I am new to android and am having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the Parcelable interface.
I eventually found this:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/2141166/6647053
The point made in the above answer is that when passing an object to an activity, this:
intent.putExtra("object", parcelableObject);
performs much better than this:
intent.putExtra("object", serializableObject);
My question is:
Would there be any performance benefit to using a Parcel's read / write Serializable methods within the Parcelable (as opposed to just using a serializable object with intent.putExtra)? Why / Why not?
Example:
public class MyParcelable implements Serializable, Parcelable {
/* Some Custom Object Stuff Here */
#Override
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
#Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel parcel, int flags) {
parcel.writeSerializable(this);
}
public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel parcel) {
return parcel.readSerializable();
}
public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
return new MyParcelable[size];
}
};
}
There is no benefit to writing this: parceling will be as slow as serializing.
In ordinary Java, Externalizable can perform better than Serializable, because you supply your own readExternal(ObjectInput in) and writeObject(ObjectOutput out) in which you are expected to manually serialize your fields instead of relying on the JVM to introspect and automatically do it for you. Android's Parcelable serves a similar purpose.
Related
I'm trying to use firestore recycler adapter with a parcelable class, but it needs to have an empty constructor.
My solution now is to create a regular class with an empty constructor and right after fetching the data, I'll map the objects into a parcelable copy.
But is it possible to create a Parcelable Class with an empty constructor? In Android Studio when I do right click -> Generate -> I see no secondary constructor option so I guess it's not possible, right?
Yes, it is possible. The Parcelable object will be serialized and deserialized without any problem.
In Android Studio when I do right click -> Generate -> I see no secondary constructor option so I guess it's not possible, right?
No, the fact that it doesn't appear as suggestion in Android Studio code completion feature doesn't mean it is not possible.
Taking as a reference the Parcelable implementation from Android documentation. You should then need to add an empty constructor. Just write the code, don't use code generator.
public MyParcelable(){
}
The class then should look like this:
public class MyParcelable implements Parcelable {
private int mData;
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {
out.writeInt(mData);
}
public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR
= new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
return new MyParcelable(in);
}
public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
return new MyParcelable[size];
}
};
private MyParcelable(Parcel in) {
mData = in.readInt();
}
public MyParcelable(){
}
}
I've found a few topics about making Path a Serializable object but I couldn't find anything about making it Parcelable. From what I've read, Parcelable objects are more efficient for packing and unpacking in a Bundle.
I've made a new object called ParcelablePath, which extends 'Path' and implements Parcelable and have overridden the required methods, but I'm not really sure what to do in the overridden methods.
My question is, is it even possible to make Path a Parcelable object? If so how can I do it?
Here is some sample code:
public class ParcelablePath extends Path implements Parcelable {
protected ParcelablePath(Parcel in) {
}
public static final Creator<ParcelablePath> CREATOR = new Creator<ParcelablePath>() {
#Override
public ParcelablePath createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
return new ParcelablePath(in);
}
#Override
public ParcelablePath[] newArray(int size) {
return new ParcelablePath[size];
}
};
#Override
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
#Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
}
}
If you are using Android Studio there's a nice plugin which will solve your issue and automate the process for making a class Parcelable.
You can have a look here: Quickly Create Parcelable Class in Android Studio
Android Tutorials Mobile Development
I know putExtra can be used to pass objects/strings around between actives. But I am trying you put an ArrayList of objects like ArrayList<Foo> in putExtra
Is this possible?
No it isn't. You'll need to serialize your object into some kind of string representation. One possible string representation is JSON, and one of the easiest ways to serialize to/from JSON in android, if you ask me, is through Google GSON.
Also if you're just passing objects around then Parcelable was designed for this. It requires a little more effort to use than using Java's native serialization, but it's way faster (and I mean way, WAY faster).
From Docs :
public class MyParcelable implements Parcelable {
private int mData;
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {
out.writeInt(mData);
}
public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR
= new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
return new MyParcelable(in);
}
public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
return new MyParcelable[size];
}
};
private MyParcelable(Parcel in) {
mData = in.readInt();
}
}
You can use
intent.putParcelableArrayListExtra() for passing Arraylist in intent.
