Carrying SmartFoxServer connection across Android Activities

Question

I am using SmartFoxServer for a multiplayer game. I have it working fine when it loads up in the main chat room. In my app you an create new game rooms and when you click on one it launches a new activity and enters that room. It appears I have to connect to the server again after that. Then I get already logged in error.

How can I maintain the smartfox client throughout my activities?

Answer 1

You can override the Application class and make your server reference a static public variable which will be available from any Activity using ((YourApplication)getApplication()).yourStaticServerReference.

To override your Application class, follow the following steps :

• Create a class extending Application, let's call it com.yourpackage.YourApplication

  package com.yourpackage;
  
  
  import android.app.Application;
  
  
  public class YourApplication extends Application {
      public static SmartFoxServer smartFoxServer;
  
  
      @Override
      public void onCreate() {
          smartFoxServer = initSmartFoxServer(); // I don't know SmartFoxServer's API so let's imagine you implement this somewhere in the Application class.
          // Now the smartFoxServer field is like a global variable visible in all your Activities using ((YourApplication)getApplication()).smartFoxServer
      }
  }
  
  
  

• In your application manifest you have to edit the application declaration :

  <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name"
          android:name="com.yourpackage.YourApplication">
  

If you often access the smartFoxServer object, you can even use java 1.5 static import feature :

import static com.yourpackage.YourApplication.smartFoxServer;

public Activity myActivity {
    public void anyMethod() {
        // Thanks to the static import, smartFoxServer is directly accessible, without calling getActivity().
        smartFoxServer.doSomething();
    }
}

I wrote this directly here so there might be some things wrong... I will check this in more details when the kids let me more than 2 minutes of free time ;-)