multithreading - Android run thread in service every X seconds

Question

I want to create a thread in an Android service that runs every X seconds

I am currently using , but the postdelayed method seems to really lag out my app.

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId){

    super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);

    startRepeatingTask();

    return startId;
}

private final static int INTERVAL = 20000; //20 milliseconds
Handler m_handler = new Handler();

Runnable m_handlerTask = new Runnable()
{
     @Override 
     public void run() {
         // this is bad
          m_handler.postDelayed(m_handlerTask, INTERVAL);
     }
};

void startRepeatingTask()
{
    m_handlerTask.run(); 
}

void stopRepeatingTask()
{
   m_handler.removeCallbacks(m_handlerTask);
   stopSelf();
}

I want to do a new thread like this:

public void threadRun()
{
    Thread triggerService = new Thread(new Runnable(){
        public void run(){
            Looper.prepare();
            try{
                    //do stuff here?

            }catch(Exception ex){
                    System.out.println("Exception in triggerService Thread -- "+ex);
            }//end catch


        }//end run
    }, "aThread");
    triggerService.start();      

    //perhaps do stuff here with a timer?
    timer1=new Timer();

    timer1.scheduleAtFixedRate(new methodTODOSTUFF(), 0, INTERVAL);
}

I'm not sure the best way to do a background thread to run at a certain interval, insight appreciated!

Answer 1

There are number of alternative ways to do this. Personally, I prefer to use ScheduledExecutorService:

ScheduledExecutorService scheduleTaskExecutor = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(5);

// This schedule a runnable task every 2 minutes
scheduleTaskExecutor.scheduleAtFixedRate(new Runnable() {
  public void run() {
    doSomethingUseful();
  }
}, 0, 2, TimeUnit.MINUTES);