Android Smells

Network & IO operations in main thread

Context

UI,Implementation,IO,Network

Affects

User Experience

Problem

The main thread is where the UI lives in. Therefor it is not recommended to do heavy operations (network, io, sql) in it.

Refactorings

Use StrictMode

Resolves

User Experience

Affects

Solution

StrictMode is a developer tool which detects things you might be doing by accident and brings them to your attention so you can fix them.

It is policy on a thread that lets you set what is not allowed and how you will be noticed.

StrictMode can be enabled in Application, Activity or in another applications onCreate() method. See this very basic example:

public void onCreate() {
    if (DEVELOPER_MODE) {
        StrictMode.setThreadPolicy(new StrictMode.ThreadPolicy.Builder()
            .detectDiskReads()
            .detectDiskWrites()
            .detectNetwork()   // or .detectAll() for all detectable problems
            .penaltyLog()
            .build());
        StrictMode.setVmPolicy(new StrictMode.VmPolicy.Builder()
            .detectLeakedSqlLiteObjects()
            .detectLeakedClosableObjects()
            .penaltyLog()
            .penaltyDeath()
            .build());
    }
    super.onCreate();
}
Note

Be careful to don't publish applications with StrictMode turned on.

Links

Related