I will try to explain the purpose of looper class as simple as possible. With a normal thread of Java when the run method completes the execution we say the thread has done it's job and thread lives no longer after that. what if we want to execute more tasks throughout our program with that same thread which is not living anymore? Oh there is a problem now right? Yes because we want to execute more tasks but the thread in not alive anymore. It is where the Looper comes in to rescue us. Looper as the name suggests loops. Looper is nothing more than an infinite loop inside your thread. So, it keeps the thread alive for an infinite time until we explicitly calls quit() method. Calling quit() method on the infinitely alive thread will make the condition false in the infinite loop inside the thread thus, infinite loop will exit. so, the thread will die or will no longer be alive. And it's critical to call the quit() method on our Thread to which looper is attached otherwise they will be there in your system just like Zombies. So, for example if we want to create a background thread to do some multiple tasks over it. we will create a simple Java's thread and will use Looper class to prepare a looper and attach the prepared looper with that thread so that our thread can live as longer as we want them because we can always call quit() anytime whenever we want to terminate our thread. So our the looper will keep our thread alive thus we will be able to execute multiple tasks with the same thread and when we are done we will call quit() to terminate the thread. What if we want our Main thread or UI thread to display the results computed by the background thread or non-UI thread on some UI elements? for that purpose there comes in the concept of Handlers; via handlers we can do inter-process communication or say via handlers two threads can communicate with each other. So, the main thread will have an associated Handler and Background thread will communicate with Main Thread via that handler to get the task done of displaying the results computed by it on some UI elements on Main thread. I know I am explaining only theory here but try to understand the concept because understanding the concept in depth is very important. And I am posting a link below which will take you to a small video series about Looper, Handler and HandlerThread and I will highly recommend watching it and all these concepts will get cleared with examples there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfLMwbOKLRk&list=PL6nth5sRD25hVezlyqlBO9dafKMc5fAU2&index=1

什么是环形使者?

Looper是一个用于执行队列中的消息(可运行对象)的类。普通线程没有这样的队列，例如简单线程没有任何队列。它执行一次，方法执行完成后，线程将不再运行另一个Message(Runnable)。

我们可以在哪里使用Looper类?

如果有人想要执行多个消息(Runnables)，那么他应该使用负责在线程中创建队列的Looper类。 例如，在编写从internet下载文件的应用程序时，我们可以使用Looper类将要下载的文件放入队列中。

它是如何工作的?

有prepare()方法来准备Looper。然后，您可以使用loop()方法在当前线程中创建一个消息循环，现在您的Looper已经准备好在队列中执行请求，直到退出循环。

下面是您可以准备Looper的代码。

class LooperThread extends Thread {
      public Handler mHandler;

      @Override
      public void run() {
          Looper.prepare();

          mHandler = new Handler() {
              @Override
              public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
                  // process incoming messages here
              }
          };

          Looper.loop();
      }
  }

循环器有一个同步的messagqueuue，用于处理放置在队列上的消息。

它实现了线程特定的存储模式。

每个线程只有一个Looper。关键方法包括prepare()、loop()和quit()。

prepare()将当前线程初始化为循环程序。prepare()是使用ThreadLocal类的静态方法，如下所示。

   public static void prepare(){
       ...
       sThreadLocal.set
       (new Looper());
   }

在运行事件循环之前，必须显式地调用Prepare()。 loop()运行事件循环，等待消息到达特定线程的消息队列。一旦接收到下一个Message, loop()方法将该Message分派给它的目标处理程序 Quit()关闭事件循环。它不会终止循环，而是将一条特殊消息编入队列

Looper可以通过几个步骤在线程中编程

扩展的线程 调用loop .prepare()将Thread初始化为Looper 创建一个或多个Handler来处理传入消息 调用loop .loop()来处理消息，直到循环被告知quit()。

我尝试在Kotlin中给出一个例子。下面是代码示例。

首先，我们需要实例化handler(提供的循环程序而不是默认的循环程序)中的变量处理程序，它要求主线程(loop . getmainlooper())。

函数getAllCourses()需要返回LiveData，因此我们使用handler.postDelayed()将其添加到消息队列中，并在常量SERVICE_LATENCY_IN_MILLIS中指定的x毫秒后运行。

