Android中的消息机制

了解消息机制

我们知道在Android应用启动时，会默认有一个主线程（UI线程），在这个线程中会关联一个消息队列，所有的操作都会被封装成消息然后交给主线程来处理。为了保证主线程不会主动退出，会将获取消息的操作放在一个死循环中，这样程序就相当于一直在执行死循环，因此不会退出。如下图：

在开发中我们经常遇到要在子线程中去进行耗时任务，然后更新到UI中。但是，我们也都知道不能再子线程中更新UI。此时，最常用的方法就是通过Handler讲一个消息Post到UI线程中，然后再在Handler的handleMessage方法中进行处理。但是有一点，那就是该Handler必须在主线程中创建。这是因为每个Handler都会关联一个消息队列，消息队列最终会封装在Looper中，而每个Looper又会关联一个线程（Looper通过ThreadLocal封装），最终就等于每个消息队列会关联一个线程。默认情况下，消息队列只有一个，即主线程的消息队列，这个消息队列是在ActivityThread.main方法中创建的，通过Looper.prepareMainLooper()来创建，最后执行Looper.loop()来启动消息。我们看一下源码：

public class Handler {
//代码省略
 mLooper = Looper.myLooper();
        if (mLooper == null) {
            throw new RuntimeException(
                "Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()");
        }
        mQueue = mLooper.mQueue;
        mCallback = callback;
        mAsynchronous = async;
    }

从Handler默认的构造函数中我们可以看出，Handler会在内部通过Looper.getLooper()来获取Looper对象，并且与之关联，最重要的就是消息队列。我们继续看下Looper的源码：

public static void prepare() {
        prepare(true);
    }

    private static void prepare(boolean quitAllowed) {
        if (sThreadLocal.get() != null) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Only one Looper may be created per thread");
        }
        sThreadLocal.set(new Looper(quitAllowed));
    }

    /**
     * Initialize the current thread as a looper, marking it as an
     * application's main looper. The main looper for your application
     * is created by the Android environment, so you should never need
     * to call this function yourself.  See also: {@link #prepare()}
     */
    public static void prepareMainLooper() {
        prepare(false);
        synchronized (Looper.class) {
            if (sMainLooper != null) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("The main Looper has already been prepared.");
            }
            sMainLooper = myLooper();
        }
    }

    /**
     * Returns the application's main looper, which lives in the main thread of the application.
     */
    public static Looper getMainLooper() {
        synchronized (Looper.class) {
            return sMainLooper;
        }
    }
    /**
     * Return the Looper object associated with the current thread.  Returns
     * null if the calling thread is not associated with a Looper.
     */
    public static @Nullable Looper myLooper() {
        return sThreadLocal.get();
    }

我们看到myLooper(）方法是通过sThreadLocal.get()方法。上面的方法还有一个熟悉的方法prepareMainLooper()方法，在这个方法中调用了prepare(）方法，在这个方法中创建了一个Looper对象，并且将该对象设置给了sThreadLocal。这样，队列就与线程关联上了。这样一来，不同的线程就不能访问对方的消息队列了。

消息队列——MessageQueue

MessageQueue主要包含两个操作：插入和读取，读取操作本身会伴随着删除操作。插入和读取操作对应的方法分别是enqueueMessage和next。因为需要频繁的插入删除操作，所以MessageQueue它的内部实现并不是队列，而是单链表。next方法的逻辑如下：

Message next() {
        // Return here if the message loop has already quit and been disposed.
        // This can happen if the application tries to restart a looper after quit
        // which is not supported.
        final long ptr = mPtr;
        if (ptr == 0) {
            return null;
        }

        int pendingIdleHandlerCount = -1; // -1 only during first iteration
        int nextPollTimeoutMillis = 0;
        for (;;) {
            if (nextPollTimeoutMillis != 0) {
                Binder.flushPendingCommands();
            }

            nativePollOnce(ptr, nextPollTimeoutMillis);

            synchronized (this) {
                // Try to retrieve the next message.  Return if found.
                final long now = SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
                Message prevMsg = null;
                Message msg = mMessages;
                if (msg != null && msg.target == null) {
                    // Stalled by a barrier.  Find the next asynchronous message in the queue.
                    do {
                        prevMsg = msg;
                        msg = msg.next;
                    } while (msg != null && !msg.isAsynchronous());
                }
                if (msg != null) {
                    if (now < msg.when) {
                        // Next message is not ready.  Set a timeout to wake up when it is ready.
                        nextPollTimeoutMillis = (int) Math.min(msg.when - now, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
                    } else {
                        // Got a message.
                        mBlocked = false;
                        if (prevMsg != null) {
                            prevMsg.next = msg.next;
                        } else {
                            mMessages = msg.next;
                        }
                        msg.next = null;
                        if (DEBUG) Log.v(TAG, "Returning message: " + msg);
                        msg.markInUse();
                        return msg;
                    }
                } else {
                    // No more messages.
                    nextPollTimeoutMillis = -1;
                }

