Closing all activities in a task

Question

What is wrong with this code when I want to close all activities in a task?

public static void closeAllBelowActivities(Activity current)
{
    boolean flag = true;
    Activity below = current.getParent();
    if (below == null)
        return;
    System.out.println("Below Parent: " + below.getClass());
    while (flag) {
        Activity temp = below;
        try {
            below = temp.getParent();
            temp.finish();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            flag = false;
        }
    }
}

If I'm reading this right you're going the wrong way... you should be closing the *children*, not the parent. — thegrinner, Jul 13 '11 at 14:42
Since it is a stack, the every activity (Parent) would launch a new activity (Child) on top of itself. So if I want to iterate from the top most activity to the bottom one, I'd do getParent(), No? — Sharique Abdullah, Jul 15 '11 at 04:35

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 13 '11 at 14:49

The way android works is that activities live in a stack (which you may know) so if A calls B calls C calls D

The stack looks like

// D - Current 
// C
// B
// A

If all you are trying to do is make sure that C,B,A are not in the stack anymore then you should call finish() before calling the next activity

A.startActivity(B)
A.finsh()
  ---
  B.startActivity(C)
  B.finish()

And so on, so I guess the my next question is why are you trying to do that via the current activity vs. from the calling activity which is the way it was designed?

You can also use intent flags like FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP to clear the history list of all but the newest activity, which maybe is what you are trying to do?

I am trying to implement a logout behaviour. I had already implemented the FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP | FLAT_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP based solution. But I wanted to see if there is a better approach towards that. — Sharique Abdullah, Jul 15 '11 at 04:46
Ok but that's not what your problem statement was, anyway glad you found a solution. — Idistic, Jul 15 '11 at 06:02

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

1

The best way is for the activities to register for a Broadcast Receiver. See this question On logout, clear Activity history stack, preventing "back" button from opening logged-in-only Activites

edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

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answered Jul 13 '11 at 14:52

Stefan Bossbaly

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Closing all activities in a task

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