Question

We are developing a testing app and we are at initial stage only and my problem is when we are navigating to android home screen from testing app it looks like you stop the app as I don’t see it as a running app in the Settings à Appsà Running Apps.We want the app to run in the background so that the user can go to other screens and the app is still doing the tests and , we need to have a flashing colored icon in the status bar (top bar on all screens) to indicate that the ZK Data Tester is performing tests as these tests can quickly put them over the limit of their data plan and they will have to pay extra $$ on their monthly bill.

Answer 1

An Android Application is really just a package of various code components with discrete entrys (and purposes). When you’re talking about the UI you’re generally referring to an Activity, and the life cycle of an activity is that it will be paused when you go to the home screen. You are not permitted to use the UI while you are paused.

If you have processing you wish to continue while your activity is paused, you generally do that with a Service. (I’ll leave you to google what you need to know about their implementation.) You could also just start an asynchronous thread, depending exactly on what kind of processing you need and what you plan to do with its results, but generally a Service is a better option.