Implementing Vibration Based On Preference CheckBox; stopping when new Activity is started

[Jared Snyder]

In my app I have an Activity called AlarmActivity that will start when a condition is met in MainActivity. When AlarmActivity starts, if CheckBoxPreference for vibrate is checked, I, of course, want vibration to start. I also have an onLongClickListener attached to a button that silences the alarm, so I would like to stop vibrating when the new Activity starts. Presently, vibrating starts when the AlarmActivity starts, regardless of CheckBoxPreference, and continues even after the new Activity starts onLongClick; until I exit out of the app entirely.

This is my AlarmActivity:

package com.example.app; (I've changed this while pasting in forum)

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Vibrator;
import android.view.KeyEvent;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnLongClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class AlarmActivity extends Activity implements
OnLongClickListener {
	
	boolean alarmVibrate;
	
	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_alarm);
		
		onAlarm();
		
		// Get instance of Vibrator from current Context
		Vibrator v = (Vibrator) getSystemService(Context.VIBRATOR_SERVICE);

		long[] pattern = { 0, 200, 500 };
		v.vibrate(pattern, 0);
		
		Button silenceBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.alarm_silence_btn);
		silenceBtn.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener() { 
	        @Override
	        public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
	            Intent intent = new Intent(AlarmActivity.this, MainActivity.class);
	            intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
	            startActivity(intent);
	            return true;
	        }
	    });
	}
	
	//Disable the device's back button for this Activity
	@Override
	public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) 
	{
	    return (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK ? true : super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event));
	}
	
	//Method for alarm
	protected void onAlarm(){
		if (alarmVibrate){
			
		}else{
			
		}
		blink();
	}

	private void blink(){
	    final Handler handler = new Handler();
	    new Thread(new Runnable() {
	        @Override
	        public void run() {
	        int timeToBlink = 1500;    //in milliseconds
	        try{Thread.sleep(timeToBlink);}catch (Exception e) {}
	            handler.post(new Runnable() {
	                @Override
	                    public void run() {
	                    TextView txt = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.alarm_textview);
	                    if(txt.getVisibility() == View.VISIBLE){
	                        txt.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
	                    }else{
	                        txt.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
	                    }
	                    blink();
	                }
	                });
	            }
	        }).start();
	    }
	
	//Required unimplemented method for Interface, OnLongClickListener
	@Override
	public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return false;
	}
}	

The key for my CheckBoxPreference is "vibrate", and the default value is set to "false".

Thanks for any help you can offer on this matter!

[Steve Luke]

Jared Snyder wrote:In my app I have an Activity called AlarmActivity that will start when a condition is met in MainActivity. When AlarmActivity starts, if CheckBoxPreference for vibrate is checked, I, of course, want vibration to start. I also have an onLongClickListener attached to a button that silences the alarm, so I would like to stop vibrating when the new Activity starts. Presently, vibrating starts when the AlarmActivity starts, regardless of CheckBoxPreference, and continues even after the new Activity starts onLongClick; until I exit out of the app entirely.

This is my AlarmActivity:

//...
public class AlarmActivity extends Activity implements
OnLongClickListener {
	
	boolean alarmVibrate;
	
	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
//...
		long[] pattern = { 0, 200, 500 };
		v.vibrate(pattern, 0);

You call the vibrate function without ever checking the preference, so yes, if vibrates regardless of if the preference is on or off. You should read the preference and put this in an if statement dependent on the preference's value.

//...
	        public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
	            Intent intent = new Intent(AlarmActivity.this, MainActivity.class);
	            intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
	            startActivity(intent);
	            return true;
	        }
	    });
	}

Does the main activity silence the vibration? If not then you need to tell the vibration to stop here.

[Jared Snyder]

Thanks for replying, Steve!

I initially added that field, because I knew I would need it, but then decided that instead of trying to implement the Vibrator call AND tie it in with the preferences that I would first implement Vibrator on its own so that I could make sure that it was working properly.

In terms of cancelling vibration, I had figured that I needed to add the cancel method to the onLongClick method, but I was fumbling over where and how to insert it. I have managed to use something like this, which is working for me

...

               @Override
	        public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
	        	cancel(vib);
	            Intent intent = new Intent(AlarmActivity.this, MainActivity.class);
	            intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
	            startActivity(intent);
	            return true;
	        }
	        public void cancel(Vibrator vibrator){
	        	vib.cancel();
	        }
	       
	    });

Now, I can implement the preference. However, I have never used preferences before and am a bit puzzled by how to get the current state of the CheckBoxPreference for my AlarmActivity. Any pointers?

[Ron McLeod]

This page gives some explanation and examples on how to use shared preferences.

[Jared Snyder]

Ron McLeod wrote:This page gives some explanation and examples on how to use shared preferences.

So, based on the example on the Android developer site...

// Restore preferences
SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences(PREFS_NAME, 0);
boolean silent = settings.getBoolean("silentMode", false);
setSilent(silent);

Call an instance of SharedPreferences named settings.
Create a boolean field named silent and set it to the value of the key silentMode, which by default is false.
Feed the value of the boolean field named silent to the method setSilent

Am I interpreting that correctly? For my purpose, on step three, would I set my boolean named alarmVibrate, and then create an if statement that references the value of alarmVibrate?

[Jared Snyder]

I thought I was on-track with this, but apparently I'm not. Regardless of if the checkbox is selected or not, no vibrate.

AlarmActivity.java:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_alarm);

    final Vibrator vib = (Vibrator) getSystemService(Context.VIBRATOR_SERVICE);

    SharedPreferences prefs = this.getSharedPreferences("com.j5tech.app", Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
    boolean alarmVibrate = prefs.getBoolean("vibrate", false);
    if (alarmVibrate){

        long[] pattern = { 0, 200, 500 };
        vib.vibrate(pattern, 0);

    }else{

    }
...
}

In my preferences.xml...

<PreferenceScreen  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_width="match_parent">

<CheckBoxPreference
    android:key="vibrate"
    android:title="@string/vibrate_setting_title"
    android:summary="@string/vibrate_setting_summary"
    android:defaultValue="false" />

</PreferenceScreen>

[Jared Snyder]

So I ended up referring to a video on YouTube in order to complete the PreferencesActivity portion of my question...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGx03Uqn9JA