if Asynctask is not for doing long background processing then what method should i use

Question

I have been using Asynctask most of time, but in the current app the data downloaded is too big so what other method i can use to do background downloading, i am not actually sure whether handler are for this purpose.

Answer 1

but in the current app the data downloaded is too big so what other method i can use to do background downloading,

I disagree with your title because doInBackground is a method that is exactly used for long tasks. So AsyncTask is very strong tool also type-safe.

But there is also another solution.
Another clean and efficient approach is use IntentService with ResultReceiver.

When you decide to use IntentService with ResultReceiver, here is basic example

---

Just create class that extends from IntentService, then you have to implement its method onHandleIntent

protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {  
   String urlLink = intent.getStringExtra("url");
   ResultReceiver receiver = intent.getParcelableExtra("receiver");
   InputStream input = null;
   long contentLength;
   long total = 0;
   int downloaded = 0;
   try {
      URL url = new URL(urlLink);
      HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
      // ...
      Bundle data = new Bundle();
      data.putInt("progress", (int) (total * 100 / contentLength));
      receiver.send(PROGRESS_UPDATE, data);
   }
   //...
}

And implementation of onReceiveResult from ResultReceiver:

@Override
public void onReceiveResult(int resultCode, Bundle resultData) {
   super.onReceiveResult(resultCode, resultData);
   if (resultCode == DownloadService.PROGRESS_UPDATE) {
      int progress = resultData.getInt("progress");
      pd.setProgress(progress);
      pd.setMessage(String.valueOf(progress) + "% was downloaded sucessfully.");
   }
}

For start your Service just use

Intent i = new Intent(this, DownloadService.class);
i.putExtra("url", <data>); // extra additional data
i.putExtra("receiver", new DownloadReceiver(new Handler()));
startService(i);

So in your IntentService make your work and with

receiver.send(PROGRESS_UPDATE, data);

you can simply send information about your progress for update UI.

Note: But see more information about IntentService nad ResultReceiver.