I am trying to build my first android app. I have multiple Activities and I am using a Handler and an AssetFileDescriptor in order to play a sound file.
My problem is, how can I pass these objects around? I have one Activity that starts a timer via the handler, and another which stops the timer via the handler. Should I pass these objects around between Activities, or is there another way?
I am not used to Java, but I was wondering if I could make a config static class or something that creates all of these objects, and then each one of my Activities would just access these objects from this static config class. However, this has its own problems, since in order to call the method getAssets(), I cannot use a static class ("Cannot make a static reference to a non-static method.")
Any ideas?
This simplest solution would be to store objects in the Application class, here is a SO answer on the topic Using the Android Application class to persist data
Another more advanced option would be to use Dagger. It is a Dependency Injection framework that can do a lot of cool stuff but is somewhat difficult to get running (atleast took me some time to get working).
Dagger enables defining a Singleton class like this:
#Singleton
public class MySingletonObject {
#Inject
MySingletonObject() {
...
}
}
And whenever you need it in your app:
public class SomeActivityOrFragment {
#Inject MySingletonObject mySingletonObject;
...
mySingletonObject.start();
}
public class SomeOtherActivityOrFragment {
#Inject MySingletonObject mySingletonObject;
...
mySingletonObject.stop();
}
Related
I have an android application
#HiltAndroidApp
class MyApp extends Application {
static MyApp app;
static MyApp getApp() {
return app;
}
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
app = this;
}
}
and I am trying to use it inside a class
class AppStateUsingClass {
public void mymethod() {
MyApp app = MyApp.getApp();
//use app
}
}
Now I can access the app where I don't have the context but I am not sure if its correct way of doing.
My understanding is that the application life cycle is through out app start and stop, therefore its lives as a Singleton so it shall be fine but not sure.
Isn't there any simpler cleaner API to access app, I have app state in MyApp class which I would like to access where context is absent?
Any suggestions are highly appreciated?
What you are doing is a fairly common pattern, and shouldn't really cause problems.
The application class can be treated as a singleton that is alive as long as any part of your application is alive.
The docs specifically state that this class is used to hold application state.
However, depending your actual design, the kind of state information you want to hold and where you want to access it, you may want to create your own singleton, independent of the application class and use that.
Or, you may want to initialize your AppStateUsingClass with a state object passed in the constructor.
This is a design decision, and if you want more opinions on it, create a working code example and post it on https://codereview.stackexchange.com
I have a question about how to conceptually create an Observer and link it to another class: I currently have a class called Simulation that is supposed to create TransactionCreated objects and publish them as events. Another class called TransactionReceiver is supposed to be an Observer of every event that is published by the Simulation class and work with them.
The main method is included in the Simulation class and starts by creating an event in a static context and publishing it which works. My question would be how I am supposed to connect the TransactionReceiver as an Observer and let it subscribe to those events by receiving them in a method and work with those received objects? Do I need to create another class that would include the main method and create a Simulation and TransactionReceiver object that are then linked together as Observable and Observer? How would that look like?
And if I would extend that system with several different classes would they all have to be linked together through one class that connects Observers and Observables?
Your app should only have one main method.
Conceptually, this should be where you do the initial setup of Simulation and TransactionReceiver, so perhaps you could move it to a separate class to help you visualise how things should work. You could try something like below:
class Application {
private Simulation simulation;
private TransactionReceiver transactionReceiver;
public Application() {
simulation = new Simulation(/* params here*/);
transactionReceiver = new TransactionReceiver(/*params here*/);
}
public void go() {
simulation.simulate().subscribe(transactionCreated -> transactionReceiver.doSomething(transactionCreated);
}
public static final main(String[] args) {
Application application = new Application();
application.go();
}
}
Eventually as you get more fluent you could think about adding a dependency-injection framework like Guice or Dagger.
This will help you with managing the dependencies of the classes that you need to use throughout your application.
So you would end up with a more simple Application - it would just set up the DI-framework and then you can use the classes how you want to.
UPDATE:
If you want to communicate between two different classes, you will need to use methods:
class Simulation {
public Observable<TransactionCreated> simulate() {
// use PublishSubject or whatever
}
}
I have this code that initializes Calligraphy default configuration.
public class MyApplication extends Application {
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
// The initialization I want to move
CalligraphyConfig.initDefault(new CalligraphyConfig.Builder()
.setDefaultFontPath("fonts/MyFont.ttf")
.build()
);
}
}
I want to use Dagger 2 in my project but I don't fully understand what classes should I create and where to move this code in order to keep the project clean ?
In short, you probably wouldn't move anything. The problem with this library is that it uses static methods for initialization and utilization. Static methods are a pain when trying to do dependency injection.
The Library (or why you would not change anything)
It looks like this library is 'just' about switching the used fonts by wrapping the context. As such it does not really provide business logic to your project, but just adds to your views / UI.
