How to implement Android Splash Screen

Android splash screen are normally used to show user some kind of progress before the app loads completely. Some people uses splash screen just to show case their app / company logo for a couple of second. Unfortunately in android we don’t have any inbuilt mechanism to show splash screen compared to iOS. In this tutorial we are going to learn how to implement splash screen in your android application.

Splash screen use case scenarios

The purpose of splash screen depends upon the app requirement. Check out the following diagram which gives explanation about two use case scenarios.

In this tutorial I’ll be covering implementation of splash screen in two scenarios. One is showing splash screen using a timer and second is showing splash screen when making network http calls which takes some time to fetch required information. Both the tutorial are same except the splash screen activity.

In order to implement splash screen we are going to create a separate activity for splash and once it closes we launch our main activity.

So let’s get started by creating a new project

1. Android Splash Screen Using Timer

1. Create a new project in Eclipse by navigating to File ⇒ New Android ⇒ Application Project and fill required details. (I kept my main activity name as MainActivity.java)

2. For Splash Screen we are creating a separate activity. Create a new class in your package and name it asSplashScreen.java

3. Open your your AndroidManifest.xml file and make your splash screen activity as Launcher activity.

AndroidManifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     package="info.androidhive.androidsplashscreentimer"     android:versionCode="1"     android:versionName="1.0" >       <uses-sdk         android:minSdkVersion="8"         android:targetSdkVersion="17" />       <application         android:allowBackup="true"         android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"         android:label="@string/app_name"         android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >         <!-- Splash screen -->         <activity             android:name="info.androidhive.androidsplashscreentimer.SplashScreen"             android:label="@string/app_name"             android:screenOrientation="portrait"             android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >             <intent-filter>                 <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />                   <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />             </intent-filter>         </activity>                   <!-- Main activity -->         <activity             android:name="info.androidhive.androidsplashscreentimer.MainActivity"             android:label="@string/app_name" >         </activity>     </application>   </manifest>

4. Create a layout file for splash screen under res ⇒ layout folder. I named the layout file asactivity_splash.xml. This layout normally contains your app logo or company logo.

activity_splash.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="match_parent"     android:background="@drawable/gradient_background" >       <ImageView         android:id="@+id/imgLogo"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:layout_centerInParent="true"         android:src="@drawable/wwe_logo" />       <TextView         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"         android:textSize="12dp"         android:textColor="#454545"         android:gravity="center_horizontal"         android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"         android:text="www.androidhive.info" />   </RelativeLayout>

5. Add the following code in SplashScreen.java activity. In this following code a handler is used to wait for specific time and once the timer is out we launched main activity.

SplashScreen.java

package info.androidhive.androidsplashscreentimer;   import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Intent; import android.os.Bundle; import android.os.Handler;   public class SplashScreen extends Activity {       // Splash screen timer     private static int SPLASH_TIME_OUT = 3000;       @Override     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.activity_splash);           new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {               /*              * Showing splash screen with a timer. This will be useful when you              * want to show case your app logo / company              */               @Override             public void run() {                 // This method will be executed once the timer is over                 // Start your app main activity                 Intent i = new Intent(SplashScreen.this, MainActivity.class);                 startActivity(i);                   // close this activity                 finish();             }         }, SPLASH_TIME_OUT);     }   }

Run the application, you will see the splash screen for 3 sec and then your main activity will be launched.

Following is the second scenario where our app is going to make some network calls before entering into app. Here every thing is same as previous case except the SplashScreen.java code. In splash screen activity in onCreate method we will calls a AsyncTask method which fetch required information by making http call. Once the http call terminates we launch main activity in onPostExecute()method.

2. Android Splash Screen When Making Network (http) Calls

1. Follow the same steps as above until creation of SplashScreen.java

2. After that the first step is add INTERNET permission in the manifest file as this app going to use internet. Open your AndroidManifest.xml file and add INTERNET permission above <application>tag

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

3. Open your SplashScreen.java and add AsyncTask to make http calls. In this tutorial i am making an http call to get json and displayed on the log in screen. After fetching the json the data will be sent to MainActivity.java using Intents.

Following is the json i am going to fetch. You can access this json fromhttp://api.androidhive.info/game/game_stats.json

{     "game_stat":{         "now_playing" : "49500",         "earned" : "$65000"     }     .     .     .

Paste the following code in SplashScreen.java

SplashScreen.java

package info.androidhive.androidsplashscreentimer;   import info.androidhive.androidsplashscreennetwork.R; import info.androidhive.network.JsonParser;   import org.json.JSONException; import org.json.JSONObject;   import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Intent; import android.os.AsyncTask; import android.os.Bundle; import android.util.Log;   public class SplashScreen extends Activity {       String now_playing, earned;       @Override     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.activity_splash);           /**          * Showing splashscreen while making network calls to download necessary          * data before launching the app Will use AsyncTask to make http call          */         new PrefetchData().execute();       }       /**      * Async Task to make http call      */     private class PrefetchData extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {           @Override         protected void onPreExecute() {             super.onPreExecute();             // before making http calls                   }           @Override         protected Void doInBackground(Void... arg0) {             /*              * Will make http call here This call will download required data              * before launching the app              * example:              * 1. Downloading and storing in SQLite              * 2. Downloading images              * 3. Fetching and parsing the xml / json              * 4. Sending device information to server              * 5. etc.,              */             JsonParser jsonParser = new JsonParser();             String json = jsonParser                     .getJSONFromUrl("http://api.androidhive.info/game/game_stats.json");               Log.e("Response: ", "> " + json);               if (json != null) {                 try {                     JSONObject jObj = new JSONObject(json)                             .getJSONObject("game_stat");                     now_playing = jObj.getString("now_playing");                     earned = jObj.getString("earned");                       Log.e("JSON", "> " + now_playing + earned);                   } catch (JSONException e) {                     // TODO Auto-generated catch block                     e.printStackTrace();                 }               }               return null;         }           @Override         protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {             super.onPostExecute(result);             // After completing http call             // will close this activity and lauch main activity             Intent i = new Intent(SplashScreen.this, MainActivity.class);             i.putExtra("now_playing", now_playing);             i.putExtra("earned", earned);             startActivity(i);               // close this activity             finish();         }       }   }

4. On your MainActivity.java take appropriate action using parsed json data. I just displayed on log in screen.

MainActivity.java

package info.androidhive.androidsplashscreentimer;   import info.androidhive.androidsplashscreennetwork.R; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Intent; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.View; import android.widget.LinearLayout; import android.widget.TextView;   public class MainActivity extends Activity {       LinearLayout llStats;     TextView txtPlayCount, txtEarned;       @Override     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);           llStats = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.llStats);         txtPlayCount = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtNowPlaying);         txtEarned = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtEarned);           // layout background transparent         llStats.getBackground().setAlpha(150);         llStats.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);           Intent i = getIntent();         String now_playing = i.getStringExtra("now_playing");         String earned = i.getStringExtra("earned");           // Diplaying the text         txtPlayCount.setText(now_playing);         txtEarned.setText(earned);     } }

I provided two separate project in the source code of this tutorial, download and go through the code to get clear picture of the concept.