How to improve fragment loading speed?

Question

Performance Enhancement:

Previously I saved ALL images in drawable folder, this might be the reason why the map first loads slow, when draw the markers on screen, the image may not fit the screen size. Now I saved images in drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi and so on, the app works smoother than before. Hope it helps

Original Question:

I created a map in a fragment, the source code can be found below.

The map fragment is sluggish when the first time it loads. If I go any other fragment and click the map fragment again, it loads fast and no slug anymore.

Can anyone tell me what is going on here? Thanks!

fragment_map.xml, id is map

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<fragment xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:map="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/map"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:name="com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment" />

MyMapFragment.java (contains onCreateView and setUpMapIfNeeded)

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    try {
        rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_map, container, false);
    } catch (InflateException e) {
    /* map is already there, just return view as it is */
        Log.e(TAG, "inflateException");
    }

    setUpMapIfNeeded();
     
    return rootView;
}


public void setUpMapIfNeeded() {
    // Do a null check to confirm that we have not already instantiated the fragment_map.
    if (myMap == null) {
        // Try to obtain the fragment_map from the SupportMapFragment.
        myMap = ((SupportMapFragment) MainActivity.fragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.map)).getMap();
        // Check if we were successful in obtaining the fragment_map.
        if (myMap != null) {
            setUpMap();
        }
    }
}

Khadijahkhai

Did you ever figure anything out on this? – Barabarabarabas

I've added a small (dirty) fix as an answer, becuase this problem still exists – Recurve

Answer 1

I'm using a very hackish but effective way in my application, but it works good. My mapFragment is not displayed right after the app launches! Otherwise this would not make sense.

Put this in your launcher activity's onCreate:

    // Fixing Later Map loading Delay
    new Thread(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            try {
                MapView mv = new MapView(getApplicationContext());
                mv.onCreate(null);
                mv.onPause();
                mv.onDestroy();
            }catch (Exception ignored){

            }
        }
    }).start();

This will create a mapview in an background thread (far away from the ui) and with it, initializes all the google play services and map data.

The loaded data is about 5MB extra.

If someone has some ideas for improvements feel free to comment please !

---

Java 8 Version:

// Fixing Later Map loading Delay
new Thread(() -> {
    try {
        MapView mv = new MapView(getApplicationContext());
        mv.onCreate(null);
        mv.onPause();
        mv.onDestroy();
    }catch (Exception ignored){}
}).start();

Recurve

You're awesome. I've been trying to fix it for some time now, thought it's a non-related animation thing even. It's not hacking for me, it's pre-loading, I love it:) – Officinal

Actually, I would gladly give you a bounty on this. is it OK to start a bounty just for this, or is it "against the rules"? Asking seriously.. – Officinal

I'm glad I was able to help :) I think the bounty is possible but I'm not an expert for this question. – Recurve

I wouldn't even call this hakish – Mcshane

this works great on Android 5.1, on a device running 4.0.4 this crashes with: RuntimeException: Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare() – Dimorphism

Try running the Runnable on the UI Thread by using runOnUiThread() instead of new Thread().start() – Recurve

I've put this trick code on my BaseApplication class onCreate() to load playservices every time the app starts because in my app maps will be loaded at any time. I have reduced my mapFragment loading time from 980ms to 311ms, great. Thanks – Frowst

Haha, if you dont ignore the exception you get an java.lang.RuntimeException: Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare() – Tenfold

welll that's why its a workaround. Still does it's job. – Recurve

2 things i have noticed. 1) It is still slow when you don't use new Thread() 2) It is still slow when you use new Thread() and use other lifecycle methods mapView.onStart(), mapView.onStop ... – Compile

Just noticed error that @LangustenGustel has written, which make code stuck at mv.onCreate(null); and rest is not even executed! Now changed code to mapView.getMapAsync(this); after mapView.onCreate(null); without new Thread(). And in onMapReady() callback i close launcher screen – Compile

Map doesn't loaded. – Changchun

FWIW I opened a bug against Google: issuetracker.google.com/issues/80147879 Feel free to star it if you think they should address this at the root of the problem – Worrell

Answer 2

Just to add to @Xyaren's answer, I needed it to work for SupportFragment which seemed to require some extra steps. Have your activity implement OnMapReadyCallback.

In your onCreate:

new Thread(() -> {
    try {
        SupportMapFragment mf = SupportMapFragment.newInstance();
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                .add(R.id.dummy_map_view, mf)
                .commit();
        runOnUiThread(() -> mf.getMapAsync(SplashActivity.this));
    }catch (Exception ignored){
        Timber.w("Dummy map load exception: %s", ignored);
    }
}).start();

You'll have to implement this:

@Override
public void onMapReady(GoogleMap googleMap) {
    // Do nothing because we only want to pre-load map.
    Timber.d("Map loaded: %s", googleMap);
}

and in your activity layout:

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/dummy_map_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:visibility="gone"/>

It needs to go through all the steps including the transaction for Google Play Services to download the map data.

Endymion

Answer 3

I had been running into this problem a lot too... Turns out the biggest culprit was having a debugging session attached to my app's process. The maps stuff in my app ran much faster and more smoothly when I disconnected the debugger, or just unplugged the USB cable.

Check out my related post here: First launch of Activity with Google Maps is very slow

Basic

or just unplugged the USB cable this helped me a lot – Tootsy

Answer 4

[EDITED]

The getMap() and setUpMap() methods are probably very slow. Their processing should be done in an AsyncTask so that onCreateView() can return quickly every time.

More info: onCreateView() is called on the UI thread, so any slow processing that it does will freeze the UI. Your AsyncTask should do all the slow processing in its doInBackground() method, and then update the UI in its onPostExecute() method. See the AsyncTask JavaDoc for more details.

Atonsah

Thanks for your quick reply, it is still slow when i comment out setUpMap – Khadijahkhai

getMap() can be slow. So, the call to getMap() should also be handled by the AsyncTask. I have edited my answer. – Atonsah

what's the difference between getMap() in my fragment and handled by a AsyncTask? If I put it into asynctask, how do i know the getMap() is ready other than null? – Khadijahkhai

I've put more info in my answer. – Atonsah

thanks for your help, i tried asynctask, does not help – Khadijahkhai

I've also tried this without luck. It doesn't appear to use any time on the UI thread, at least not directly from the getMap-call. – Octogenarian

I've tested, this slow load has nothing to do with getMap. The delay happens somewhere between onViewCreated and onStart in this code. – Barabarabarabas

use this mapView.getMapAsync(this); – Eo

Answer 5

You could try this

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.mapActivity);
    getSreenDimanstions();
    fragment = ((SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.map));
    
    map = fragment.getMap();    
}

This class is extended from Activity

Hussy