Handlers in Android

Question

What are Handler used in android proggraming for? How do we use them to dismiss the ProgressDialog?

I have referred few things from the Net regerding this but couldn

Answer 1

Use AsyncTask instead. It has a function called onPostExecute where in you can dismiss the Progress Dialog.

@Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {
        Toast.makeText(ctx, "Completed Synch with Server", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
                .show();

                mProgressDialog.dismiss();

    }

Handlers are used to run a small section of code at a predetermined time. Typically one uses AlarmManager to launch intents (activities, services, broadcasts), but if you are interested in running only a small section of code you can use handlers:

if(condition == true){

    Handler timer = new Handler();
    timer.postDelayed(task, (5 * 60 * 1000);
}

---

      private Runnable task = new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            mProgressDialog.dismiss();
        }
    };

I'd strongly recommend using a AsyncTask for anything thread related on Android.

Answer 2

Handlers are used for communication between the UI and background thread. Basically Handler will send messages and runnables on to the message Queue of a thread.