Is there a way to force an android device to stay awake?

Question

This app needs the device (and its display) to stay awake between onPreExecute() and onPostExecute().

Answer 1

It's definitely possible - here's an example of an app which does that:

http://www.appsbeyond.com/apps/screen-suite

Answer 2

Use a "full" PowerManager.WakeLock like in this post.

eg:

    PowerManager pm = (PowerManager) getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);
    PowerManager.WakeLock wl = pm.newWakeLock(PowerManager.FULL_WAKE_LOCK, "My Tag");
    wl.acquire();

Make sure to release it when done.