[android] Android runOnUiThread explanation

Instead of creating a thread, and using runOnUIThread, this is a perfect job for ASyncTask:

  • In onPreExecute, create & show the dialog.

  • in doInBackground prepare the data, but don't touch the UI -- store each prepared datum in a field, then call publishProgress.

  • In onProgressUpdate read the datum field & make the appropriate change/addition to the UI.

  • In onPostExecute dismiss the dialog.


If you have other reasons to want a thread, or are adding UI-touching logic to an existing thread, then do a similar technique to what I describe, to run on UI thread only for brief periods, using runOnUIThread for each UI step. In this case, you will store each datum in a local final variable (or in a field of your class), and then use it within a runOnUIThread block.