android - Problem with Toast in AsyncTask method call

Question

Hey Everybody,
I have an AsyncTask that posts some data to a server. It does this by calling a static method that I wrote from doInBackground. When I run the AsyncTask, I send the context of the activity that called execute(), which I send to my static method, because it needs it to make a Toast if something goes wrong while talking to the server. However, I get this error when a Toast is made in the static method:

04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): FATAL EXCEPTION: AsyncTask #1
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): java.lang.RuntimeException: An error occured   while executing doInBackground()
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123):at android.os.AsyncTask$3.done(AsyncTask.java:200)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerSetException(FutureTask.java:274)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.setException(FutureTask.java:125)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:308)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1088)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:581)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1019)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at android.os.Handler.<init>(Handler.java:121)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at android.widget.Toast.<init>(Toast.java:68)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at android.widget.Toast.makeText(Toast.java:23
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at com.microogle.dev.util.ServerConnections.PostToLoginPage(ServerConnections.java:36)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at com.microogle.dev.Whiteboard.WhiteboardLogin$LoginTask.doInBackground(WhiteboardLogin.java:150)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at com.microogle.dev.Whiteboard.WhiteboardLogin$LoginTask.doInBackground(WhiteboardLogin.java:1)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at android.os.AsyncTask$2.call(AsyncTask.java:185)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:306)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): ... 4 more

Which is followed by a leaked window error. I am assuming this is because of an error with the context passed to the Toast in the static method. The AsyncTask is:

private class LoginTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {

    private WhiteboardLogin activity;
    private Context callingContext;
    private ProgressDialog dialog;
    private String user, pass;
    private boolean sendIntent = true, loginError = false, populateError = false;

    public LoginTask(WhiteboardLogin activity, String user, String pass, Context callingContext){
        this.activity = activity;
        this.user = user.trim();
        this.pass = pass.trim();
        this.callingContext = callingContext;
    }
@Override
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
        ArrayList<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
        nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("user",user));
        nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("pass",pass));
        sessionUser = user;
        sessionPassword = pass;
        //Posts the username and password to the login page and toasts an error if the login doesn't work 
        if(ServerConnections.PostToLoginPage(callingContext, nameValuePairs, activity.getString(R.string.loginPageURI)) == 1){
            dialog.dismiss();
            sendIntent = false;
            loginError = true;
            publishProgress();
           return null;
        }
        else{
           userDataList = populateUserDataList(callingContext, user,pass);
           if(userDataList == null){
               dialog.dismiss();
               sendIntent = false;
               populateError = true;
               return null;
           }
       }
       return null;
    }

Answer 1

The code in the doInBackground() method runs on its own thread so you cannot access any UI element from there directly as they are running on the UI thread.

So you got two options.

1. You handle all the UI stuff in the onPreExecute() and onPostExecute() method which run on the UI thread.

2. You handle UI stuff in the onProgressUpdate() method which also runs on the UI thread. You can trigger this method from within doInBackground() by calling publishProgress().