Contantly updating textview in a custom cursor adapter

Question

I have a

1. TimelineViewActivity class, contains a listView
2. TimelineFeedsCursorAdapter class, extends the CursorAdapter

Here, in this adapter class I am fetching the rows from SQLite db and populating the list.

Now in each list item there is a time specifying when was the timeline feed created i.e. 2 hours ago or 10 hours ago, etc.

How can I update the time TextView constantly using a Handler and postDelay() function from TimelineViewActivity class so that I don't have to refresh each item all the time, just like in Facebook app - the timeline posts.

Answer 1

You shouldn't use Handler. When using CursorAdapter with db integration best thing to do is to implements LoaderCallbacks<Cursor> which will give you callback on every database changes. you will need to initiate the callback on your onCreate method like this: getLoaderManager().initLoader(0, null, this);

Now the fun part: when implementing LoaderCallbacks<Cursor> you will forced to override three methods:

first method will be called once and create the loader. when creating the loader, you specifying which columns you want to receive on each database change:

        @Override
    public Loader<Cursor> onCreateLoader(int id, Bundle args) {
        CursorLoader loader = new CursorLoader(getActivity(), DataProvider.CONTENT_URI_MESSAGES, new String[] {
                DataProvider.COL_ID, DataProvider.COL_NAME, DataProvider.COL_DATE }, null, null, DataProvider.COL_DATE
                + " DESC");
        return loader;
    }

second method will be called when the loader will created and on every database change on the loader table (I think this is what you looking for):

        @Override
    public void onLoadFinished(Loader<Cursor> loader, Cursor data) {
        Log.i("");
        adapter.swapCursor(data);
    }

the last methode will be called when the loader rest itself:

        @Override
    public void onLoaderReset(Loader<Cursor> loader) {
        adapter.swapCursor(null);
    }

Visit http://developer.android.com/guide/components/loaders.html for more information.

EDIT: try use the code from within your adapter:

@Override
        public void setViewText(TextView textView, String text) {

            if(textView.getId() == R.id.tv_time_past) {
                 long creation_date = 0;
                 if (text.matches("[0-9]+") && text.length() > 2)                   
                     creation_date = Long.parseLong();
                 if(creation_date > 0)
                     new DateSetter(textView, creation_date );

            }
}

code for DateSetter thread:

   private class DateSetter extends Thread{

    private TextView textView;
    private long creation_date;

    public DateSetter(TextView textView, long creation_date){
        this.textView = textView;
        this.creation_date = creation_date;
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void run() {
        while (mRunning) {
            String datePast = getTimePastAsString(System.currentTimeMillis(), creation_date);
            Long.parseLong()
            textView.setText(datePast);
            try {
                Thread.sleep(1000);// update every 1 seconds
            } catch(Exception e){};
        }
    }
}