When to use dispose() in Android?

[cohnjarmack]

Hi,

I see that there is a method dispose() on most objects in the Android SDK. I presume that every time we are done with a NBiometricClient, we should dispose() it to free up the native resources allocated. But I'm not sure when we should be using dispose() on the other objects like NSubject, NImage, NFinger, NTemplate, NFRecord etc? Is there any place this is documented?

1. Should we dispose NImage after Extracting template
2. Should we dispose NSubject, NFinger, NTemplate after enrolling in Biometric client?
3. Should we dispose a NBuffer after we use it to create an NImage? ( NImage.fromMemory() )

Thanks,
Cohn

[Martynas]

Hi,

you should dispose objects as soon as they will not be used anymore.

[cohnjarmack]

Okay. Then these objects are copied internally inside the NBiometricClient and disposing the originals will not be a problem right?

[Martynas]

Hi,

no, they are not copied into NBiometricClient, unless you have performed Enroll operation. Only then the enrolled template is kept in the memory allocated by the NBiometricClient.

[cohnjarmack]

Okay, so the enrolled template will be automatically disposed when the biometric client is disposed? And for everything else we have to call dispose()?

[Martynas]

yes