Question

I am trying to write an android app that acquires a GPS signal at a fix time interval, for example every 1 minute. Since the requestLocationUpdate function does not exactly implement that, I tried to use task to accomplished it.

public class getGPS extends TimerTask{
     public void run(){
        System.out.println("Running a GPS task");
        locHandler = new locationUpdateHandler();    


        myManager.requestLocationUpdates(provider, 60000, 0, locHandler);


     }
 }


public void LoadCoords(){

     Timer timer = new Timer();
     timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new getGPS(), 0, 60000);
}

However, from what I’ve seen, requestLocationUpdates would run fine if I put it inside LoadCoords(), but would not run if I put it inside the TimerTask (ie no green icon on the task bar to show that GPS is looking for a fix).

Can anyone please suggest an alternative approach or pseudo-code, or correct my mistake if there is one ? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

As the doc says: The calling thread must be a Looper thread such as the main thread of the calling Activity. In other words you should call myManager.requestLocationUpdates(provider, 60000, 0, locHandler); from a main UI app thread. In your case that does not work from the TimerTask, because TimerTasks are being executed by Timer on a separate thread.

Check the Painless Threading article to find out your best fitting solution.