Android activity launch modes and tasks

Gonalo Silva / Novoda

Co-organizer ~1250 members

Activity launch modes and tasks..

What is an Activity?

Main building block of Android applications

HelloWorldActivity.java
public class HelloWorldActivity extends Activity { .... }

AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.novoda.jax" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0" > <application > <activity android:name=".HelloWorldActivity" /> </application>

</manifest>

Activity task

Sequence of related activities a user follows

Activity stack / back stack

How are activites started?

Intents!
Messaging facility for late run-time binding between components

Intent object
Action

Data URI and/or MIME type

Category Extras key/value pairs Component name Flags

Explicit intent resolution

Intent intent = new Intent(this, HelloWorldActivity.class);

startActivity(intent);

Implicit intent resolution

Uri google = Uri.parse("http://www.google.com"); Intent intent = new Intent( Intent.ACTION_VIEW, google); startActivity(intent);

Intent filter
<activity android:name=".SimpleBrowser" > <intent-filter > <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" /> <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" /> <data android:scheme="http" /> </intent-filter> </activity>

Intents are great!

Loosely coupled activities Specify your behaviour as intentions

Activity re-use

Starting an activity in a different application

Twitter Task

Twitter Task

Gmail Twitter Task

Activity re-use

Some activities are started in a different task

Gmail Task A

Browser

Task B
Gmail Task A

Activity re-use
Why different tasks?

Allows user to resume after leaving original task

How can we resume an activity?

Resuming an activity

Resuming a killed activity

How can we choose a specific task behaviour for our activities?

Activity launch modes

Define how a new instance of an activity is associated with the current task

Four launch modes

standard singleTop singleTask singleInstance

Defined in the manifest

<activity android:launchMode="singleTop" android:name=".HelloWorldActivity" />

Set as a flag in an intent

Intent intent = new Intent(this, HelloWorldActivity.class); intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP); startActivity(intent);

Demo App!!!
Search the market for: launchmode

standard default launch mode

singleTop
A new activity X will not be started if there is an activity X on top of the stack onNewIntent() will be called instead of the normal activity lifecycle

singleTask
Created at the root of a new task

Only one instance of the activity can exist at a time

onNewIntent() is called if an instance of the activity already exists

singleInstance

Like singleTop but the only member of its task Any activities started will open in a separate task.

Examples of launchModes
singleTop: Dashboard, Search
singleTask: Browser, Google Maps singleInstance: Home screen

Intent flags and launchModes

FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP

Force an activity to a new task

FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK
FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK

Not recommended!

FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY

FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP

FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT

FLAG_ACTIVITY_EXCLUDE_FROM_RECENTS

The new activity is not kept in the list of recently launched activities

FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_WHEN_TASK_RESET FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_TASK_IF_NEEDED

Other manifest attributes to help deal with activities and tasks

android:taskAffinity
Useful to ensure certain activities are always in the same task By default, all activities in an application have the same affinity

singleTask Gotcha!!!

android:allowTaskReparenting

Next time an activity comes to the front, move it to a task it has an affinity for Eg: email and browser

android:clearTaskOnLaunch

Clear all activities from the task except the root, when launching the app from the home screen Only honoured for activities that start a new task

Can be combined with allowTaskReparenting

android:alwaysRetainTaskState

The state of the task is mantained by the system, even after a long period of time Only honoured for activities that start a new task

Eg: browser tabs

android:finishOnTaskLaunch

Shut down an instance of an activity when its task is resumed Trumps android:alwaysRetainTaskState

Use with caution!

singleTask and singleInstance change the UI flow

singleTask UI flow

singleInstance UI flow

Two launcher icons

Provide a launcher icon for each singleTask / singleInstance activity

Another disadvantage:
startActivityForResult()

Recommended launchModes:

standard and singleTop with intent flags combinations will suit most use cases

To recap:
Activities and how they live in tasks

Intents and re-using activities in other apps

Activity lifecycle and the four launchmodes Intent flags and manifest attributes singleTask and singleInstance disadvantages

Thank you for listening! Any Questions?