how to create timer thats start automatically?

Question

I am working on android quiz in my app i have QuestionActivity class. In which setQuestions() method where text from database is assigned in buttons textview and score is set to zero first time. In next text of next question is assigned and score is also updated whether the question is wrong or right. I want to have a automatic timer which start when we enter in this activity. And on next round its start again from some time and goes on decreasing. i know for this i have to create textview in question xml related to this call. but i dont know where and how to write code in this class. timer time 30 sec. i am posting code of this class. plz someone help me.

public class QuestionActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener{

    private Question currentQ;
    private GamePlay currentGame;


    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.question);
                /**
         * Configure current game and get question
         */
        currentGame = ((CYKApplication)getApplication()).getCurrentGame();
        currentQ = currentGame.getNextQuestion();
        Button nextBtn1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.answer1);
        nextBtn1.setOnClickListener(this);
        Button nextBtn2 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.answer2);
        nextBtn2.setOnClickListener(this);
        Button nextBtn3 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.answer3);
        nextBtn3.setOnClickListener(this);
        Button nextBtn4 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.answer4);
        nextBtn4.setOnClickListener(this);
        Button nextBtn5 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.answer5);
        nextBtn5.setOnClickListener(this);


        /**
         * Update the question and answer options..
         */
        setQuestions();

    }


    /**
     * Method to set the text for the question and answers from the current games
     * current question
     */
    private void setQuestions() {
        //set the question text from current question
        String question = Utility.capitalise(currentQ.getQuestion());
        TextView qText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.question);
        qText.setText(question);

        //set the available options
        List<String> answers = currentQ.getQuestionOptions();
        TextView option1 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.answer1);
        option1.setText(Utility.capitalise(answers.get(0)));

        TextView option2 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.answer2);
        option2.setText(Utility.capitalise(answers.get(1)));

        TextView option3 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.answer3);
        option3.setText(Utility.capitalise(answers.get(2)));

        TextView option4 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.answer4);
        option4.setText(Utility.capitalise(answers.get(3)));

        int score = currentGame.getScore();
        String scr = String.valueOf(score);
        TextView score1 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.score);
        score1.setText(scr);
        }


    @Override
    public void onClick(View arg0) {
        //Log.d("Questions", "Moving to next question");
        if(arg0.getId()==R.id.answer5)
        {
        new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
        .setMessage("Are you sure?")
        .setCancelable(true)
        .setPositiveButton("Yes",
         new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
        public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog,
         int id) {
                finish();
                 }
             }).setNegativeButton("No", null).show();

                }

        else
        {
            if(!checkAnswer(arg0)) return;  

        /**
         * check if end of game
         */
        if (currentGame.isGameOver()){
            //Log.d("Questions", "End of game! lets add up the scores..");
            //Log.d("Questions", "Questions Correct: " + currentGame.getRight());
            //Log.d("Questions", "Questions Wrong: " + currentGame.getWrong());
            Intent i = new Intent(this, EndgameActivity.class);
            startActivity(i);
            finish();
        }
        else{
            Intent i = new Intent(this, QuestionActivity.class);
            startActivity(i);
            finish();
          }
        }
      }



    @Override
    public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
    {
        switch (keyCode)
        {
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK :
            return true;
        }

        return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
    }


    /**
     * Check if a checkbox has been selected, and if it
     * has then check if its correct and update gamescore
     */
    private boolean checkAnswer(View v) {

        Button b=(Button) v;
        String answer = b.getText().toString();

            //Log.d("Questions", "Valid Checkbox selection made - check if correct");
            if (currentQ.getAnswer().equalsIgnoreCase(answer))
            {
                b.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.answercolor);
                //Log.d("Questions", "Correct Answer!");
                currentGame.incrementScore();
            }
            else{
                b.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.answercolorr);
                //Log.d("Questions", "Incorrect Answer!");
                currentGame.decrementScore();
            }
            return true;
        }

}

Answer 1

I want to have a automatic timer which start when we enter in this activity. And on next round its start again from some time and goes on decreasing. i know for this i have to create textview in question xml related to this call. but i dont know where and how to write code in this class. timer time 30 sec.

You can achiev this using CountDownTimer

new CountDownTimer(30000, 1000) {

     public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
         mTextField.setText("seconds remaining: " + millisUntilFinished / 1000);
     }

     public void onFinish() {
         mTextField.setText("done!");
     }
  }.start();

For more info refer here

Answer 2

For timer there is Timer class I used it to send every 300ms data from my phone. But you need a counter not a timer for that you use a handler for threading and an integer that starts from counter=30 and in the handler you decrease it by one counter-- and the handler is postat 1sec(1000ms)