请随意对我的解释再细化一些措辞，使之更清楚。

class RemoteDataSource private constructor(private val jsonHelper: JsonHelper) {

    private val handler = Handler(Looper.getMainLooper())

    companion object {
        private const val SERVICE_LATENCY_IN_MILLIS: Long = 2000

        @Volatile
        private var instance: RemoteDataSource? = null

        fun getInstance(helper: JsonHelper): RemoteDataSource =
                instance ?: synchronized(this) {
                    RemoteDataSource(helper).apply { instance = this }
                }
    }

    fun getAllCourses(): LiveData<ApiResponse<List<CourseResponse>>> {
        EspressoIdlingResource.increment()
        val resultCourse = MutableLiveData<ApiResponse<List<CourseResponse>>>()
        handler.postDelayed({
            resultCourse.value = ApiResponse.success(jsonHelper.loadCourses())
            EspressoIdlingResource.decrement()
        }, SERVICE_LATENCY_IN_MILLIS)
        return resultCourse
    }

理解循环线程

java线程是一个执行单元，它被设计为在run()方法中执行任务，并在此之后终止:

但在Android中，有许多用例，我们需要保持线程活跃，并等待用户输入/事件等。UI线程又名主线程。

Android中的主线程是一个Java线程，它在应用程序启动时首先由JVM启动，并一直运行，直到用户选择关闭它或遇到未处理的异常。

当应用程序启动时，系统创建一个线程 应用程序的执行，称为“main”。这个帖子非常 重要是因为它负责将事件调度到 适当的用户界面小部件，包括绘图事件。

现在需要注意的是，虽然主线程是Java线程，但它一直在监听用户事件，并在屏幕上绘制60帧/秒的帧，并且在每个周期后仍然不会死亡。这是怎么回事?

答案是Looper类:Looper是一个用于保持线程活动并管理消息队列以在其上执行任务的类 该线程。

默认情况下，线程没有关联的消息循环，但你可以通过在run方法中调用loop .prepare()来分配一个消息循环，然后调用loop .loop()。

循环器的目的是保持一个线程活着，并等待下一个周期 input消息对象来执行计算，否则将得到 在第一个循环执行后销毁。

如果你想深入挖掘Looperclass如何管理Message对象队列，那么你可以看看Looperclass的源代码:

https://github.com/aosp-mirror/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/core/java/android/os/Looper.java

下面是如何创建一个循环线程并使用LocalBroadcast与Activity类通信的示例

class LooperThread : Thread() {

    // sendMessage success result on UI
    private fun sendServerResult(result: String) {
        val resultIntent = Intent(ServerService.ACTION)
        resultIntent.putExtra(ServerService.RESULT_CODE, Activity.RESULT_OK)
        resultIntent.putExtra(ServerService.RESULT_VALUE, result)
        LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(AppController.getAppController()).sendBroadcast(resultIntent)
    }

    override fun run() {
        val looperIsNotPreparedInCurrentThread = Looper.myLooper() == null

        // Prepare Looper if not already prepared
        if (looperIsNotPreparedInCurrentThread) {
            Looper.prepare()
        }

        // Create a handler to handle messaged from Activity
        handler = Handler(Handler.Callback { message ->
            // Messages sent to Looper thread will be visible here
            Log.e(TAG, "Received Message" + message.data.toString())

            //message from Activity
            val result = message.data.getString(MainActivity.BUNDLE_KEY)

            // Send Result Back to activity
            sendServerResult(result)
            true
        })

        // Keep on looping till new messages arrive
        if (looperIsNotPreparedInCurrentThread) {
            Looper.loop()
        }
    }

    //Create and send a new  message to looper
    fun sendMessage(messageToSend: String) {
        //Create and post a new message to handler
        handler!!.sendMessage(createMessage(messageToSend))
    }


    // Bundle Data in message object
    private fun createMessage(messageToSend: String): Message {
        val message = Message()
        val bundle = Bundle()
        bundle.putString(MainActivity.BUNDLE_KEY, messageToSend)
        message.data = bundle
        return message
    }

    companion object {
        var handler: Handler? = null // in Android Handler should be static or leaks might occur
        private val TAG = javaClass.simpleName

    }
}

用法:

 class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private var looperThread: LooperThread? = null

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // start looper thread
        startLooperThread()

