What is the correct way of creating a login screen/activity in Android?

Question

What I ended up doing was to make my Home activity handle the intent android.intent.action.MAIN. Home activity, when launched, checks if the user is signed in or not (using shared preferences), if its not then it starts LoginActivity and calls finish() on its self.

LoginActivity on successful login starts the Main activity and this time because the user is logged on, the Main activity will continue its normal course. LoginActivity is declared as following in the manifest file:

<activity android:name="LoginScreen" android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:noHistory="true" android:excludeFromRecents="true">
</activity>

Setting noHistory and excludeFromRecents to true for LoginActivity means that the user cant return to this activity using back button.

After you call startActivity(...) in the LoginScreen activity, call finish(). This will remove that activity from the activity stack, so pressing back will essentially close your app once you're in your Home activity.

Try setting flags to the Intent.

Example:

new Intent(context, SomeActivity.class).setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);

---

More information on flags: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#nestedclasses

See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/41290453/4560689 (text below)

To do this, you should create a single launcher activity with No Display (using Android's NoDisplay theme), that runs the logic of whether to go to the home screen or to log in/register.

First, in your manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
package="com.example.android">

<-- Permissions etc -->

<application
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name">

    <activity
        android:name=".onboarding.StartupActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:launchMode="singleInstance"
        android:theme="android:style/Theme.NoDisplay">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

    <activity
        android:name=".MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:launchMode="singleTop" />

    <activity
        android:name=".authentication.controller.AuthenticationActivity"
        android:label="@string/title_sign_in"
        android:launchMode="singleTask"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize|stateHidden" />

    <-- Other activities, services, etc -->
</application>

Then, your StartupActivity:

package com.example.android.onboarding;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;

import com.example.android.MainActivity;

import com.example.android.authentication.controller.AuthenticationActivity;

import com.example.android.util.ResourceUtils;

public class StartupActivity extends Activity {
    private static final AUTHENTICATION_REQUEST_CODE = 1000;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        if (isLoggedIn()) {
            Intent startupIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
            startupIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
            startActivity(startupIntent);
            finish();
        } else {
            Intent startupIntent = new Intent(this, AuthenticationActivity.class);
            startActivityForResult(startupIntent, AUTHENTICATION_REQUEST_CODE);
        }

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }

    private boolean isLoggedIn() {
        // Check SharedPreferences or wherever you store login information
        return this.getSharedPreferences("my_app_preferences", Context.MODE_PRIVATE).getBoolean("loggedIn", false);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        if (requestCode == AUTHENTICATION_REQUEST_CODE && resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
            Intent startupIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
            startupIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
        startActivity(startupIntent);
        }

        finish();
    }
}

Gist here: https://gist.github.com/chanakin/c44bf1c6a9a80d2640440b5aaa92c8ee

LoginActivity.xml

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
    android:background="#263238">

    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingTop="80dp"
        android:paddingLeft="16dp"
        android:paddingRight="16dp">

        <!-- App Logo -->
        <ImageView android:id="@+id/logo"
            android:src="@drawable/logo"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="50dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="20dp"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <!--Title TextView-->
        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="STOCK BUDDY"
            android:id="@+id/title"
            android:textSize="24sp"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textColor="#7B869B"
            android:layout_marginBottom="24dp"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"/>

        <!--User Email-->
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/login_email"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="40dp"
            android:ellipsize="start"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:hint="Email"
            android:paddingLeft="16dp"
            android:paddingRight="16dp"
            android:textColorHint="#cccccc"
            android:textColor="#7B869B"
            android:maxLength="40"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:inputType="textEmailAddress"
            android:background="@drawable/edittextshape"/>

        <!-- User Password -->
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/login_password"
            android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="40dp"
            android:ellipsize="start"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:paddingRight="16dp"
            android:paddingLeft="16dp"
            android:hint="Password"
            android:textColor="#7B869B"
            android:textColorHint="#cccccc"
            android:maxLength="20"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:inputType="textPassword"
            android:background="@drawable/edittextshape"/>

        <!--Login Button-->
        <android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton
            android:id="@+id/btn_login"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="24dp"
            android:background="@drawable/buttonshape"
            android:text="Login"
            android:textSize="20sp"
            android:layout_height="40dp"
            android:textColor="#ffffff"
            android:shadowRadius="5"
            android:onClick="Login"/>

        <!--signup Link TextView-->
        <TextView android:id="@+id/link_signup"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginBottom="24dp"
            android:text="No account yet? Create one"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:textSize="12sp"
            android:textColor="#7B869B"/>

    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

buttonshape.xml

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle" >
    <corners
        android:radius="44dp"
        />
    <gradient
        android:angle="45"
        android:centerX="35%"
        android:centerColor="#63D0C3"
        android:startColor="#70DB9A"
        android:endColor="#56C5EE"
        android:type="linear"
        />
    <padding
        android:left="0dp"
        android:top="0dp"
        android:right="0dp"
        android:bottom="0dp"
        />
    <stroke
        android:width="0dp"
        android:color="#878787"
        />
</shape>

edittextshape.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:thickness="0dp"
    android:shape="rectangle">
    <solid android:color="#ffffff"/>
    <stroke android:width="1dp"
        android:color="#ffffff" />
    <corners android:radius="44dp" />
</shape>

.....................

please see full code on https://androidpugnator.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/android-login-and-signup-screens

Image of login Screen