Injecting a dependency rather than just calling static methods is most useful if you either want to be able to unit test (inject mocks) or easily swap modules / behavior. In the case of globally changing fonts, both seems less likely.
If on the other hand you really need (or want to) be able to test it, or just have a clean design...
...wrap it
Static methods are a pain, because you can not have objects holding the logic. Unless you wrap them. To properly do DI with static methods, you would have to define your own interface.
public interface CalligraphyManager {
/**
* Called on app start up to initialize
*/
void init();
// other methods, like wrapping context for activity
Context wrap(Context context);
}
You now have some manager to access the static methods. The implementation should be fairly simple, since you want to do proper DI the application context and path needed for init() would be passed into the constructor of your implementation. The creation of your manager can thus be handled by your ApplicationModule—just add some provides method
#Singleton
#Provides
// You would also have to provide the path from somewhere or hardcode it
// left as an exercise for the reader
CalligraphyManager provideCalligraphyManager(Context context, String path) {
return new ActualCalligraphyManager(context, path);
}
Your application would then look something like this:
public class MyApplication extends Application {
#Inject
CalligraphyManager mCalligraphy;
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
mComponent = DaggerAppComponent.builder()
.appModule(new AppModule(this))
.build();
mComponent.inject(this);
// call the initialization
mCalligraphy.init();
}
}
Everything else is as usual. You have a singleton object in your application components graph, you can thus inject the same object into your activities and call `wrap´ where appropriate.
What about testing / mocking?
Since the whole reason of doing this is to make it 'testable', you can now easily provide a mock / stub object.
Create another implementation of the manager where init() would just do nothing, and wrap(Context) would just return the same context—a simple stub object.
I had an Android application(MyApp, say) that used ApplicationContext extensively. The ApplicationContext was made available via a class that extended Application.
class MyApp extends Application {
static Context mContext = null;
public void onCreate() {
mContext = getApplicationContext();
}
public static Context getContext() {
return mContext;
}
}
I would like to convert this application to a library and use it in another application ( AnotherApp, say). Now I see that AnotherApp already has a similar class that extends Application and gives its context everywhere within itself. When I move MyApp as a library into AnotherApp, my code will not be able to get ApplicationContext anymore - as only one class can be declared in Manifest (android:name=".AnotherApp")
What is the best way to make application context available within library? I do not mind making extensive code changes, but would like to know options I have - other than passing context to every api in my library.
A library should never use the getApplicationCOntext it is meant for the main program.
you can pass the context using a function or save it into a public static variable in your class in the beginning.
Note about code design
This completely depends on how you want to use the library, will the functions be used in the main app ? Will the activity be directly called ? and a bunch of other code design things like that.
If you want two activities sometimes the best way it to make them into separate applications and make one call the other using an Intent. Like how google maps and other inbuilt services are used.
If you want to use your library's function in the main application, you should not be creating an activity at all. Rather you should make an abstract class that the user can inherit from and use your class through.
I have done similar stuffs in my Application.
Its true you will not able to get context in your library
You will have context of only AnotherApp
If you want to use Context in your library in that case you need to have some method which can pass your AnotherApp's context to your library.
For example
class MyApp extends Application {
static Context mContext = null;
public void onCreate() {
mContext = getApplicationContext();
objecofYourLibClass = new MyApp();
objecofYourLibClass.yourMethod(mContext);
}
}
Now you will able to use context in your Library.
I've created a few minor apps for Android while learning. Being a PHP developer, it's a challenge to get used to it.
I'm especially wondering how I could define a couple of "general" functions in a separate class. Eg I have a function that checks if network connection is available, and if not, shows a dialog saying that the user should enable it. Currently, that function exists in several of my activities. Of course that seems strange - I suppose it would be more logical to define it once and include it in the activites where needed.
I tried putting it in a new class, and included that class in the original activity. But that failed since eg getBaseContext() is not accepted anymore.
I'm wondering how to go ahead. What should I be Google-ing for ? What is this mechanism called?
You need to create class with static methods. Like this
public class HelperUtils {
public static void checkNetworkConnection(Context ctx) {...}
}
Then you can call it from any place like this:
HelperUtils.checkNetworkConnection(this.getContext());
Assuming current class has Context.
You should read books on general OOP concepts where different type of methods are explained.
You can for example create a class - let's call it NetworkUtils. In this class you can create static method boolean isNetworkConnectionAvailable() and return true if is available and false otherwise. In this class you can create another static method void showNoConnectionDialog(Activity activity) - and in this method you create dialog starting with
public static void showNoConnectionDialog(Activity activity) {
AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
//setting message, listener etc. and finally
builder.create().show();
}
In your activity, where you want to check and handle network connection you should call:
if (!NetworkUtils.isConnectionAvailable(getApplicationContext())) {
NetworkUtils.showNoConnectionDialog(YourActivityClassName.this)
}
I guess this should work.