Periodic Work | Workmanager | Android Development Tutorial

Introduction

In Android development, WorkManager is a powerful library for scheduling deferrable and asynchronous tasks. One of the key features of WorkManager is its ability to schedule periodic work, which is useful for tasks that need to run on a regular basis, such as syncing data with a server.

What is Periodic Work?

Periodic work is a type of work that repeats at regular intervals. Unlike one-time work, which executes only once, periodic work continues to run at specified intervals until explicitly cancelled. This is particularly useful for tasks that need to be performed regularly, such as fetching updates or performing maintenance tasks.

Setting Up WorkManager

Before you can use WorkManager, you need to add the necessary dependencies to your project. Add the following lines to your build.gradle file:

implementation "androidx.work:work-runtime:2.7.0"

Creating a Worker Class

To define the work that needs to be performed, you create a class that extends Worker and override the doWork() method. Here is an example:

import android.content.Context;
import androidx.annotation.NonNull;
import androidx.work.Worker;
import androidx.work.WorkerParameters;

public class MyPeriodicWorker extends Worker {

    public MyPeriodicWorker(@NonNull Context context, @NonNull WorkerParameters params) {
        super(context, params);
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public Result doWork() {
        // Your periodic task code here
        return Result.success();
    }
}

Scheduling Periodic Work

To schedule a periodic work, you use the PeriodicWorkRequest class. Here is how you can create and enqueue a periodic work request:

import androidx.work.PeriodicWorkRequest;
import androidx.work.WorkManager;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

PeriodicWorkRequest periodicWorkRequest =
    new PeriodicWorkRequest.Builder(MyPeriodicWorker.class, 15, TimeUnit.MINUTES)
        .build();

WorkManager.getInstance(context).enqueue(periodicWorkRequest);

In this example, the work is scheduled to run every 15 minutes. You can adjust the interval as needed, but the minimum interval allowed is 15 minutes.

Observing Work Status

You can observe the status of your periodic work using LiveData. This is useful for updating your UI based on the work's progress or completion status. Here is an example:

import androidx.lifecycle.Observer;
import androidx.work.WorkInfo;

WorkManager.getInstance(context).getWorkInfoByIdLiveData(periodicWorkRequest.getId())
    .observe(lifecycleOwner, new Observer() {
        @Override
        public void onChanged(WorkInfo workInfo) {
            if (workInfo != null && workInfo.getState().isFinished()) {
                // Work completed
            }
        }
    });

Cancelling Periodic Work

If you need to cancel a periodic work request, you can do so using the WorkManager's cancelWorkById() method. Here is an example:

WorkManager.getInstance(context).cancelWorkById(periodicWorkRequest.getId());

Conclusion

Periodic work is a powerful feature of WorkManager that allows you to schedule tasks to run at regular intervals. By following this tutorial, you should now have a good understanding of how to implement and manage periodic work in your Android applications.

Periodic Work in Android Development