I'd like to check-in and checkout a user with the server every time that the app is opened/closed, whether it is launched or resumed from the task drawer. Is there is a way to do this while avoiding having to call a function in each Activity?
Thank you!
EDIT
In this answer, matdev brought to my attention the more modern approach to listening to app lifecycle events via ProcessLifeCycleOwner. See https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/lifecycle
As such, to better organize the desired session management functionality, the following structure should be used. Register the SessionTracker in onCreate of the MyApplication. Functionality related to tracking user sessions is then sequestered to the SessionTracker class.
First add to your build.gradle
dependencies {
implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:1.1.1"
}
Then, implement the following:
public class MyApplication extends Application {
@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().addObserver(SessionTracker.getInstance());
}
}
public class SessionTracker implements LifecycleObserver {
private static SessionTracker sSessionTracker;
private static final long MAX_ACTIVITY_TRANSITION_TIME_MS = 2000; // Time allowed for transitions
private Timer mStopDelayTimer;
private TimerTask mActivityTransitionTimerTask;
private boolean mWasInBackground = true;
private AppSession mAppSession;
public static SessionTracker getInstance() {
if (sSessionTracker == null) {
sSessionTracker = new SessionTracker();
}
return sSessionTracker;
}
private SessionTracker() {
// no-op
}
@OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP)
private void onLifecycleStop() {
submitAppSession(appSession);
}
@OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_START)
private void onLifecycleStart() {
mAppSession = new AppSession();
}
private void submitAppSession(AppSession appSession) {
// TODO submit app session here
}
}
public class AppSession {
/* TODO */
}
PREVIOUS ANSWER
The answer provided by d60402 here and the suggestion by Hanno Binder to register activity callbacks using Application.registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks() led me to this solution.
I extended Application and registered callbacks to Activity methods onPause and onStart as shown below. In these methods a timer is started/stopped (one activity being exited where onPause is called, a new one being entered where onStart is called). The flag "wasInBackground" is toggled when the app determined to be in the background/foreground (true/false). If the app was in the background when the onStart callback is run, "appEntered" is called. If the time passed between onPause and onStart callbacks is greater than a specified time (giving enough time for activity transitions) "appExited" is called where the app session is considered to be finished.
public class MyApplication extends Application {
public static final String LOG_TAG = "MyApp";
public boolean wasInBackground = true;
private AppSession appSession;
private Timer mActivityTransitionTimer;
private TimerTask mActivityTransitionTimerTask;
private final long MAX_ACTIVITY_TRANSITION_TIME_MS = 2000; // Time allowed for transitions
Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks activityCallbacks = new Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks() {
@Override
public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {
if (wasInBackground) {
//Do app-wide came-here-from-background code
appEntered();
}
stopActivityTransitionTimer();
}
@Override
public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) {
startActivityTransitionTimer();
}
...
};
@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks(activityCallbacks);
}
public void startActivityTransitionTimer() {
this.mActivityTransitionTimer = new Timer();
this.mActivityTransitionTimerTask = new TimerTask() {
public void run() {
// Task is run when app is exited
wasInBackground = true;
appExited();
}
};
this.mActivityTransitionTimer.schedule(mActivityTransitionTimerTask,
MAX_ACTIVITY_TRANSITION_TIME_MS);
}
public void stopActivityTransitionTimer() {
if (this.mActivityTransitionTimerTask != null) {
this.mActivityTransitionTimerTask.cancel();
}
if (this.mActivityTransitionTimer != null) {
this.mActivityTransitionTimer.cancel();
}
this.wasInBackground = false;
}
private void appEntered() {
Log.i(LOG_TAG, "APP ENTERED");
appSession = new AppSession();
}
private void appExited() {
Log.i(LOG_TAG, "APP EXITED");
appSession.finishAppSession();
// Submit AppSession to server
submitAppSession(appSession);
long sessionLength = (appSession.getT_close() - appSession.getT_open())/1000L;
Log.i(LOG_TAG, "Session Length: " + sessionLength);
}
You could look into Application.registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks() &c.
The android.arch.lifecycle package provides classes and interfaces that let you know when the app goes in background or foreground.
Your application should implement the LifecycleObserver interface:
public class MyApplication extends Application implements LifecycleObserver {
@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().addObserver(this);
}
@OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP)
private void onAppBackgrounded() {
Log.d("MyApp", "App in background");
}
@OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_START)
private void onAppForegrounded() {
Log.d("MyApp", "App in foreground");
}
}
To do that, you need to add this dependency to your build.gradle file:
dependencies {
implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:1.1.1"
}
As recommended by Google, you should minimize the code executed in the lifecycle methods of activities:
A common pattern is to implement the actions of the dependent components in the lifecycle methods of activities and fragments. However, this pattern leads to a poor organization of the code and to the proliferation of errors. By using lifecycle-aware components, you can move the code of dependent components out of the lifecycle methods and into the components themselves.
You can read more here: https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/lifecycle
Okay. I'm posting my comments as the answer since the original user who asked the question found this really helpful.
The problem with the above answers is that, The application doesn't want to checkin & checkout when an activity closes, but rather when the application is launched or resumed. So this can get problematic when you are closing or moving between activities when you have app open, which would still be calling oncreate() and onpause() functions.
This problem was also discussed on stackoverflow earlier. Below is the link.
How to detect when an Android app goes to the background and come back to the foreground
There might be different ways about solving this problem. The above link provides more insight on how you can solve it.
