Is there any scenario where using AsyncTask is better than AsyncTaskLoader?

Issue

I am currently studying about Loaders and about how they could overcome changes such as screen orientation during application lifecycle, and so far, from what I have read, AsyncTaskLoader does the same job as AsyncTask and even better. Therefore, should not AsyncTask be considered obsolete or does it provide the developers with some hidden advantages?

Solution

I am currently studying about Loaders and about how they could overcome changes such as screen orientation during application lifecycle

The Architecture Components' support for view-models and LiveData is Google's current direction for addressing the problems that loaders tried to address.

AsyncTaskLoader does the same job as AsyncTask and even better

Note that AsyncTaskLoader uses an AsyncTask.

should not AsyncTask be considered obsolete

Yes, insofar as we have other patterns and libraries to use (e.g., RxJava, LiveData). That being said, AsyncTask, used correctly, is an OK option. The challenge is in using it correctly (e.g., from a retained fragment, with care to avoid interacting with the hosting activity on a background thread).

does it provide the developers with some hidden advantages?

Your argument seems to be "an ocean liner has more features than does a rowboat, so shouldn't we consider rowboats to be obsolete?". Ocean liners have their costs, and ocean liners cannot do everything that a rowboat can (e.g., travel in shallow water, be towed behind a truck).

Loaders were designed — to the extent that they ever had a "design" — to:

• load data in the background, typically via an AsyncTask
• retain that data across configuration changes
• automatically deliver updates when the requested data happens to change

Not everything needs that. For example, the loader pattern targets read operations (where we actually "load" data), but it does not really help with write operations (where we are changing the data). Yet we still want to do write operations asynchronously and find out about the results even if we undergo a configuration change. You can squeeze write operations into loaders, but it is not a natural fit. Using an AsyncTask or something else, instead of a loader, would be more natural.

Answered By - CommonsWare