I have a main activity and a sub activity.
The main activity starts the sub activity using startActivity, and passes an object in the intent.
The sub activity reads the object out of the intent in its onCreate action.
The sub activity updates the object, then returns to the main activity using startActivity, again passing the updated object back.
However, the main activities onCreate function is not called, so the code it contains to read the passed object does not run.
Further investigation indicated that the main activity onPause event is firing, i.e. it is only paused when the sub activity runs, so when the sub activity starts the main activity again, it just onResumes.
Does anyone know if there would be any disadvantages if I moved my data restore/store activities to the onResume and onPause events?
I'm not using the onCreate savedInstanceState, should I be?
How else do you pass a set of data items between Activities without using a database or those preferences? Should I be using a database? I have about 20 fairly individual data items.
Any help would be much appreciated,
Frink
I would check out the startActivityForResult() method rather than just startActivity()
That should give you a means to pass things back to the calling activity.
From http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html:
Sometimes you want to get a result back from an activity when it ends. For example, you may start an activity that lets the user pick a person in a list of contacts; when it ends, it returns the person that was selected. To do this, you call the startActivityForResult(Intent, int) version with a second integer parameter identifying the call. The result will come back through your onActivityResult(int, int, Intent) method.
Have a look at the Activity life cycle here.
Also, consider starting your sub-activity using StartActivityForResult.
It is more likely calling onResume() or onStart() depending on the child activity and how much control it takes.
Look at this page about 3/4's down at the graph.
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html
The parent never gets destroyed so it wouldn't have to recreate it. It should just get paused. You can override onResume() and onStart() just as you would onCreate().
Edit: Is there anything given to the user in the subactivity? It sounds like you don't actually need an activity you just need a java class that you can call methods on.
Why don't you call startActivityForResult from the main activity and get the data back in onActivityResult ? This is the normal way to do it.
Related
I am navigating from Activity A to Activity B without finishing Activity A (because i want to go back on it and have some variables values).
In Activity B I launch camera and save captured image but the problem is, after capture camera the Activity A is re-create and resumed, causing re initialization of my variables.
How to stop it?
Note: The problem occurs only in Nougat Version.
The thing you want to know here is about the complete activity life cycle. Basically to summerize them they are
OnCreate, - called when activity is created
OnStart, - called when activity starts
OnREsume, - when activity gets back
OnPause, - when activity is overlapped
OnStop, - when activity is closes
and onDestroy - when finish() is called.
Though you have not mentioned how you started an activity and got back to the same activity, the correct way to get back to previous activity is by calling
finish()
on camera activity.
I guess you have got back to activity A by using
Intent i= new Intent(this, ActvityA.class)
startActivity(i)
which is the the correct way to do.
Just call the finish() when you want to get back to Activity A from B (Here B is in top of A).
Additional
If you want to pass data from activity B to A, just put something called as Intent Extra or Bundle
Activity A is create again and resume, so my variables are initialize again. How to stop it.
Yes that is normal. First rule with Android programming is that your activity can be killed at any time. So to not loose your variables you have to save them at the right moment.
You would do that to override onSaveInstanceState() putting your variables in the bundle.
Then you can retrieve them in onCreate() from the function parameter.
I have an activity lets call it activity A which on creation downloads some data from a database. The data is stored in a custom ArrayList called myData.
When a user clicks on a button another activity called B is launched. Activity A passes some data to Activity B which I can do by making my class implement Parcelable.
My understanding when Activity B is lanuched that Activity A will be in either the onPause or onStop state. My question is will my arraylist myData still exist when Activity B is closed and the focus goes back to Activity A? If not how can I store this data?
As soon as you launch a new activity, the previous activity goes in onStop state.
The definition of onStop:
Called when the activity is no longer visible to the user, because
another activity has been resumed and is covering this one. This may
happen either because a new activity is being started, an existing one
is being brought in front of this one, or this one is being destroyed.
See this chart
Now when you go back to ActivityA, the array data will still be present. So when switching of activities takes place this data is not destroyed and recreated once the activityA is again started.
Yes, you can finish you ActivityB by using finish() method. And your data of arrayList will exist when you will be back to ActivityA. And i will suggest to declare arrayList as instance variable of ActivityA and fetch data on onCreate() method. so data will exist until activity destroy, so data will not fetch again when activity come to focus .
I am developing an Android app in which I want to check if the user has minimized the application or just come from another activity.
