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Mobile Application Development 11

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5 views12 pages

Mobile Application Development 11

Uploaded by

afeefazia84
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MOBILE

APPLICATION
DEVELOPMENT
Explore Android's threading model, including the UI
thread and worker threads
THREAD
 A thread is a fundamental unit of execution that can run independently
within an application.
 Thread is one of the important concepts in Android.
 Thread is a lightweight sub-process that provides us a way to do
background operations without interrupting the User Interface (UI).
 When an app is launched, it creates a single thread in which all app
components will run by default.
ANDROID'S THREADING
MODEL
 Android's threading model is crucial for building responsive and smooth-
running applications.
 At its core, Android uses a single-threaded model for UI operations,
commonly known as the Main or UI thread.
 All UI interactions, such as user input, screen updates, and handling touch
events, are processed on this thread.
 However, performing long-running tasks or heavy operations on the UI
thread can cause the UI to freeze or become unresponsive, resulting in a
poor user experience.
 To prevent this, Android provides mechanisms for handling background
tasks using worker threads or asynchronous operations.
RULES - TYPES
Here are two rules to Android's single-thread model:
 Don't block the UI thread.
 Don't access the Android UI toolkit from outside the UI thread.

Types of threads in Android:


 Main Thread (UI Thread): Responsible for handling UI events and
drawing the UI. It's crucial to keep it responsive to avoid app freezes.
 Worker Threads: Created by the app to handle long-running tasks or
background operations to keep the UI thread unblocked
UI THREAD (MAIN THREAD)
 The UI thread is responsible for handling the user interface, including drawing
to the screen, receiving user input, and dispatching touch events.
 When Android app is launched one thread is created.
 This thread is called Main Thread or UI Thread.
 Avoid doing time consuming tasks in UI Thread since it leads to app
that does not respond quickly
 Long-running tasks should not be executed directly on this thread to prevent
ANR (Application Not Responding) errors.
 User interaction , system callback & life cycle methods handled in the UI
thread.
WORKER THREADS
 Worker threads, also referred to as background threads or non-UI threads,
are used for executing time-consuming tasks without affecting the UI
responsiveness.
 By offloading intensive operations to worker threads, the UI thread remains
free to handle user interactions.
 There are several ways to create and manage worker threads in Android:
 AsyncTask: A deprecated class (as of API level 30) that simplifies performing
background operations and updating the UI. However, other approaches like
Executor or Thread are recommended for newer applications.
 Thread and Handler: Creating and managing threads manually using Java's
Thread class and coordinating with a Handler to post updates to the UI thread.
 Executor Framework: Utilizing classes like ThreadPoolExecutor, Executors, or
ExecutorService for managing thread pools and executing tasks concurrently.
MAIN TECHNIQUES FOR
BACKGROUND PROCESSING
Handler:
 Used to communicate between the UI thread and background threads.
 It allows you to post Runnable instances to execute on the UI thread.

Runnable:
 An interface representing a task that can be executed.
 Used with threads or handlers for background processing.

AsyncTask (deprecated):
 Divides tasks into onPreExecute, doInBackground, onProgressUpdate, and
onPostExecute methods.
 Though deprecated, it was widely used for simplifying background tasks.
WHY THREADS ARE
IMPORTANT
 Improve responsiveness: Threads prevent UI freezing by offloading long-
running tasks to worker threads, ensuring a smoother user experience.
 Better performance: Threads enable efficient use of multi-core
processors by allowing tasks to run concurrently.
 Handle background tasks: Threads are essential for tasks like network
calls, database operations, file I/O, and complex calculations that should
run in the background without interrupting the UI.
ACCESSING THREADS
Identifying the Current Thread:
 Use Thread.currentThread() to get a reference to the thread where the code is
currently executing.
Checking for the UI Thread:
 Use Looper.getMainLooper().isCurrentThread() to determine if you're on the main
thread (UI thread).
CREATING THREADS
1. Using Threads and Runnables:
 Create a Thread object, passing a Runnable implementation as its argument.
 The Runnable's run() method contains the code to be executed on the new
thread.
 Start the thread with thread.start().

2. Using Handlers
 Create a Handler object, often associated with a specific thread's looper
(message queue).
 Post tasks to the handler's queue using handler.post() or
handler.postDelayed().
 The handler will execute them on its associated thread
CONT.
3. Using AsyncTask (deprecated in API level 30):
 Simplified mechanism for short background operations with automatic UI
updates.
 Extend the AsyncTask class and override its methods for background work and UI
updates.

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