Android: how do I check if activity is running?

Question

Is there any simple way of determining whether or not a certain activity is active? I want to do certain things depending on which activity is active. eg:

if(activityrunning == activity1)
//do this
else if (activityrunning == activity2)
//do something else

Answer 1

Use an ordered broadcast. See http://android-developers.blogspot.nl/2011/01/processing-ordered-broadcasts.html

In your activity, register a receiver in onStart, unregister in onStop. Now when for example a service needs to handle something that the activity might be able to do better, send an ordered broadcast from the service (with a default handler in the service itself). You can now respond in the activity when it is running. The service can check the result data to see if the broadcast was handled, and if not take appropriate action.

Answer 2

ActivityLifecycleCallbacks is a great way of keeping track of all the activities in App:

public class BaseActivityLifecycleCallbacks implements Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks {

private ActivityState homeState, contentState;

@Override
public void onActivityCreated(Activity activity, Bundle bundle) {
    if (activity instanceof HomeActivityv2) {
        homeState = ActivityState.CREATED;
    } else if (activity instanceof ContentDisplayActivity) {
        contentState = ActivityState.CREATED;
    }
}

@Override
public void onActivityStarted(Activity activity) {
    if (activity instanceof HomeActivityv2) {
        homeState = ActivityState.STARTED;
    } else if (activity instanceof ContentDisplayActivity) {
        contentState = ActivityState.STARTED;
    }
}

@Override
public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {
    if (activity instanceof HomeActivityv2) {
        homeState = ActivityState.RESUMED;
    } else if (activity instanceof ContentDisplayActivity) {
        contentState = ActivityState.RESUMED;
    }
}

@Override
public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) {
    if (activity instanceof HomeActivityv2) {
        homeState = ActivityState.PAUSED;
    } else if (activity instanceof ContentDisplayActivity) {
        contentState = ActivityState.PAUSED;
    }
}

@Override
public void onActivityStopped(Activity activity) {
    if (activity instanceof HomeActivityv2) {
        homeState = ActivityState.STOPPED;
    } else if (activity instanceof ContentDisplayActivity) {
        contentState = ActivityState.STOPPED;
    }
}

@Override
public void onActivitySaveInstanceState(Activity activity, Bundle bundle) {
}

@Override
public void onActivityDestroyed(Activity activity) {
    if (activity instanceof HomeActivityv2) {
        homeState = ActivityState.DESTR0YED;
    } else if (activity instanceof ContentDisplayActivity) {
        contentState = ActivityState.DESTR0YED;
    }
}

public ActivityState getHomeState() {
    return homeState;
}

public ActivityState getContentState() {
    return contentState;
}
}

ActivityState:

public enum ActivityState {
    CREATED,STARTED, RESUMED, PAUSED, STOPPED, DESTR0YED;
}

Extend the Application class and provide its reference in Android Manifest file:

import android.app.Application;

public final class BaseApplication extends Application {
private BaseActivityLifecycleCallbacks baseALC;

@Override
public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    baseALC = new BaseActivityLifecycleCallbacks();
    this.registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks(baseALC);

}

public BaseActivityLifecycleCallbacks getBaseALC() {
    return baseALC;
}
}

Ckeck anywhere from Activity for status of other activity:

private void checkAndLaunchHomeScreen() {
    Application application = getApplication();
    if (application instanceof BaseApplication) {
        BaseApplication baseApplication = (BaseApplication) application;
        if (baseApplication.getBaseALC().getHomeState() == null || baseApplication.getBaseALC().getHomeState() == ActivityState.DESTR0YED){
            //Do anything you want
        }
    }
}

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks.html

Answer 3

An option without using any auxiliar variable is:

activity.getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView().isShown()

where activity is f.e.: this or getActivity().

The value returned by this expression changes in onStart() / onStop(), which are the events that start / stop showing the layout of the activity on the phone.

Answer 4

I think more clear like that:

  public boolean isRunning(Context ctx) {
        ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) ctx.getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
        List<RunningTaskInfo> tasks = activityManager.getRunningTasks(Integer.MAX_VALUE);

        for (RunningTaskInfo task : tasks) {
            if (ctx.getPackageName().equalsIgnoreCase(task.baseActivity.getPackageName())) 
                return true;                                  
        }

        return false;
    }

Answer 5

I used MyActivity.class and getCanonicalName method and I got answer.

protected Boolean isActivityRunning(Class activityClass)
{
        ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) getBaseContext().getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
        List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> tasks = activityManager.getRunningTasks(Integer.MAX_VALUE);

        for (ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo task : tasks) {
            if (activityClass.getCanonicalName().equalsIgnoreCase(task.baseActivity.getClassName()))
                return true;
        }

        return false;
}

Answer 6

Found an easy workaround with the following code

@Override 
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { 
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); 
            if ((getIntent().getFlags() & Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_BROUGHT_TO_FRONT) != 0) { 
                // Activity is being brought to front and not being  created again, 
                // Thus finishing this activity will bring the last viewed activity to foreground
                finish(); 
            } 
    }