62.4 A Basic AsyncTask Example

The remainder of this chapter will work through some simple examples intended to provide a basic introduction to threads and the use of the AsyncTask class. The first step will be to highlight the importance of performing time-consuming tasks in a separate thread from the main thread.

Select the Start a new Android Studio project quick start option from the welcome screen and, within the resulting new project dialog, choose the Empty Activity template before clicking on the Next button.

Enter AsyncDemo into the Name field and specify com.ebookfrenzy.asyncdemo as the package name. Before clicking on the Finish button, change the Minimum API level setting to API 26: Android 8.0 (Oreo) and the Language menu to Kotlin.

Load the activity_main.xml file for the project into the Layout Editor tool. Select the default TextView component and change the ID for the view to myTextView in the Attributes tool window.

Add a Button view to the user interface...