                // Process the quit message now that all pending messages have been handled.
                if (mQuitting) {
                    dispose();
                    return null;
                }

                // If first time idle, then get the number of idlers to run.
                // Idle handles only run if the queue is empty or if the first message
                // in the queue (possibly a barrier) is due to be handled in the future.
                if (pendingIdleHandlerCount < 0
                        && (mMessages == null || now < mMessages.when)) {
                    pendingIdleHandlerCount = mIdleHandlers.size();
                }
                if (pendingIdleHandlerCount <= 0) {
                    // No idle handlers to run.  Loop and wait some more.
                    mBlocked = true;
                    continue;
                }

                if (mPendingIdleHandlers == null) {
                    mPendingIdleHandlers = new IdleHandler[Math.max(pendingIdleHandlerCount, 4)];
                }
                mPendingIdleHandlers = mIdleHandlers.toArray(mPendingIdleHandlers);
            }

            // Run the idle handlers.
            // We only ever reach this code block during the first iteration.
            for (int i = 0; i < pendingIdleHandlerCount; i++) {
                final IdleHandler idler = mPendingIdleHandlers[i];
                mPendingIdleHandlers[i] = null; // release the reference to the handler

                boolean keep = false;
                try {
                    keep = idler.queueIdle();
                } catch (Throwable t) {
                    Log.wtf(TAG, "IdleHandler threw exception", t);
                }

                if (!keep) {
                    synchronized (this) {
                        mIdleHandlers.remove(idler);
                    }
                }
            }

            // Reset the idle handler count to 0 so we do not run them again.
            pendingIdleHandlerCount = 0;

            // While calling an idle handler, a new message could have been delivered
            // so go back and look again for a pending message without waiting.
            nextPollTimeoutMillis = 0;
        }
    }

可以发现next方法是一个无限循环的方法，如果消息队列中没有消息，那么next方法会一直阻塞在这里。当有新消息到来时，next方法就会返回这条消息并将其从单链表中移除。

Looper的工作原理

关于Looper的工作原理之前已经提到了。Looper提供了prepare方法和prepareMainLooper方法，用于创建Looper使用。同时，Looper也是可以推出的，Looper提供了quit和quitSafely来退出一个Looper。两者的区别是：quit会直接退出Looper，而quitSafely只是设定一个退出的标记，然后把消息队列中的已有消息处理完毕后才安全的退出。
前面我们提到，loop方法会调用MessageQueue的next方法来获取新消息。当next方法返回null的时候就会一直阻塞在那里，这也导致loop方法一直阻塞在那里。如果MessageQueue的next方法返回了新消息，Looper就会处理这条消息。

Handler的工作原理

Handler的工作主要包含消息的发送和接收过程。消息的发送可以通过post的一系列方法以及send的一系列方法来实现，post的一系列方法最终是通过send实现的。部分源码如下：

public final boolean sendMessage(Message msg)
    {
        return sendMessageDelayed(msg, 0);
    }

    /**
     * Sends a Message containing only the what value.
     *  
     * @return Returns true if the message was successfully placed in to the 
     *         message queue.  Returns false on failure, usually because the
     *         looper processing the message queue is exiting.
     */
    public final boolean sendEmptyMessage(int what)
    {
        return sendEmptyMessageDelayed(what, 0);
    }

    /**
     * Sends a Message containing only the what value, to be delivered
     * after the specified amount of time elapses.
     * @see #sendMessageDelayed(android.os.Message, long) 
     * 
     * @return Returns true if the message was successfully placed in to the 
     *         message queue.  Returns false on failure, usually because the
     *         looper processing the message queue is exiting.
     */
    public final boolean sendEmptyMessageDelayed(int what, long delayMillis) {
        Message msg = Message.obtain();
        msg.what = what;
        return sendMessageDelayed(msg, delayMillis);
    }

    /**
     * Sends a Message containing only the what value, to be delivered 
     * at a specific time.
     * @see #sendMessageAtTime(android.os.Message, long)
     *  
     * @return Returns true if the message was successfully placed in to the 
     *         message queue.  Returns false on failure, usually because the
     *         looper processing the message queue is exiting.
     */

    public final boolean sendEmptyMessageAtTime(int what, long uptimeMillis) {
        Message msg = Message.obtain();
        msg.what = what;
        return sendMessageAtTime(msg, uptimeMillis);
    }

可以发现，Handler发送消息的过程仅仅是向消息队列中插入了一条消息，MessageQueue的next方法就会返回这条消息给Looper，Looper收到消息后就开始处理了，最终消息由Looper交由Handler处理，Handler的dispatchMessage方法会被调用，这时Handler就进入了消息处理阶段。dispatchMessage的实现如下：

 public void dispatchMessage(Message msg) {
        if (msg.callback != null) {
            handleCallback(msg);
        } else {
            if (mCallback != null) {
                if (mCallback.handleMessage(msg)) {
                    return;
                }
            }
            handleMessage(msg);
        }
    }