In detail, if the user have started another app, went to the home screen or locked the screen, I want to show the activity where the user will enter the password to access the app. But where or how to check this exactly?
https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/activity-lifecycle.html
I was trying onResume() but according to documentation onResume() can be fired if the user’s navigating to another activity and coming back.
I'm not very clear on what you are trying to achieve.
The life cycle diagram is quite clear if you are wondering which lifecycle method it would hit when something happens.
Basically, it's the same to minimise the app and go to another activity. But if you are referring to coming from another activity in your own app, you can distinguish your own activity by adding extra information to the intent you use.
Basically, it's like this:
Intent intent = new Intent(FirstActivity.this,SecondActivity.class);
intent.putExtra(key,value);
startActivity(intent);
And in your SecondActivity, you can always retrieve that data like this:
Bundle bundle = getIntent().getExtras();
if ( bundle != null && bundle.containsKey(key) ) {
value = bundle.getInt(key); // not nessecarily getInt(), you should use according to your value type
// use the value to tell if it is from your own app
} else {
// it is not from your own app
}
You can use this mechanism combined with the lifecycle methods. For example, if you use the latter code in your onCreate() method, then whenever the Activity is created, if will check who creates it, which sounds like your what you might want.
As soon as your activity becomes visible it will call OnStart() and as soon as it is ready for the interaction(such as touch ,click etc event). it calls onResume, at this stage your app is running and it is completely in foreground. When your activity start another activity or a dialog box then it calls onPause it means activity is visible but user can not interact with the Activity UI. in case we start another Activity which completely hides the previous activity then its onStop method is called
onPause: Called when another activity comes into the foreground.
onStop: Called when that other activity is completely visible.
onResume: Called when your activity is navigated back to from the onPause state.
Maybe your app was already in the onStop state, so then it would call onRestart.
In my activity I add to it some stuff by checking checkbox and if
list.size()>0 shows up button which is redirecting me to second activity. In second activity I display list, when I click on it i delete object from list. Ive made button in second activity which make this list.clear(); finish(); When I return to first activity i've still visible button. How to solve it ?
you must read your 'list' at activity onResume() method: when you return to your activity, onStart() is not called since it was not killed by the system
see the entire cycle in this link: http://developer.android.com/training/basics/activity-lifecycle/stopping.html
I would use Gson to pass by intent any object of the class that has already been defined (not by you) and is not Serializable. Just for convenience, if you would like to pass an object of some class created by you, the class should extend Serializable
I often see examples of classes which end with finish(), but definitely not always. My question is when should you end a class with finish()? And what does it do exactly, what is the difference between ending a class with the back button and ending it with finish()?
Thanks in advance!
finish() can be called to kill (destroy) an Activity instance. If you don't need to close your Activity manual, which is true in many cases, you don't need to call this method.
But if you require a button somewhere in your activity that says "close", then you should use this method. But in general the back button behavior in Android will handle things like this.
The back button does not actually finish your activity, finish() calls the onDestory() method right away, while the back button does not.
When the back button is pressed, the onStop() method is called, but the onDestory() method call might be delayed by the system, this so that the Activity can be resumed by the system which is cheaper (in resources) than a full restart.
Lifecycle:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#ActivityLifecycle
Finish():
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#finish()
You finish Activity class with finish() method when you need to end the Activity immediatly at specific point. If you press back button, you will go through the lifecycle (onPause(), onStop() then onDestroy()) automatically.
One reason to use finish is when you have started the activity with
void android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Intent intent, int requestCode)
In this case you dont go back to the Activity which started it with another startActivity but with finish
Back button takes you to the last activity in the stack whereas finish() destroys the current activity. You can call finish() on an activity for which you don't want the user return to. Example: LoginActivity
public void finish ()
Call this when your activity is done and should be
closed. The ActivityResult is propagated back to whoever launched you
via onActivityResult().
finish() is called to kill your activity instance after you did what you have to do with the activity. After that, you have no use with the activity. So simply call finish() and it will kill your activity.
If you press back button, it will call finish() automatically to kill the activity. It will go through the activity lifecycle(onPause(), onStop() and finally onDestroy())
The one reason with calling finish() is that, if you don't call it, when you navigate through activities, all the activities will be added to the backstack. So when you go back, you have to come back through these activities. So for e.g when you click back button, it simply kills the activity and it will be removed from the backstack.