Execute Code on First Start Only

In this video we will use shared preferenes to execute a piece of code (an AlertDialog in this example) only the very first time we start our app after installation. For this we will use the SharedPreferences Editor to save a boolean, which checks, if it is the first application start or if we have started it before. If we delete and re-install our app, it will be shown once again for one time.

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MainActivity.java

package com.codinginflow.firststartexample;

import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.support.v7.app.AlertDialog;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences("prefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
        boolean firstStart = prefs.getBoolean("firstStart", true);

        if (firstStart) {
            showStartDialog();
        }
    }

    private void showStartDialog() {
        new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
                .setTitle("One Time Dialog")
                .setMessage("This should only be shown once")
                .setPositiveButton("ok", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                        dialog.dismiss();
                    }
                })
                .create().show();

        SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences("prefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
        SharedPreferences.Editor editor = prefs.edit();
        editor.putBoolean("firstStart", false);
        editor.apply();
    }
}