Main UI freezes even when tasks are handled by AsyncTask

Question

I made Service that runs on the background collecting data from internet using AsyncTask and storing them in Shared Preferences. Even though the work is done in AsyncTask it still freezes my main activity.

Here is the code for Service:

public class GetterService extends Service {

    SharedPreferences.Editor editor;
    HashMap<Integer,String> links = new HashMap<Integer,String>();

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        editor = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this).edit();
        populateLinks();
    }

    private void populateLinks(){
        // Here I add links to HashMap
    }

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "GetterService ON BIND", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        Toast.makeText(this, "GetterService ON DESTROY", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {

        doTasks();

        return super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onUnbind(Intent intent) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "GetterService ON UNBIND", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        return super.onUnbind(intent);
    }

    private void doTasks(){
        for (Integer in : links.keySet()) {

            Document doc = null;

            try {
                doc = new NetTask().execute(links.get(in)).get();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (ExecutionException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            if (doc != null) {
                Elements names = doc.select("strong, li");

                if(names != null && names.size() > 0) {
                    for (int j = 0; j < names.size(); j++) {
                        editor.putString("header"+j, names.get(j).text().toString());
                    }
                }
                editor.commit();
            }
        }   
    }

    public class NetTask extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, Document>
    {
        @Override
        protected Document doInBackground(String... params)
        {
            Document doc = null;
            try {
                doc = Jsoup.connect(params[0]).timeout(5000).get();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            return doc;
        }
    }
}

and here is how I start the service from main activity:

Intent startServiceIntent = new Intent(this, GetterService.class);
        this.startService(startServiceIntent);

Answer 1

Even though the work is done in AsyncTask it still freezes my main activity.

You are using get():

doc = new NetTask().execute(links.get(in)).get();

And get() blocks the UI thread until the AsyncTask has completed, to me this method defeats the purpose of using a AsyncTask...

---

You should move this logic:

if (doc != null) {
    Elements names = doc.select("strong, li");

    if(names != null && names.size() > 0) {
        for (int j = 0; j < names.size(); j++) {
            editor.putString("header"+j, names.get(j).text().toString());
        }
    }
    editor.commit();
}

Inside your NetTask's onPostExecute() method and remove get(). Now your AsyncTask won't bind-up the main thread.