Clear the entire history stack and start a new activity on Android

Question

Is it possible to start an activity on the stack, clearing the entire history before it?

The situation

I have an activity stack that either goes A->B->C or B->C (screen A selects the users token, but many users only have a single token).

In screen C the user may take an action which makes screen B invalid, so the application wants to take them to screen A, regardless of whether it is already in the stack. Screen A should then be the only item on the stack in my application.

Notes

There are many other similar questions, but I haven't found anything that answers this exact question. I tried calling getParent().finish() - this always results in a null pointer exception. FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP only works if the activity is already on the stack.

Answer 1

You shouldn't change the stack. Android back button should work as in a web browser.

I can think of a way to do it, but it's quite a hack.

• Make your Activities singleTask by adding it to the AndroidManifest Example:

  <activity android:name=".activities.A"
            android:label="@string/A_title"
            android:launchMode="singleTask"/>
  
  
  <activity android:name=".activities.B"
            android:label="@string/B_title"
            android:launchMode="singleTask"/>
  

• Extend Application which will hold the logic of where to go.

Example:

public class DontHackAndroidLikeThis extends Application {

  private Stack<Activity> classes = new Stack<Activity>();

  public Activity getBackActivity() {
    return classes.pop();
  }

  public void addBackActivity(Activity activity) {
    classes.push(activity);
  }

From A to B:

DontHackAndroidLikeThis app = (DontHackAndroidLikeThis) getApplication();
app.addBackActivity(A.class); 
startActivity(this, B.class);

From B to C:

DontHackAndroidLikeThis app = (DontHackAndroidLikeThis) getApplication();
app.addBackActivity(B.class); 
startActivity(this, C.class);

In C:

If ( shouldNotGoBackToB() ) {
  DontHackAndroidLikeThis app = (DontHackAndroidLikeThis) getApplication();
  app.pop();
}

and handle the back button to pop() from the stack.

Once again, you shouldn't do this :)