Debugging Widget causes ANR

Question

I'm trying to debug an AppWidget but I incurred in a problem :D If not setting the breakpoint the widget works without ANR and the commands Log.v are executed flawlessly. Then I placed a breakpoint on the top of the method:

    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Log.v(TAG, "onReceive 1"); // BP on this line
    super.onReceive(context, intent);
    String action = intent.getAction();

    // Checks on action and computations ...

    Log.v(TAG, "onReceive 2");
    updateWidget(context);
    Log.v(TAG, "onReceive 3");
}

The breakpoint stops the execution as expected but then the process dies. The problem is that the breakpoint ( I guess xD ) cause an ANR and the ActivityManager kills the process. That's the Log:

01-07 14:32:38.886: ERROR/ActivityManager(72): ANR in com.salvo.wifiwidget
01-07 14:32:38.886: INFO/Process(72): Sending signal. PID: 475 SIG: 9
......
......
01-07 14:32:38.906: INFO/ActivityManager(72): Process com.salvo.wifiwidget (pid   475) has died.

This cause the debug to stop. So the question is: there's a way to debug the widget without incurring in the ANR?? thanks in advance for the answers

Answer 1

You're right. According to this your Widget's BroadcastReceiver will be killed by the system if it takes longer than 10 seconds to process its onReceive method.

From the top of my head I can see two solutions:

1. Separate logic from presentation and debug your logic in Activity, then incorporate it into widget.
2. Resort to "old good" logging.

OR you can try following thing. I am not sure how it will work, but maybe it is worth to give this approach a try.

Use your own activity as host for widget's RemoteViews. I've done something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
    <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/widget_view"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="200dp"/>
    <Button
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Inflate widget"
        android:onClick="onInflateClick"/>
    <Button
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Update widget"
            android:onClick="onUpdateClick"/>
</LinearLayout>

In this layout LinearLayout with id = widget_view will play widget host. Activity code itself looks like this:

package com.example;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;
import android.widget.RemoteViews;

public class MyActivity extends Activity {
    private LinearLayout widgetHolder;
    private View widgetView;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        widgetHolder = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.widget_view);
    }

    public void onInflateClick(View v) {
        RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(getPackageName(), R.layout.widget);
        views.setImageViewResource(R.id.image, R.drawable.img1);
        views.setTextViewText(R.id.text, "Widget created");
        widgetView = views.apply(this, null);
        widgetHolder.addView(widgetView);
    }

    public void onUpdateClick(View v) {
        onUpdateWidget(0);
    }

    public void onUpdateWidget(int widgetId) {
        RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(getPackageName(), R.layout.widget);
        views.setImageViewResource(R.id.image, R.drawable.img2);
        views.setTextViewText(R.id.text, "Widget updated");

        // Tell the AppWidgetManager to perform an update on the current app widget
        updateWidget(widgetId, views);
    }

    private void updateWidget(int widgetId, RemoteViews views) {
        views.reapply(this, widgetView);
        // appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId, views);
    }
}

Put your widget update logic into updateWidget method (or just call proper onUpdate method of the widget's BroadcastReceiver with fake parameters) and you can debug it with a click of a button on your activity.

Again, I never tried it on real widget, I just come up with idea and tried to write code for it. Use it on your own risk :)

I put my quick and dirty project to github in case you want to try it. It is and Idea project, but it should be easy to import it into Eclipse.