Depending on your specific needs, a service might make sense, but for simple cases, it's not strictly necessary. You can instead use Activity.onRetainNonConfigurationInstance(), which allows you to pass live Java objects to the new Activity instance - i.e., for example an AsyncTask object. Just make sure you don't create leaks by keeping references to old instances of your Activity around.
I've been using a custom ASyncTask child class for a while that allows me to "connect" to the task from a new activity instance, and have the proper callbacks be executed even if the tasked finished in-between activities being available: http://github.com/miracle2k/android-autostarts/blob/master/src/com/elsdoerfer/android/autostarts/ActivityAsyncTask.java Note that while the docs say that onRetainNonConfigurationInstance is only for "optimization", it's not quite clear what that the official contract is. Yes, it's possible that your activity needs to restore itself without onRetainNonConfigurationInstance(). For example, if the user leaves your application via HOME and then goes into the Settings and changes the device language, your activity will be stopped and restarted, presumably without onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() being called. However, it might be ok if in those cases your api request will indeed need start again fresh, depending on it's duration, and maybe whether it changes state on the server. But for your run of the mill orientation change, onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() is apparently being reliable called, and it has been suggested on this list a number of times that it is intended to be used for objects that can't be stored in a bundle, like for example sockets. Michael -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
