Status light to check if API is running Android

Question

I am making an app and the Google Maps API is a very depending part for me and I want to get a kind of light like this one: http://findicons.com/files/icons/1933/symbols/128/green_light.png And when the Google maps API is down it changes to a red version of that picture.

greetings

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

First of all, I think it's safe to assume the Google Maps API won't ever be down. But, to answer your question:

Find the pictures you want to use
Add them as drawables to your app project (java/res/drawable)
Add ImageView to your layout
Add the android:src attribute to your ImageView (in the layout's .xml)

Example:

<ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imageView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:src="@drawable/service_online" />

You can also change the ImageView's image source programmatically, more information on that here.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 24 '15 at 15:36

As others said, the Maps API should be present always, but anyway.. You can try to use any method from the API inside a try/catch block inside your app. A simple example:

mApiAvailable = true;
try {
    mMapsApi.checkVersion(); // I made up the method name
} catch (Exception ignored) {
    mApiAvailable = false;
}

Then for your ImageView (image names are also made up) set the appropriate icon:

mIndicator.setImageResource(mApiAvailable ? R.drawable.api_on : R.drawable.api_off);

You could listen for some location event if such event exists to check the availability again and update the ImageView.

Thanks i will try it in a minute – Rik Nijdeken Sep 24 '15 at 16:06 — Rik Nijdeken, Sep 24 '15 at 16:06

Status light to check if API is running Android

2 Answers2