How to start a new Thread in a service?

Question

I am developing an Android app and I am doing some heavy work (bringing data from an online web page and parsing it to store in database) in a service. Currently, it is taking about 20+ mins and for this time my UI is stuck. I was thinking of using a thread in service so my UI doesn't get stuck but it is giving error. I am using the following code:

Thread thread = new Thread() {       @Override       public void run() {           try {               while(true) {                   sleep(1000);                   Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), "Running Thread...", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();               }           } catch (InterruptedException e) {            Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), e.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();           }       }   };  thread.start(); 

This simple code is giving run time error. Even If I take out the while loop, it is still not working. Please, can any one tell me what mistake I am doing. Apparently, I copied this code directly from an e-book. It is suppose to work but its not.

Answer 1

Android commandment: thou shall not interact with UI objects from your own threads

Wrap your Toast Display into runOnUIThread(new Runnable() { });

Answer 2

Example of new thread creation taken from Android samples (android-8\SampleSyncAdapter\src\com\example\android\samplesync\client\NetworkUtilities.java):

public static Thread performOnBackgroundThread(final Runnable runnable) {     final Thread t = new Thread() {         @Override         public void run() {             try {                 runnable.run();             } finally {              }         }     };     t.start();     return t; } 

runnable is the Runnable that contains your Network operations.