How to launch activity only once when app is opened for first time?

Question

I have an activity that i only want to run when the application is ran for the first time.

And never again. It is a facebook login activity. I only want to launch it once when the app is initially opened for the first time.

How do i go about doing this?

score 66 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 12 '15 at 15:38

66

What I've generally done is add a check for a specific shared preference in the Main Activity : if that shared preference is missing then launch the single-run Activity, otherwise continue with the main activity . When you launch the single run Activity create the shared preference so it gets skipped next time.

EDIT : In my onResume for the default Activity I do this:

    SharedPreferences prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(getBaseContext());
    boolean previouslyStarted = prefs.getBoolean(getString(R.string.pref_previously_started), false);
    if(!previouslyStarted) {
        SharedPreferences.Editor edit = prefs.edit();
        edit.putBoolean(getString(R.string.pref_previously_started), Boolean.TRUE);
        edit.commit();
        showHelp();
    }

Basically I load the default shared preferences and look for the previously_started boolean preference. If it hasn't been set I set it and then launch the help file. I use this to automatically show the help the first time the app is installed.

edited Jul 12 '15 at 15:38

shivtej

633
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answered Aug 30 '11 at 04:04

Femi

64,273
8
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Great suggestion!! Ill try it!. Could you provide a small code example of how it should function? – coder_For_Life22 Aug 30 '11 at 04:21
So what does the boolean previouslyStarted do? – coder_For_Life22 Aug 30 '11 at 04:49
So what happens if the previouslyStarted isnt null? – coder_For_Life22 Aug 30 '11 at 04:52
It is just ease of handling: if `previouslyStarted` isn't null then I don't launch the new activity and the default activity shows as normal. – Femi Aug 30 '11 at 05:02
The default activity is the one you want to show ones? or the other way around? – God Sep 05 '15 at 13:27
7

Why do you do it in `onResume()`, why not in `onCreate()`? – Solace Mar 15 '16 at 14:23
1

is there any specific reason you used `Boolean.TRUE` instead of `true`? – mehulmpt Feb 27 '17 at 06:24
No specific reason: autoboxing should do the right thing so either one would work. I copy-pasted code that used Boolean.TRUE. – Femi Mar 15 '17 at 21:16
4

You should be doing this check in the `onCreate()` if you need to skip the entire activity. Doing that in the `onResume()` will immensely slow down your app – Daniele May 25 '17 at 09:49

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 21 '15 at 19:12

Post the following code within your onCreate statement

   Boolean isFirstRun = getSharedPreferences("PREFERENCE", MODE_PRIVATE)
            .getBoolean("isFirstRun", true);

    if (isFirstRun) {
        //show start activity

        startActivity(new Intent(MainActivity.this, FirstLaunch.class));
        Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "First Run", Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                .show();
    }


       getSharedPreferences("PREFERENCE", MODE_PRIVATE).edit()
                .putBoolean("isFirstRun", false).commit();

Replace FirstLaunch.class with the class that you would like to launch

what if i want to clear the value of this preference? can I do that in your code? — Drenyl, Feb 16 '16 at 18:03

Samuel · Answer 3 · 2019-08-12T00:27:06.313

something like this might work.

public class MyPreferences {

    private static final String MY_PREFERENCES = "my_preferences";  

    public static boolean isFirst(Context context){
        final SharedPreferences reader = context.getSharedPreferences(MY_PREFERENCES, Context.MODE_PRIVATE); 
        final boolean first = reader.getBoolean("is_first", true);
        if(first){
            final SharedPreferences.Editor editor = reader.edit();
            editor.putBoolean("is_first", false);
            editor.commit();
        }
        return first;
    }

}

usage

boolean isFirstTime = MyPreferences.isFirst(CurrentActivity.this);
if (isFirstTime) {
    NewActivity.show(CurrentActivity.this);
}

...

public class NewActivity extends Activity {
    public static void show(Context context) {
        final Intent intent = new Intent(context, NewActivity.class);
        context.startActivity(intent);
    }
}

So in the onCreate() i could test for the IS_FIRST boolean, if its there then continue. If not then stop and alert the user or whatever i want to do? — coder_For_Life22, Aug 30 '11 at 04:52
I am not sure if it is handled different Java but I have used your code in C# xamarin.android and it should be other way around. reader.getBoolean will return "false" if no value is saved at all. so first variable is false at the first time running. which makes logic should be other way around. — Emil, Apr 18 '22 at 00:17

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 14 '16 at 16:26

SharedPreferences dataSave = getSharedPreferences("firstLog", 0);

if(dataSave.getString("firstTime", "").toString().equals("no")){ // first run is happened
}
else{ //  this is the first run of application
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = dataSave.edit();
                editor.putString("firstTime", "no");
                editor.commit();
}

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 02 '13 at 06:37

I had done this without Shared Prefrence...as I know shared prefrence consumes some memory so I used public static boolean variable in global class....First I made Global Class Appconfig...and then I made boolean static variable like this :

public class Appconfig {

    public static boolean activity = false;
}

then I used this public static boolean variable into my welcome Activity class. I am Using License agreement page. which I have to use only at once in my application then never display further whenever i run the application. so i had put condtion in welcome activity...if the welcome class run first time so the static boolean variable is false...

 if (Appconfig.activity == false) {
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClass(WelcomeActivity.this,LicesnceActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
WelcomeActivity.this.finish();
}
if (Appconfig.activity == true) {

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClass(WelcomeActivity.this, MainActivity.class);
    startActivity(intent);

}

Now at Licesnce Activity class I made :

Appconfig.activity=true;

So whenever I run the Application the second activity "Main activity" run after Welcome activity not License Activity....

This also consumes from RAM (which is more critical) and when app is garbaged, this means that the value will be set to default which is false, right? — Mohamed Taher Alrefaie, Jul 27 '14 at 04:09

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 15 '16 at 08:37

Declared in the globally

   public int count=0 
   int tempInt = 0;

in your onCreate function past this code at first.

   count = readSharedPreferenceInt("cntSP","cntKey");
   if(count==0){
       Intent intent = new Intent();
       intent.setClass(MainActivity.this, TemporaryActivity.class);
       startActivity(intent);
       count++;
       writeSharedPreference(count,"cntSP","cntKey");
       }

Past these two method outside of onCreate

    //Read from Shared Preferance
    public int readSharedPreferenceInt(String spName,String key){
    SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = getSharedPreferences(spName,Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
    return tempInt = sharedPreferences.getInt(key, 0);
    }     

    //write shared preferences in integer
    public void writeSharedPreference(int ammount,String spName,String key ){

    SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = getSharedPreferences(spName, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
    SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sharedPreferences.edit();

    editor.putInt(key, ammount);
    editor.commit();
}

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 09 '18 at 15:12

This is my code to bring the OnBoarding Activity for the first time. If it's not the first time then go directly to the Home Activity.

    private void checkFirstOpen(){
    Boolean isFirstRun = getSharedPreferences("PREFERENCE", MODE_PRIVATE)
            .getBoolean("isFirstRun", true);

    if (!isFirstRun) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(OnBoardingScreen.this, Home.class);
        startActivity(intent);
        finish();

    }

    getSharedPreferences("PREFERENCE", MODE_PRIVATE).edit().putBoolean("isFirstRun", 
    false).apply();
}

How to launch activity only once when app is opened for first time?

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