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Android Build a Blog Reader Android App Adapting Data for Display in a List Cleaning Up Our Presentation

Harry Kendall
Harry Kendall
2,463 Points
Posted by Harry Kendall
Harry Kendall
2,463 Points

is dialog disappearance a feature or a bug?

while working through this video, i noticed that the dialogue box did indeed work as expected, however once i added in the progressbar code, if i turn off the network, my app would just sit there with the spinning progressbar for... ever? also the text we set into the empty textView never shows.

i assumed this was an error i made, so i re-watched the video to see what i had missed, then just to be sure i downloaded the sample code and installed the pre-built apk on my phone, with showed the same behaviour... leading me to wonder if this is the intended behaviour(seems strange!), or just a bug... its been a long day and my head is full of little robots, so i apologize if this is self-evident, i shall re-watch the video again in the morning... :-) thanks!!

2 Answers

Ben Jakuben
STAFF
Ben Jakuben
Treehouse Teacher
Ben Jakuben
Ben Jakuben
Treehouse Teacher

Sounds like you found a bug! I just recreated it based on your description.

It looks like I forgot to hide the ProgressBar by default. We can do that in the layout file by adding a visibility parameter:

    <ProgressBar
        android:id="@+id/progressBar1"
        style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleLarge"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"
    android:visibility="invisible" />

Then, to have the empty text view display, we would need to use the same lines from updateDisplayForError() in the else condition in onCreate(), like this:

        if (isNetworkAvailable()) {
            mProgressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            GetBlogPostsTask getBlogPostsTask = new GetBlogPostsTask();
            getBlogPostsTask.execute();
        }
        else {
            Toast.makeText(this, "Network is unavailable!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                TextView emptyTextView = (TextView) getListView().getEmptyView();
        emptyTextView.setText(getString(R.string.no_items));
        }

But now we have the same code in two places, so we should refactor those two lines into a little helper method.

Sorry for the confusion! I'll address this when I refresh the course. I added a Known Issue in the Teacher's Notes as well.

Harry Kendall
Harry Kendall
2,463 Points
Harry Kendall
Harry Kendall
2,463 Points

No worries, thanks for the explanation! does this mean i get that exterminator badge the treehouse FAQ alludes to? :-)

and ill take this opportunity to thank you Ben, for your great work, this android course has been a pleasure to work through so far!

Ben Jakuben
Ben Jakuben
Treehouse Teacher
Ben Jakuben
Ben Jakuben
Treehouse Teacher

Oh yeah! I just need to tag Elizabeth Fawkes, Rob Allessi, and chelseyv. One of them can award you the badge. :) And thanks for the kind words!

ecp
ecp
838 Points

Ben Jakuben done! :) Thanks for tagging us.

Harry Kendall, you should see the exterminator badge on your profile. Thanks for helping us with our bug-squashing mission!