Android子线程真的不能更新UI么

Android单线程模型是这样描述的：

Android UI操作并不是线程安全的，并且这些操作必须在UI线程执行

如果在其它线程访问UI线程，Android提供了以下的方式：

Activity.runOnUiThread(Runnable)

View.post(Runnable)

View.postDelayed(Runnable, long)

Handler

为什么呢？在子线程中就不能操作UI么？

当一个程序第一次启动的时候，Android会同时启动一个对应的主线程，这个主线程就是UI线程，也就是ActivityThread。UI线程主要负责处理与UI相关的事件，如用户的按键点击、用户触摸屏幕以及屏幕绘图等。系统不会为每个组件单独创建一个线程，在同一个进程里的UI组件都会在UI线程里实例化，系统对每一个组件的调用都从UI线程分发出去。所以，响应系统回调的方法永远都是在UI线程里运行，如响应用户动作的onKeyDown()的回调。

那为什么选择一个主线程干这些活呢？换个说法，Android为什么使用单线程模型，它有什么好处？

先让我们看下单线程化的事件队列模型是怎么定义的：

采用一个专门的线程从队列中抽取事件，并把他们转发给应用程序定义的事件处理器

这看起来就是Android的消息队列、Looper和Handler嘛。类似知识请参考：深入理解Message, MessageQueue, Handler和Looper（http://www.cnblogs.com/lao-liang/p/5073257.html）

其实现代GUI框架就是使用了类似这样的模型：模型创建一个专门的线程，事件派发线程来处理GUI事件。单线程化也不单单存在Android中，Qt、XWindows等都是单线程化。当然，也有人试图用多线程的GUI，最终由于竞争条件和死锁导致的稳定性问题等，又回到单线程化的事件队列模型老路上来。单线程化的GUI框架通过限制来达到线程安全：所有GUI中的对象，包括可视组件和数据模型，都只能被事件线程访问。

这就解释了Android为什么使用单线程模型。

那Android的UI操作并不是线程安全的又是怎么回事？

Android实现View更新有两组方法，分别是invalidate和postInvalidate。前者在UI线程中使用，后者在非UI线程中使用。换句话说，Android的UI操作不是线程安全可以表述为invalidate在子线程中调用会导致线程不安全。作一个假设，现在我用invalidate在子线程中刷新界面，同时UI线程也在用invalidate刷新界面，这样会不会导致界面的刷新不能同步？既然刷新不同步，那么invalidate就不能在子线程中使用。这就是invalidate不能在子线程中使用的原因。

postInvalidate可以在子线程中使用，它是怎么做到的？

看看源码是怎么实现的：

public void postInvalidate() {

    postInvalidateDelayed(0);

}

 

public void postInvalidateDelayed(long delayMilliseconds) {

    // We try only with the AttachInfo because there's no point in invalidating

    // if we are not attached to our window

    if (mAttachInfo != null) {

        Message msg = Message.obtain();

        msg.what = AttachInfo.INVALIDATE_MSG;

        msg.obj = this;

        mAttachInfo.mHandler.sendMessageDelayed(msg, delayMilliseconds);

    }

}

说到底还是通过Handler的sendMessageDelayed啊，还是逃不过消息队列，最终还是交给UI线程处理。所以View的更新只能由UI线程处理。

如果我非要在子线程中更新UI，那会出现什么情况呢？

android.view.ViewRoot$CalledFromWrongThreadException: Only the original thread that created a view hierarchy can touch its views.

抛了一个CalledFromWrongThreadException异常。

相信很多人遇到这个异常后，就会通过前面的四种方式中的其中一种解决：

Activity.runOnUiThread(Runnable)

View.post(Runnable)

View.postDelayed(Runnable, long)

Handler

说到底还没触发到根本，为什么会出现这个异常呢？这个异常在哪里抛出来的呢？

void checkThread() {

    if (mThread != Thread.currentThread()) {

        throw new CalledFromWrongThreadException(

                "Only the original thread that created a view hierarchy can touch its views.");

    }

}

该代码出自 framework/base/core/java/android/view/ViewRootImpl.java

再看下ViewRootImpl的构造函数，mThread就是在这初始化的：

public ViewRootImpl(Context context, Display display) {

    mContext = context;

    mWindowSession = WindowManagerGlobal.getWindowSession();

    mDisplay = display;

    mBasePackageName = context.getBasePackageName();

 

    mDisplayAdjustments = display.getDisplayAdjustments();

 

    mThread = Thread.currentThread();

    ......

}

再研究一下这个CalledFromWrongThreadException异常的堆栈，会发现最后到了invalidateChild和invalidateChildInParent方法中：

@Override

public void invalidateChild(View child, Rect dirty) {

    invalidateChildInParent(null, dirty);

}

 

@Override

public ViewParent invalidateChildInParent(int[] location, Rect dirty) {

    checkThread();

    ......

