How to display a Toast in Android AsyncTask?

Question

I am trying to display Toast in my initial_background class extended with AsyncTask<URL, Integer, Long>. I am receiving this error in logcat.

public class InitialBackgroundTask extends AsyncTask<URL, Integer, Long> {

    @Override
    protected Long doInBackground(URL... params) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        show a = new show();
        a.loop();
        return null;
    }

public class show {

    void loop()
    {
        for(int i=0; i<10; i++)
        {
            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.me, "test", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
    }
}

This is the exception:

05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840): FATAL EXCEPTION: AsyncTask #1
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840): java.lang.RuntimeException: An error occured while executing doInBackground()
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.os.AsyncTask$3.done(AsyncTask.java:278)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerSetException(FutureTask.java:273)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.setException(FutureTask.java:124)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:307)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:137)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.os.AsyncTask$SerialExecutor$1.run(AsyncTask.java:208)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1076)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:569)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:856)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840): Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.os.Handler.<init>(Handler.java:121)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.widget.Toast$TN.<init>(Toast.java:317)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.widget.Toast.<init>(Toast.java:91)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.widget.Toast.makeText(Toast.java:233)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at   com.example.toast.show.loop(show.java:11)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at com.example.toast.InitialBackgroundTask.doInBackground(InitialBackgroundTask.java:13)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at com.example.toast.InitialBackgroundTask.doInBackground(InitialBackgroundTask.java:1)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at android.os.AsyncTask$2.call(AsyncTask.java:264)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:305)
05-30 12:08:12.641: E/AndroidRuntime(30840):    ... 5 more

The above code is showing the whole story. Actually, I want to show toast in doInBackground method

Answer 1

You cannot update UI on background thread. doInBackground() is invoked on the background thread. You should update UI on the UI thread.

      runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){

          @Override
          public void run(){
            //update ui here
            // display toast here 
          }
       });

onPreExecute(), onPostExecute(Result), are invoked on the UI thread. So you can display toast here.

onProgressUpdate(Progress...), invoked on the UI thread after a call to publishProgress(Progress...) can be used to animate a progress bar or show logs in a text field.

The result of doInBackground() computation is a parameter to onPostExecute(Result) so return the result in doinBackground() and show your toast in onPostExecute(Result)

You can also use a handler as suggested by @Stine Pike

For clarity, check the link below under the topic: The 4 steps.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html