AsyncTaskLoaders for this. It's pretty easy to use and requires less overhead IMO..

Basically you create an AsyncTaskLoader like this:

public class MyAsyncTaskLoader extends AsyncTaskLoader {
    Result mResult;
    public HttpAsyncTaskLoader(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    protected void onStartLoading() {
        super.onStartLoading();
        if (mResult != null) {
            deliverResult(mResult);
        }
        if (takeContentChanged() ||  mResult == null) {
            forceLoad();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Result loadInBackground() {
        SystemClock.sleep(500);
        mResult = new Result();
        return mResult;
    }
}

Then in your activity that uses the above AsyncTaskLoader when a button is clicked:

public class MyActivityWithBackgroundWork extends FragmentActivity implements LoaderManager.LoaderCallbacks<Result> {

    private String username,password;       
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.mylayout);
        //this is only used to reconnect to the loader if it already started
        //before the orientation changed
        Loader loader = getSupportLoaderManager().getLoader(0);
        if (loader != null) {
            getSupportLoaderManager().initLoader(0, null, this);
        }
    }

    public void doBackgroundWorkOnClick(View button) {
        //might want to disable the button while you are doing work
        //to prevent user from pressing it again.

        //Call resetLoader because calling initLoader will return
        //the previous result if there was one and we may want to do new work
        //each time
        getSupportLoaderManager().resetLoader(0, null, this);
    }   


    @Override
    public Loader<Result> onCreateLoader(int i, Bundle bundle) {
        //might want to start a progress bar
        return new MyAsyncTaskLoader(this);
    }


    @Override
    public void onLoadFinished(Loader<LoginResponse> loginLoader,
                               LoginResponse loginResponse)
    {
        //handle result
    }

    @Override
    public void onLoaderReset(Loader<LoginResponse> responseAndJsonHolderLoader)
    {
        //remove references to previous loader resources

    }
}

This seems to handle orientation changes fine and your background task will continue during the rotation.

A few things to note:

1. If in onCreate you reattach to the asynctaskloader you will get called back in onLoadFinished() with the previous result (even if you had already been told the request was complete). This is actually good behavior most of the time but sometimes it can be tricky to handle. While I imagine there are lots of ways to handle this what I did was I called loader.abandon() in onLoadFinished. Then I added check in onCreate to only reattach to the loader if it wasn't already abandoned. If you need the resulting data again you won't want to do that. In most cases you want the data.

I have more details on using this for http calls here

Answer 5

You could make the AsyncTask a static field. If you need a context, you should ship your application context. This will avoid memory leaks, otherwise you'd keep a reference to your entire activity.

Answer 6

Fragments can actually make this a lot easier. Just use the method Fragment.setRetainInstance(boolean) to have your fragment instance retained across configuration changes. Note that this is the recommended replacement for Activity.onRetainnonConfigurationInstance() in the docs.

If for some reason you really don't want to use a retained fragment, there are other approaches you can take. Note that each fragment has a unique identifier returned by Fragment.getId(). You can also find out if a fragment is being torn down for a config change through Fragment.getActivity().isChangingConfigurations(). So, at the point where you would decide to stop your AsyncTask (in onStop() or onDestroy() most likely), you could for example check if the configuration is changing and if so stick it in a static SparseArray under the fragment's identifier, and then in your onCreate() or onStart() look to see if you have an AsyncTask in the sparse array available.