}

最终通过checkThread形成了这个异常。说到底，非UI线程是可以刷新UI的呀，前提是它要拥有自己的ViewRoot。如果想直接创建ViewRoot实例，你会发现找不到这个类。那怎么做呢？通过WindowManager。

class NonUiThread extends Thread{

      @Override

      public void run() {

         Looper.prepare();

         TextView tx = new TextView(MainActivity.this);

         tx.setText("non-UiThread update textview");

 

         WindowManager windowManager = MainActivity.this.getWindowManager();

         WindowManager.LayoutParams params = new WindowManager.LayoutParams(

             200, 200, 200, 200, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FIRST_SUB_WINDOW,

                 WindowManager.LayoutParams.TYPE_TOAST,PixelFormat.OPAQUE);

         windowManager.addView(tx, params);

         Looper.loop();

     }

}

就是通过windowManager.addView创建了ViewRoot，WindowManagerImpl.java中的addView方法：

@Override

public void addView(@NonNull View view, @NonNull ViewGroup.LayoutParams params) {

    applyDefaultToken(params);

    mGlobal.addView(view, params, mDisplay, mParentWindow);

}

private final WindowManagerGlobal mGlobal = WindowManagerGlobal.getInstance();

mGlobal是一个WindowManagerGlobal实例，代码在 frameworks/base/core/java/android/view/WindowManagerGlobal.java中，具体实现如下：

public void addView(View view, ViewGroup.LayoutParams params,

            Display display, Window parentWindow) {

        if (view == null) {

            throw new IllegalArgumentException("view must not be null");

        }

        if (display == null) {

            throw new IllegalArgumentException("display must not be null");

        }

        if (!(params instanceof WindowManager.LayoutParams)) {

            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Params must be WindowManager.LayoutParams");

        }

 

        final WindowManager.LayoutParams wparams = (WindowManager.LayoutParams) params;

        if (parentWindow != null) {

            parentWindow.adjustLayoutParamsForSubWindow(wparams);

        } else {

            // If there's no parent, then hardware acceleration for this view is

            // set from the application's hardware acceleration setting.

            final Context context = view.getContext();

            if (context != null

                    & (context.getApplicationInfo().flags

                            & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_HARDWARE_ACCELERATED) != 0) {

                wparams.flags |= WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_HARDWARE_ACCELERATED;

            }

        }

 

        ViewRootImpl root;

        View panelParentView = null;

 

        synchronized (mLock) {

            // Start watching for system property changes.

            if (mSystemPropertyUpdater == null) {

                mSystemPropertyUpdater = new Runnable() {

                    @Override public void run() {

                        synchronized (mLock) {

                            for (int i = mRoots.size() - 1; i >= 0; --i) {

                                mRoots.get(i).loadSystemProperties();

                            }

                        }

                    }

                };

                SystemProperties.addChangeCallback(mSystemPropertyUpdater);

            }

 

            int index = findViewLocked(view, false);

            if (index >= 0) {

                if (mDyingViews.contains(view)) {

                    // Don't wait for MSG_DIE to make it's way through root's queue.

                    mRoots.get(index).doDie();

                } else {

                    throw new IllegalStateException("View " + view

                            + " has already been added to the window manager.");

                }

                // The previous removeView() had not completed executing. Now it has.

            }

 

            // If this is a panel window, then find the window it is being

            // attached to for future reference.

            if (wparams.type >= WindowManager.LayoutParams.FIRST_SUB_WINDOW &

                    wparams.type  WindowManager.LayoutParams.LAST_SUB_WINDOW) {

                final int count = mViews.size();

                for (int i = 0; i ) {

                    if (mRoots.get(i).mWindow.asBinder() == wparams.token) {

                        panelParentView = mViews.get(i);

                    }

                }

            }

 

            root = new ViewRootImpl(view.getContext(), display);

 

            view.setLayoutParams(wparams);

 

            mViews.add(view);

            mRoots.add(root);

            mParams.add(wparams);

        }

 

        // do this last because it fires off messages to start doing things

        try {

            root.setView(view, wparams, panelParentView);

        } catch (RuntimeException e) {

            // BadTokenException or InvalidDisplayException, clean up.

            synchronized (mLock) {

                final int index = findViewLocked(view, false);

                if (index >= 0) {

                    removeViewLocked(index, true);

                }

            }

            throw e;

        }

    }

所以，非UI线程能更新UI，只要它有自己的ViewRoot。

延伸一下：Android Activity本身是在什么时候创建ViewRoot的呢？

既然是单线程模型，就要先找到这个UI线程实现类ActivityThread，看里面哪里addView了。没错，是在onResume里面，对应ActivityThread就是handleResumeActivity这个方法：

final void handleResumeActivity(IBinder token,

            boolean clearHide, boolean isForward, boolean reallyResume) {

        // If we are getting ready to gc after going to the background, well

        // we are back active so skip it.

        unscheduleGcIdler();

        mSomeActivitiesChanged = true;

 

        // TODO Push resumeArgs into the activity for consideration

        ActivityClientRecord r = performResumeActivity(token, clearHide);

        ......

        if (r.window == null & !a.mFinished && willBeVisible) {

            r.window = r.activity.getWindow();

            View decor = r.window.getDecorView();

            decor.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);

            ViewManager wm = a.getWindowManager();

            WindowManager.LayoutParams l = r.window.getAttributes();

            a.mDecor = decor;

            l.type = WindowManager.LayoutParams.TYPE_BASE_APPLICATION;

            l.softInputMode |= forwardBit;

            if (a.mVisibleFromClient) {

                a.mWindowAdded = true;

                wm.addView(decor, l);

            }

 

        // If the window has already been added, but during resume

        // we started another activity, then don't yet make the

        // window visible.

        } else if (!willBeVisible) {

            if (localLOGV) Slog.v(

                TAG, "Launch " + r + " mStartedActivity set");

            r.hideForNow = true;

        }

    ......

}

所以，如果在onCreate中通过子线程直接更新UI，并不会抛CalledFromWrongThreadException异常。但是一般情况下，我们不会在onCreate中做这样的事情。

这就是Android为我们设计的单线程模型，核心就是一句话：Android UI操作并不是线程安全的，并且这些操作必须在UI线程执行。但这一句话背后，却隐藏着我们平时看不见的代码实现，只有搞懂这些，我们才能知其然知其所以然。

参考：Android子线程在没有ViewRoot的情况下能刷新UI吗？（http://blog.csdn.net/imyfriend/article/details/6877962）