How to reduce time of PeriodicWorkManager in WorkManager

Question

In PeriodicTimeRequest minimum periodic time is 15 minute. I want to reduce it from 15 min to less than 15 minute.How can i do that?

Answer 1

A simple answer is No, You cannot reduce the time to less than MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS which is hardcoded to 15 Minutes.

However, you can test PeriodicWorkRequest sooner than MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS which is 15 minutes.

For this, you need WorkManagerTestInitHelper available in androidx.work.testing.

First of all add the following dependency in the build.gradle file for your app or module:

//Current stable release is 2.3.4
androidTestImplementation "androidx.work:work-testing:2.3.4

Next, you need to use setPeriodDelayMet method available with TestDriver which can be used to indicate that an interval is complete and executes PeriodicWorkRequest sooner than MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS (15 minutes). Sample code:

@Test
public void testPeriodicWork(Context context) throws Exception {
    // Setup input data
    Data input = new Data.Builder().put(KEY_1, 1).put(KEY_2, 2).build();

    // Create periodic work request
    PeriodicWorkRequest request = new PeriodicWorkRequest.Builder(MyWorker.class, 15,  TimeUnit.MINUTES)
                                       .setInputData(input)
                                       .build();
    // Enqueue periodic request
    WorkManager.getInstance(context).enqueueUniquePeriodicWork(WORKER_TAG, ExistingPeriodicWorkPolicy.REPLACE, request);

    // Initialize testDriver
    TestDriver testDriver = WorkManagerTestInitHelper.getTestDriver();

    // Tells the testing framework the period delay is met, this will execute your code in doWork() in MyWorker class
    testDriver.setPeriodDelayMet(request.getId());

}

You can find more information about testing PeriodicWorkRequest at https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/workmanager/how-to/integration-testing#periodic-work

Learn more about testing WorkManager at https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/work/testing/WorkManagerTestInitHelper and https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/work/testing/TestDriver

Answer 2

We have a hack to reduce the 15mins time to run periodically. But you can't use PeriodicWorkRequest. Create OneTimeWorkRequest with initial delay and call self at the end of the work inside the worker. if required create the backgroundExecutor.execute {} and call from inside to make asynchronous calling. Means the worker which called self will not be terminated or onStopped() will not be called.

ExistingWorkPolicy.REPLACE | KEEP may be required depends on your need.

Answer 3

No, You cannot reduce the time to less than PeriodicWorkRequest.MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS which is 15 Minutes That's a system limitation because of the battery saving, there is no hack.

Answer 4

I found this solution: https://ariefbayu.xyz/execute-periodic-process-under-15-minutes-cycle-using-workmanager-564c3ade94c4

public Result doWork() {

    try {
        Log.d("PWLOG", "Let me sleep a moment...");
        Thread.sleep(60000 * 5);//5 minutes cycle
        doTheActualProcessingWork();
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        Log.d("PWLOG", "Thread sleep failed...");
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return Result.success();
}

It seems to work in a correct way