Problem with Toast in AsyncTask method call

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.Futu开发者_运维技巧reTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:308)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1088)
04-21 12:49:16.689: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2123): at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$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;
    }

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().

you can Toast inside doInBackground

use this code

runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {

    Toast.makeText(<your class name>.this, "Cool Ha?", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
});

You are trying to update the UI within doInBackground() which runs in another thread different from the UI thread. You should display the Toast in the onPostExecute() method on your AsyncTask: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html#onPostExecute(Result)

Yeah using a log for debugging is simplest, however if you do have messages that need to be displayed during the background processing for whatever reason, you can use the onProgressUpdate() method, as noted above by Flo. You can trigger this method whenever you need to write a message, by calling publishProgress() from within DoInBackground(). Message content or processing statuses can easily be passed via private variables in the ASyncTask which are accessible to both the Background method and the UI methods.