How to set timer in android?

Question

Can someone give a simple example of updating a textfield every second or so?

I want to make a flying ball and need to calculate/update the ball coordinates every se

Answer 1

If anyone is interested, I started playing around with creating a standard object to run on an activities UI thread. Seems to work ok. Comments welcome. I'd love this to be available on the layout designer as a component to drag onto an Activity. Can't believe something like that doesn't already exist.

package com.example.util.timer;

import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;

import android.app.Activity;

public class ActivityTimer {

    private Activity m_Activity;
    private boolean m_Enabled;
    private Timer m_Timer;
    private long m_Delay;
    private long m_Period;
    private ActivityTimerListener m_Listener;
    private ActivityTimer _self;
    private boolean m_FireOnce;

    public ActivityTimer() {
        m_Delay = 0;
        m_Period = 100;
        m_Listener = null;
        m_FireOnce = false;
        _self = this;
    }

    public boolean isEnabled() {
        return m_Enabled;
    }

    public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) {
        if (m_Enabled == enabled)
            return;

        // Disable any existing timer before we enable a new one
        Disable();

        if (enabled) {
            Enable();
        }
    }

    private void Enable() {
        if (m_Enabled)
            return;

        m_Enabled = true;

        m_Timer = new Timer();
        if (m_FireOnce) {
            m_Timer.schedule(new TimerTask() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    OnTick();
                }
            }, m_Delay);
        } else {
            m_Timer.schedule(new TimerTask() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    OnTick();
                }
            }, m_Delay, m_Period);
        }
    }

    private void Disable() {
        if (!m_Enabled)
            return;

        m_Enabled = false;

        if (m_Timer == null)
            return;

        m_Timer.cancel();
        m_Timer.purge();
        m_Timer = null;
    }

    private void OnTick() {
        if (m_Activity != null && m_Listener != null) {
            m_Activity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    m_Listener.OnTimerTick(m_Activity, _self);
                }
            });
        }
        if (m_FireOnce)
            Disable();
    }

    public long getDelay() {
        return m_Delay;
    }

    public void setDelay(long delay) {
        m_Delay = delay;
    }

    public long getPeriod() {
        return m_Period;
    }

    public void setPeriod(long period) {
        if (m_Period == period)
            return;
        m_Period = period;
    }

    public Activity getActivity() {
        return m_Activity;
    }

    public void setActivity(Activity activity) {
        if (m_Activity == activity)
            return;
        m_Activity = activity;
    }

    public ActivityTimerListener getActionListener() {
        return m_Listener;
    }

    public void setActionListener(ActivityTimerListener listener) {
        m_Listener = listener;
    }

    public void start() {
        if (m_Enabled)
            return;
        Enable();
    }

    public boolean isFireOnlyOnce() {
        return m_FireOnce;
    }

    public void setFireOnlyOnce(boolean fireOnce) {
        m_FireOnce = fireOnce;
    }
}

In the activity, I have this onStart:

@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();

    m_Timer = new ActivityTimer();
    m_Timer.setFireOnlyOnce(true);
    m_Timer.setActivity(this);
    m_Timer.setActionListener(this);
    m_Timer.setDelay(3000);
    m_Timer.start();
}