Android Question Kiosk initialize behavior

[jareal]

Hi,

Want to share an experience that may help others save time.

I have a regular app and decided to Kiosk it following instructions from
https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/device-owner-tasklock-kiosk-apps-2017.81765/#post-518018 and the app run flawless.

Made the app a Home Launcher Activity and restarted the device. Then I had some unexpected behaviors:

• Main module 'Sub Activity_Create' try to use a ClientKVS global variable declared at 'starter service' and initialized at 'Sub Service Create' but... it was not initialized!

Moved the ClientKVS initialization to the Main activity and problem solved.

• I get the IMEI from GetDeviceId (PhoneId library) to setup a global string variable in starter module 'Sub Service Create'.

It returned empty string !

Moved the code to Main activity and got the same value: "". Seems the library was not operational yet.

So tried this at Main activity:

Dim pId As PhoneId
...
Do While pId.GetDeviceId.Length = 0
    Log("GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI")
  Loop

And after many lines of log the IMEI showed up!

Moved the code above to starter service and also worked.

That's it. Explanations and/or suggestions are welcome!

 

[Erel]

Can you post the logs when your app starts?

 

[jareal]

Sure!
Log when the app is downloaded and executed:

*** Service (starter) Create ***
Starter: Inicializando ckvs
Starter: sImei=999999
** Service (starter) Start **
** Activity (main) Create, isFirst = true **
Main: sImei=999999
** Activity (main) Resume **
*** Service (httputils2service) Create ***
** Service (httputils2service) Start **
** Activity (main) Pause, UserClosed = false **

Log when the device is restarted:

--------- beginning of system
--------- beginning of main
*** Service (starter) Create ***
Starter: Inicializando ckvs
Starter: GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI
Starter: sImei=
** Service (starter) Start **
** Activity (main) Create, isFirst = true **
Main: GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI
Main: GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI
... about 1800 lines ...
Main: GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI
Main: GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI
Main: sImei=999999
** Activity (main) Resume **
** Activity (main) Pause, UserClosed = false **
*** Service (httputils2service) Create ***
** Service (httputils2service) Start **
*** Service (soverlay) Create ***
** Service (soverlay) Start **

 

[Erel]

It is started properly, meaning that the starter service is created and started.

I would use this code to wait for the sim card to be ready:

Dim StartTime As Long = DateTime.Now
Do While pId.GetDeviceId.Length = 0
    Log("GetDeviceId não retornou IMEI")
    If DateTime.Now - StartTime > 30000 Then Exit 'don't loop forevet
    Sleep(100)
Loop

 

[jareal]

Hi,

another bit of 'erratic' behaviour when we have an app in Kiosk Mode (Home app, Owner of the device) and power it up:

I have used the code from the previous post in 'Create_Service' from Starter service without problems on many devices but then on a new device happened that Activity_Create from Main was started and tried to use the globals long before they were initialized in Starter service.

Perhaps something related to new device runs Android 6 and the other devices run Android 5. Not sure if this is relevant.

So I copied the initialization code to Main and got this log:

Logger connected to: XXXXXXXXXX
--------- beginning of main
Main: sImei=999999
Cel_48
--------- beginning of system
RefreshUser PrevV_01
DropTable: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [Clientes]
CreateTable: CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS ...
DropTable: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [Municipios]
CreateTable: CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS ...
DropTable: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [Produtos]
CreateTable: CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS ...
DropTable: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [PreviVend]
DropTable: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [Hprod]
Starter: sImei=999999
*** Service (soverlay) Create ***
** Service (soverlay) Start **
*** Service (httputils2service) Create ***
** Service (httputils2service) Start **
*** Service (reboot) Create ***
** Service (reboot) Start **
** Activity (main) Pause, UserClosed = false **
** Activity (main) Resume **

Note that the initialization of some globals in Starter service (line 'Starter: sImei=999999') is reached after a lot of processing in Main.

It seems to me that in Kiosk mode (Home app, owner of the device) the initialization MUST be done in Main, not in Starter service.

 

[Erel]

Where is the *** Service (starter) Create** message?

 

[jareal]

When the device powers up and my app is the Home app the moment that we press the 'Connect' button is very sensitive. If too early we get a 'No device found', if a bit late some of the early logs don't show up.

I stripped down the app to better show what happens and created a sub to write my log to a file, so no need to play with the 'Connect' button:

Main:

Sub Activity_Create(FirstTime As Boolean)
    '
    X.Wlog("Main: Activity_Create")
    '
    If Not(Starter.ckvs.IsInitialized) Then
        x.Wlog("Main: ckvs não estava inicializado")
        '
        Starter.ckvs.Initialize(Me, "ckvs", "http://192.168.2.51:51041")
        '
        Starter.kvsVendas.Initialize(File.DirDefaultExternal, "kvsVendas")
        Starter.kvsTrocas.Initialize(File.DirDefaultExternal, "kvsTrocas")
        Starter.kvsClientes.Initialize(File.DirDefaultExternal, "kvsClientes")
        '
        Starter.mapProdCor.Initialize
    End If
    '
    Activity.LoadLayout("layMain")
    '
    If Starter.sImei.Length = 0 Then
        Dim pId As PhoneId
 
        x.wLog("Main: sImei vazio")
        Dim StartTime As Long = DateTime.Now
        Do While pId.GetDeviceId.Length = 0
            If DateTime.Now - StartTime > 30000 Then Exit 'don't loop forever
            Sleep(100)
        Loop
        If pId.GetDeviceId.Length = 0 Then
            X.Wlog("Main: Não conseguiu DeviceId")
        Else
            Starter.sImei = pId.GetDeviceId.SubString(9)
            x.wLog("Main: Inicializou sImei=" & Starter.sImei)
        End If
    Else
        X.Wlog("Main: sImei was OK")
    End If
    '
    Try
        GetManager.RunMethod("setLockTaskPackages", Array(GetAdminComponent, Array As String(Application.PackageName)))
        GetContext.RunMethod("startLockTask", Null)
        Starter.bAppLocked = True
        Starter.bKiosk = True
        x.wLog("Locked")
    Catch
        X.msgError("Falhou no LOCK", "Vai ficar em Kiosk simples" & CRLF & LastException)
        Starter.bKiosk = True        ' vai ficar em modo Kiosk pelo menos
        '
        x.wLog(LastException)
    End Try
    '
End Sub