        // Send messages to Looper Thread
        sendMessage.setOnClickListener {

            // send random messages to looper thread
            val messageToSend = "" + Math.random()

            // post message
            looperThread!!.sendMessage(messageToSend)

        }   
    }

    override fun onResume() {
        super.onResume()

        //Register to Server Service callback
        val filterServer = IntentFilter(ServerService.ACTION)
        LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver(serverReceiver, filterServer)

    }

    override fun onPause() {
        super.onPause()

        //Stop Server service callbacks
     LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).unregisterReceiver(serverReceiver)
    }


    // Define the callback for what to do when data is received
    private val serverReceiver = object : BroadcastReceiver() {
        override fun onReceive(context: Context, intent: Intent) {
            val resultCode = intent.getIntExtra(ServerService.RESULT_CODE, Activity.RESULT_CANCELED)
            if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
                val resultValue = intent.getStringExtra(ServerService.RESULT_VALUE)
                Log.e(MainActivity.TAG, "Server result : $resultValue")

                serverOutput.text =
                        (serverOutput.text.toString()
                                + "\n"
                                + "Received : " + resultValue)

                serverScrollView.post( { serverScrollView.fullScroll(View.FOCUS_DOWN) })
            }
        }
    }

    private fun startLooperThread() {

        // create and start a new LooperThread
        looperThread = LooperThread()
        looperThread!!.name = "Main Looper Thread"
        looperThread!!.start()

    }

    companion object {
        val BUNDLE_KEY = "handlerMsgBundle"
        private val TAG = javaClass.simpleName
    }
}

我们可以使用异步任务或意图服务代替吗?

Async tasks are designed to perform a short operation in background and give progres & results on UI thread. Async tasks have limits like you cant create more than 128 Async tasks and ThreadPoolExecutor will allow only upto 5 Async tasks. IntentServices are also designed to do background task for a little longer duration and you can use LocalBroadcast to communicate with Activity. But services get destroyed after task execution. If you want to keep it running for a long time than you need to do hecks like while(true){...}.

Looper Thread的其他有意义的用例:

用于双向套接字通信，服务器继续监听客户端套接字并写回确认 位图处理在后台。将图像url传递给循环线程，它将应用过滤器效果，并将其存储在临时位置，然后广播图像的临时路径。

java线程的生命周期在run()方法完成后结束。同一线程不能再次启动。

Looper将普通线程转换为消息循环。Looper的主要方法有:

void prepare ()

将当前线程初始化为循环程序。这使您有机会创建处理程序，然后在实际开始循环之前引用此循环程序。请确保在调用此方法后调用loop()，并通过调用quit()结束它。

void loop ()

在此线程中运行消息队列。确保调用quit()来结束循环。

void quit()

退出循环器。 导致loop()方法终止，而不处理消息队列中的任何其他消息。

Janishar的这篇mindorks文章很好地解释了核心概念。

循环程序与线程相关联。如果你在UI线程上需要Looper, loop . getmainlooper()将返回相关的线程。

您需要将Looper与Handler相关联。

Looper, Handler和HandlerThread是Android解决异步编程问题的方法。

有了Handler之后，就可以调用下面的api了。

post (Runnable r)

导致Runnable r被添加到消息队列。可运行对象将在附加此处理程序的线程上运行。

boolean sendMessage (Message msg)

在当前时间之前的所有挂起消息之后，将消息压入消息队列的末尾。它将在附加到此处理程序的线程中的handleMessage(Message)中接收。

HandlerThread是一个方便的类，用于启动具有循环程序的新线程。循环程序可以用来创建处理程序类

在某些情况下，你不能在UI线程上运行可运行任务。 例如，网络操作:在套接字上发送消息，打开URL并通过读取InputStream获取内容

在这些情况下，HandlerThread很有用。你可以从HandlerThread获取Looper对象，并在HandlerThread上创建Handler而不是主线程。

HandlerThread代码是这样的:

@Override
public void run() {
    mTid = Process.myTid();
    Looper.prepare();
    synchronized (this) {
        mLooper = Looper.myLooper();
        notifyAll();
    }
    Process.setThreadPriority(mPriority);
    onLooperPrepared();
    Looper.loop();
    mTid = -1;
}

参考下面的示例代码:

Android:在线程中吐司