Question

I start studying this: Android SplashScreen
and my app works perfectly with this method.
Unfortunately, I’ve developed a custom splash screen (not a progress dialog like in the other post) and I’m not able to use the same approach. My splashscreen is a different activity that I starts calling it from the onCreate as a different thread.

Instead of this.pd = ProgressDialog.show(this, "Working..", "Downloading Data...", true, false); in the onCreate I do:

        Thread splashThread = new Thread() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                     // start the splash screen activity
                }
        };
        splashThread.start();
 }

The splashscreeen activity correctly starts.
So I call the AsyncTask as in the default method (doInBackground, onPostExecute) and I’m not able to end the activity that is running the splashscreen and come back to the main one, after all the variables are loaded in the doInBackground.

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Well, I finally thank JPM for the suggestion to use handlers and I solved with that:

public class SplashScreen extends Activity {

        private static Handler mHandler ;
        private static Handler mainHandler ;

        protected static final int CLOSE_SPLASH = 0 ;

        /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.splash_screen);

        mHandler = new Handler(){
                @Override
                public void handleMessage(Message msg){
                        switch(msg.what){
                        case CLOSE_SPLASH:
                        finish();
                        break;
                        }

                }
        };
    }

    @Override
    public void onStart(){
        super.onStart();
        if(mainHandler != null){
                mainHandler.sendEmptyMessage(MainActivity.START_LOAD);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onKeyDown (int keyCode, KeyEvent event){
        if(keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK){
                mainHandler.sendEmptyMessage(MainActivity.ABORT_LOAD);
        }
        return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event) ;
    }
    public static void setMainHandler(Handler h){
        mainHandler = h ;
    }
    public static void sendMessage(Message msg){
        mHandler.sendMessage(msg);
    }
    public static void sendMessage(int w){
        mHandler.sendEmptyMessage(w);
    }
}

In the MainActivity I manage handlers back and forth:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

        private MainActivity _this;
        private Handler mHandler;

        protected static final int FINISH_LOAD = 0 ;
        protected static final int START_LOAD = 1 ;
        protected static final int ABORT_LOAD = 2 ;

        /** Called when the activity is first created. */
        @Override
        public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
                super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

                _this = this;

                mHandler = new Handler() {
                        @Override
                        public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
                                switch (msg.what) {
                                case FINISH_LOAD:
                                   SplashScreen.sendMessage(SplashScreen.CLOSE_SPLASH);
                                        break;
                                case START_LOAD:
                                        initializing();
                                        break;
                                case ABORT_LOAD:
                                        finish();
                                }

                        }
                };
                startSplash();
        }

        private void startSplash() {
                Intent intent = new Intent(this, SplashScreen.class);
                SplashScreen.setMainHandler(mHandler);
                startActivity(intent);
        }

        private void initializing() {
                new Thread() {
                        @Override
                        public void run() {    
                                long start_time = android.os.SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
                                doTheHeavyJob();
                                long duration = android.os.SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - start_time;
                                if (duration <=3000) {
                                   try {
                                       wait(3000-duration);
                       } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                          e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                        }
                        mHandler.sendEmptyMessage(FINISH_LOAD);
                  }
            }.start();
        }    
}

In this manner I can manage the doTheHeavyJob() function and finish the SplashScreen in both cases: after the job finish and at least after 3000 millis, the minimum duration of my splashscreen to be shown.
I also want to tank Teskio on the anddev italian website for the most of the job done here.