Sub btSaida_Click
 
    Dim i As Intent
    i.Initialize("android.settings.SETTINGS", "")
    StartActivity(i)
 
End Sub

Sub lblLock_Click

    If Starter.bAppLocked = False Then        ' mandou dar Lock
        Try
            GetManager.RunMethod("setLockTaskPackages", Array(GetAdminComponent, Array As String(Application.PackageName)))
            GetContext.RunMethod("startLockTask", Null)
            Starter.bAppLocked = True
            lblLock.Text = "Locked"
            x.wLog("Locked")
        Catch
            x.wLog("Main: lblLock Error: " & LastException)
        End Try
        '
        Activity_Create(False)
    Else                        ' mandou dar UNlock
        GetContext.RunMethod("stopLockTask", Null)
        Starter.bAppLocked = False
        lblLock.Text = "UNLocked"
        x.wLog("UNlocked")
    End If

End Sub

Sub GetAdminComponent As Object
    Dim jo As JavaObject = Starter.admin
    Return jo.GetFieldJO("rec")
End Sub

Sub GetManager As JavaObject
    Dim jo As JavaObject = Starter.admin
    Return jo.GetFieldJO("dm")
End Sub

Sub GetContext As JavaObject
    Dim jo As JavaObject
    jo.InitializeContext
    Return jo
End Sub

Starter Service:

Sub Service_Create
    Dim pId As PhoneId
    '
    X.Wlog("Starter: Service_Create")
    '
    ' Pq em modo KIOSK parece que inicializa antes em Main do que aqui
    If Not(ckvs.IsInitialized) Then
        x.Wlog("Starter: Inicializando ckvs")
        '
        ckvs.Initialize(Me, "ckvs", "http://192.168.2.51:51041")
        '
        kvsVendas.Initialize(File.DirDefaultExternal, "kvsVendas")
        kvsTrocas.Initialize(File.DirDefaultExternal, "kvsTrocas")
        kvsClientes.Initialize(File.DirDefaultExternal, "kvsClientes")
        '
        mapProdCor.Initialize
    End If
    '
    bCkvsUpdated = False
    '
    If sImei.Length = 0 Then
        Dim pId As PhoneId
 
        x.wLog("Starter: sImei vazio")
        Dim StartTime As Long = DateTime.Now
        Do While pId.GetDeviceId.Length = 0
            If DateTime.Now - StartTime > 30000 Then Exit 'don't loop forever
            Sleep(100)
        Loop
        If pId.GetDeviceId.Length = 0 Then
            X.Wlog("Starter: Não conseguiu DeviceId")
        Else
            sImei = pId.GetDeviceId.SubString(9)
            x.wLog("Starter: Inicializou sImei=" & sImei)
        End If
    Else
        X.Wlog("Starter: sImei was OK")
    End If
    '
    NativeMe.InitializeContext

End Sub

Sub Service_Start (StartingIntent As Intent)

X.Wlog("Starter: Service_Start")

End Sub

And here the wLog sub:

Sub Wlog (pMsg As String)
    Dim twlog As TextWriter
 
    Log("Wlog: " & pMsg)
    twlog.Initialize(File.OpenOutput(File.DirDefaultExternal, "Log_app.txt", True)    )
    twlog.WriteLine(DateTime.Time(DateTime.Now) & " - " & pMsg)
    twlog.Close

End Sub

Finally here is the Log_app.txt file with two consecutives restarts of the device:

20:21:25 - Starter: Service_Create
20:21:25 - Starter: Inicializando ckvs
20:21:25 - Starter: sImei vazio
20:21:25 - Starter: Service_Start
20:21:25 - Main: Activity_Create
20:21:26 - Main: sImei vazio
20:21:27 - Main: Inicializou sImei=598218
20:21:27 - Locked
20:21:27 - Starter: Inicializou sImei=598218
--------------------------------------------
20:23:21 - Starter: Service_Create
20:23:21 - Starter: Inicializando ckvs
20:23:22 - Starter: sImei vazio
20:23:22 - Starter: Service_Start
20:23:22 - Main: Activity_Create
20:23:22 - Main: sImei vazio
20:23:24 - Starter: Inicializou sImei=598218
20:23:24 - Main: Inicializou sImei=598218
20:23:24 - Locked

(I inserted the line with dashes to better visualize)

As we see in this log each restart has a different behaviour.
This also happened with the cloudKVS initialization, I see once it was done in Main.

 

[Erel]

It is a mistake to initialize objects of other modules.

The logs look fine. The starter service is starter.

Just add Sleep(10000) and then do whatever you like.

 

[jareal]

It is a mistake to initialize objects of other modules.

Agree

Is it correct to assume that the Sleep(10000) is to be inserted at the beginning of Main (Activity_Create) ?
To give time to Starter do its job?

 

[Erel]

It depends on the code in Starter service.

Use CallSubDelayed to call a sub in the main activity from the starter service when it is ready.