how to wait for Android runOnUiThread to be finished?

I have a worker thread that creates a runnable object and calls runOnUiThread on it, because it deals with Views and controls. I'd like to use the result of the work of the runnable object right away. How do I wait for it to finish? It doesn't bother me if it's blocking.

Solution 1:

Just scratching out the highlights

synchronized( myRunnable ) {
   activity.runOnUiThread(myRunnable) ;

   myRunnable.wait() ; // unlocks myRunable while waiting
}

Meanwhile... in myRunnable...

void run()
{
   // do stuff

   synchronized(this)
   {
      this.notify();
   }
}

Solution 2:

Perhaps a little simplistic but a mutex will do the job:

final Semaphore mutex = new Semaphore(0);
activity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // YOUR CODE HERE
        mutex.release();
    }
});

try {
    mutex.acquire();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Solution 3:

Andrew answer is good, I create a class for easier use.

Interface implementation :

/**
 * Events for blocking runnable executing on UI thread
 * 
 * @author 
 *
 */
public interface BlockingOnUIRunnableListener
{

    /**
     * Code to execute on UI thread
     */
    public void onRunOnUIThread();
}

Class implementation :

/**
 * Blocking Runnable executing on UI thread
 * 
 * @author 
 *
 */
public class BlockingOnUIRunnable
{
    // Activity
    private Activity activity;

    // Event Listener
    private BlockingOnUIRunnableListener listener;

    // UI runnable
    private Runnable uiRunnable;


    /**
     * Class initialization
     * @param activity Activity
     * @param listener Event listener
     */
    public BlockingOnUIRunnable( Activity activity, BlockingOnUIRunnableListener listener )
    {
        this.activity = activity;
        this.listener = listener;

        uiRunnable = new Runnable()
        {
            public void run()
            {
                // Execute custom code
                if ( BlockingOnUIRunnable.this.listener != null ) BlockingOnUIRunnable.this.listener.onRunOnUIThread();

                synchronized ( this )
                {
                    this.notify();
                }
            }
        };
    }


    /**
     * Start runnable on UI thread and wait until finished
     */
    public void startOnUiAndWait()
    {
        synchronized ( uiRunnable )
        {
            // Execute code on UI thread
            activity.runOnUiThread( uiRunnable );

            // Wait until runnable finished
            try
            {
                uiRunnable.wait();
            }
            catch ( InterruptedException e )
            {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }

}

Using it :

// Execute an action from non-gui thread
BlockingOnUIRunnable actionRunnable = new BlockingOnUIRunnable( yourActivity, new BlockingOnUIRunnableListener()
{
    public void onRunOnUIThread()
    {
        // Execute your activity code here
    }
} );

actionRunnable.startOnUiAndWait();