Refer to http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#putParcelableArrayListExtra(java.lang.String, java.util.ArrayList)
EDIT :
one more link : Help with passing ArrayList and parcelable Activity
Only for very limited and particular types of "Foo". If i recall correctly Double and Long (or maybe it was Integer?) being those types. There might be a way to smuggle a more generic ArrayList through by encapsulating it in some Serializable Object, but I'm not sure about that.
I'm asking this question: instread of giving a string, a int and so on, can we push a custom object during the creation fo a new Intent?
newActivity.PutExtra("JsonDataResult", business.getJSON());
In fact I have one object constructed thanks to a JSON (from webrequest) , I parse it and I put it on an object.
At this point I'm passing the string returned from the webrequest to another intent but the parsing takes a long time tu be done, so it could be super-cool the ability to pass custom object with intent.
EDIT : I'm using monodroid / xamarin, so
Android.OS.IParcelable cannot be implemented,
Java.IO.ISerializable cannot be implemented.
You can either let your custom classes implement Parcelable (Google says its faster, but you have to do more coding) or Serializable.
Then add your objects to a bundle (or to the "extra"):
Bundle b = new Bundle()
b.putParcelable("myObject",myObject);
b.putSerializable("myObject",myObject);
For info to Parcelablecheckout this
And if you're interested in the difference between Parcelable and Serializable in more detail check out this
I personally prefer the usage of Serializable for simple object-passing, since the code ist not spoiled with so much code.
Edit: ok isn't your question very similar to this then?
As you've specified you're using Monodroid, it looks like it's not straightforward. I did a quick search and found this forum post
Which listed the following solutions to this problem in Monodroid:
Store the custom Object to be passed as a global variable somewhere, and just read it from your second activity
Which is a bit messy and bad practice, but would work.
Or
serialize your class to a string and send the string to the second Activity
Which will be a little more hard work, but better practice
This is an example how to create a Parcelable class:
public class Person implements Parcelable {
private String name;
private String surname;
private String email;
// Get and Set methods
#Override
public int describeContents() {
return hashCode();
}
#Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
dest.writeString(name);
dest.writeString(surname);
dest.writeString(email);
}
// We reconstruct the object reading from the Parcel data
public Person(Parcel p) {
name = p.readString();
surname = p.readString();
email = p.readString();
}
public Person() {}
// We need to add a Creator
public static final Parcelable.Creator<person> CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator<person>() {
#Override
public Person createFromParcel(Parcel parcel) {
return new Person(parcel);
}
#Override
public Person[] newArray(int size) {
return new Person[size];
}
};
Give a look here if you want to use Parcelable.
My program has a range of different class activities (basically different screens). In one activity I am creating multiple objects which I would then like to access in other activities.
How do I go about making these objects accessible to other activities within my program, in other words how do I share objects with other activities?
TIA
Mark
The first thing you need to resolve is the operation order. If activity A is the one with the shared objects, what would you do if activity B is run without activity A ever being initialized? Do remember that intents to start activities may come from everywhere, though, to be truthful, exiting with NULL pointer dereference is an acceptable response.
What I did when such a thing was necessary was to not have the shared objects part of the activity, but create a specific object for containing those. You can then store a static reference to that object inside the object, and return it via a static method:
public class GlobalParams {
private static reference;
public static GlobalParams getReference()
{
if( reference==NULL )
reference=new GlobalParams();
return reference;
}
}
I don't think parcelable would help you, as that would create distinct copies for the different Activities to use.
Shachar
You need to have that class implement Parcelable
It's basically kinda similar to Java's serializable. You have to tell your class how to pack and unpack itself. Then you can just put it in an intent via intent.putExtra();
Here is the code example taken from that link
public class MyParcelable implements Parcelable {
private int mData;
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {
out.writeInt(mData);
}
public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR
= new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
return new MyParcelable(in);
}
public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
return new MyParcelable[size];
}
};
private MyParcelable(Parcel in) {
mData = in.readInt();
}
}