Question

I have an activity which checks username availability via .net web services, I need to show a ‘please wait’ message during the call as it can take a second or two – I have experimented with AsyncTask and Threading but the problem I have is I actually want to block the main (and only) thread until the web service call has completed as I am depending on the result from it to process other logic.

I have tried allsorts but no joy – can anyone help please?

As requested, here is a section of my code :

private OnClickListener RegistrationListener = new OnClickListener() {
    public void onClick(View v) {
        ClearFieldHighlighting();
        if (ValidateData()) {
            if (IsOnline()) {
                if (UsernameIsAvailable()) {
                    try {
                        iNETUserID = CreateOnlineUser();
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                    }

..more code..
}

Here is the ‘UsernameIsAvailable’ function :

public boolean UsernameIsAvailable() {

    Boolean bUsernameIsAvailable = false;

    SoapObject request = new SoapObject(TA.sNAMESPACE,
            TA.METHOD_IsUsernameAvailable);
    request.addProperty("sUsername", sEmail);

    SoapSerializationEnvelope envelope = new SoapSerializationEnvelope(
            SoapEnvelope.VER11);
    envelope.dotNet = true;
    envelope.setOutputSoapObject(request);
    HttpTransportSE androidHttpTransport = new HttpTransportSE(
            TA.WEBSERVICES_URL);

    try {
        androidHttpTransport.call(TA.SOAP_ACTION_IsUsernameAvailable,
                envelope);
        SoapObject thisresponse = (SoapObject) envelope.bodyIn;

        for (int i = 0; i < thisresponse.getPropertyCount(); i++) {
            Object obj = thisresponse.getProperty(i);
            SoapPrimitive soapPrimitive = (SoapPrimitive) obj;
            bUsernameIsAvailable = Boolean.parseBoolean(soapPrimitive
                    .toString());
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
    }

    return bUsernameIsAvailable;
}

I am using KSoap2 which is an external jar file to handle the web service stuff

Thanks
Mike

Answer 1

You can structure your code in the following way:

private class MyBackgroundTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
    protected void onPreExecute() {
        // show dialog
    }
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... unused) {
        // background processing
    }
    protected void onPostExecute(Void unused) {
        // dismiss dialog
        continueProcessing();
    }
}

private OnClickListener RegistrationListener = new OnClickListener() {
    public void onClick(View v) {
        // non-blocking code

        new MyBackgroundTask().execute();
    }
}

public void continueProcessing() {
    // the rest of the main activity
}