user interface - Updating Android UI using threads

Question

I am writing an Android Chat App. I am listening for connections and I receive data and I can see it in the Log.d, but whenever I try to update my UI the application crashes.

Code snippet:

private class chatReceiver implements Runnable {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        try {
            skt = new DatagramSocket(Integer.parseInt(Main.prefs.getString("port_number", "5432")));
            DatagramPacket rcvPkt = new DatagramPacket(rcvBuf,rcvBuf.length);
            String ack = "Hello from our SimpleUDPServer";
            byte[] sndBuf = ack.getBytes();
            while (true) {
                Log.d("Server received: " ,"entered loop");
                skt.receive(rcvPkt);
                String rcvMsg = new String(rcvBuf, 0, rcvPkt.getLength(), "UTF-8");
                Log.d("Server received: " ,"receiving" + rcvMsg);
                if (rcvMsg != null) {
                    Log.d("Server received: " ,"not equal null");
                    // I want to update my UI here
                }
                DatagramPacket k = new DatagramPacket(sndBuf, sndBuf.length,
                        rcvPkt.getAddress(), rcvPkt.getPort());
                skt.send(k);
                Log.d("Server sent" ,ack);

            }
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            Log.d("ThreadStart", "Error Starting thread" + ex.getStackTrace());
        }

    }
} 

and to update the UI I do use :

public static void updateUI(Bubble b, View itemView) {

    TextView txt_display_name = (TextView) itemView
            .findViewById(R.id.display_name);
    txt_display_name.setText(b.getDisplay_name());
    TextView txt_chat_body = (TextView) itemView
            .findViewById(R.id.chat_body);
    txt_chat_body.setText(b.getChat_body());
    TextView txt_creation_date = (TextView) itemView
            .findViewById(R.id.creation_date);
    txt_creation_date.setText(b.getCreation_time());
}

The application keeps crashing.

Answer 1

You cannot change UI elements from a non-UI thread. Try using runOnUiThread.

runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
    @Override
    public void run(){
        // change UI elements here
    }
});