Long running 2-3 minute asynchronous task that populates database

Issue

I am thinking of adding a button in app settings that starts a task to update SQLite database with data from API endpoint for offline use.

This task could take 2-3 minutes and a big problem would be if it gets interrupted by changing activities, etc.

How should I approach this? Is there a way to prevent user from switching activities or should I just display a message that database is updating and show a progress bar?

Solution

There's never a way to stop the user from switching activities (although this should be done in a Service most likely). Even if you could, you can't stop them from pulling the battery. Always assume that a long running process could be killed asynchronously at any time, and program accordingly.

Answered By - Gabe Sechan