Audit code for consistency in our Intent back stack management

[mikehardy]

          There is a lack of consistency in our Intent back stack management

https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aankidroid%2FAnki-Android+Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR&type=code

...shows we use CLEAR_TASK sometimes, an or if flags other times, and CLEAR_TOP other times

All intent creation https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aankidroid%2FAnki-Android+Intent%28context%2C+&type=code

look at:

• any case where we create an Intent to start an activity
• ...to verify that we are actually using the correct back stack management flags

Originally posted by @mikehardy in https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/pull/17036#pullrequestreview-2306753955

[mikehardy]

The description of this issue is the problem statement The implementation may be done differently, but it seems - based on the usage being inconsistent in lots of places and this being an area not many people seem to know about + appears hard to get correct - we could do with a couple utility functions

One would be a "startIntent" utility where you pass the class you want to start and some extras, and it would do the CLEAR_TOP etc

Another would be the case that appears to also pretty regular with the NEW_TASK and some other flag or'd together

Then scour the code for Intent creation and funnel it all through the utility methods and we would know that they were all behaving the same (and hopefully correctly...)

[Arthur-Milchior]

Thanks for self assigning @xenonnn4w. I thought you were too busy with back to school currently to contribute.

[Arthur-Milchior]

I think it may be related to #17083, where the stack don't always work as I expect, and this is frustrating.

[xenonnn4w]

Apologies, but I won't be able to work on this for at least the next two weeks as I'm busy with my electronics projects and subjects.

[mikehardy]

Never a problem! This is a "coding standards" / "consistency" exercise. There are probably some minor issues lurking around with our current lack of doing it the same way everywhere, but users aren't screaming about it...

Good luck on your projects

[Raghav1783]

The description of this issue is the problem statement The implementation may be done differently, but it seems - based on the usage being inconsistent in lots of places and this being an area not many people seem to know about + appears hard to get correct - we could do with a couple utility functions

One would be a "startIntent" utility where you pass the class you want to start and some extras, and it would do the CLEAR_TOP etc

Another would be the case that appears to also pretty regular with the NEW_TASK and some other flag or'd together

Then scour the code for Intent creation and funnel it all through the utility methods and we would know that they were all behaving the same (and hopefully correctly...)

@mikehardy so the 2nd utility function should have a flag argument that takes other flag as input from the caller? and what about the places where CLEAR_TASK is used , and where CLEAR_TOP is or'd with SINGLE_TOP? should i leave them as it is?

[mikehardy]

Whatever seems the cleanest, if I spend too much time thinking about it I should just code it 😆

If I recall correctly the second case had same flags each time, so no need to parameterize

[david-allison]

• Related: #10970

[MinusMallard]

on it

[MinusMallard]

@david-allison here is how I will do this, I am just going to create "IntentUtility" class with static functions and then replace each intent creation with function call

[david-allison]

I don't have a good mental model of how that will look, but give it a go

If it's quick, do it all

If it's not, provide a small patch fixing a few calls so we can see if it looks like a good approach

Whatever documentation/research you have done on the issue will definitely stand the test of time