Develop Reference

keep data persistent between fragments

I am trying to build a wizard with the help of the ViewPager, in each step the user will input that data and at the end all data inserted should be presented to the user before final confirmation and send all data to the server.
What i would like to know are the following:
how can I keep data persistent so at the final fragment everything will be presented to the user? I would like to use a method that will be the best in terms of performance and efficiency.
On which event (onDestroy?, onDetach?) should the data be saved when the user press the "Next" button to move the next step in the wizard?
keep in mind that on each step more data should be kept.
I saw solution for wizards for android however my issue with them is that they are not RTL supported so with the ViewPager I can set the initial step using setCurrentitem() method.
https://github.com/romannurik/Android-WizardPager
https://github.com/Nimrodda/WizarDroid
Appreciate your assistance

I think it is more yours architecture design decision.
For example all your Fragments classes should implement custom interface vs onPause() method. For what, you sinking, main Fragment.class have one onPause()? It because when you load fragments in view pager adapter, he present only one but really he load 3 or more fragments from fragmentsArray and cache them, and when you only on first fragment onPause() has worked on second and third fragment and so on.... at StackOverflow was decision for this problem like :
public interface FragmentLifeCycle {
void onPauseFragment(); } ///for saving your data you must implement it in all fragments from view Pager
public class SomeFragment extends Fragment implements FragmentLifeCycle {
#Override
public void onPauseFragment() {
//save your data here
}}
public class NewHomeActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//.........
//..........
final ViewPager.SimpleOnPageChangeListener listener = pageChangeListener(YourPagerAdapter);
YourViewPager.addOnPageChangeListener(listener);
}
private ViewPager.SimpleOnPageChangeListener pageChangeListener(final FragmentPagerAdapter adapter) {
return new ViewPager.SimpleOnPageChangeListener() {
int currentPosition = 0;
#Override
public void onPageSelected(int newPosition) {
FragmentLifeCycle fragmentToHide = (FragmentLifeCycle) adapter.getItem(currentPosition);
fragmentToHide.onPauseFragment();
currentPosition = newPosition;
}
};
}}
But its only one decision , i see at this problem decorator or state machine design pattern.

Android managing fragments from activity elegantly

Description of what I'm trying to accomplish:
I have an app that uses a FragmentActivity with a LinearLayout as a container for the fragments. I click different buttons on the FragmentActivity UI and add and remove Fragments to the container in the FragmentActivity. In addition to clicking buttons on the FragmentActivity UI, each Fragment also has buttons that can be clicked which will remove the current fragment and add a different fragment in its place.
The Android way of doing things as I understand it:
I have been reading up on how to do this and as I understand it, the 'proper' way of doing things is to use the FragmentActivity as sort of a relay station and have each fragment do callbacks to the FragmentActivity to communicate events and deal with them.
Scenario:
So let's say that the FragmentActivity is displaying Fragment A and when the user clicks a button in FragmentA I want to stop showing FragmentA and start showing FragmentB. To do this I have created an interface in FragmentA called AListener. In the onAttach() method of FragmentA I use the suggested method of checking that the FragmentActivity implements AListener. When the button in FragmentA is clicked I use one of the callback methods from AListener to communicate the click event to the FragmentActivity. In the FragmentActivity I create an instance of FragmentB and add it to the container in FragmentActivity. Then if some event happens in FragmentB I use the same scheme to communicate the event to the FragmentActivity and do something interesting.
So what's the problem?
For my application I have found this scheme of having Fragments call back to the FragmentActivity and then having the FragmentActivity create a new fragment or call forward to and existing fragment very cumbersome. I have many fragments that need to be displayed by the FragmentActivity and therefore I am implementing an interface for every type of fragment that needs to be displayed (Each fragment is different so they each have their own interface). This causes clashes when I have two interfaces that have the same method signatures and I'm forced to rename one of the methods.
For instance, if I want to attach a listener to a fragment using the onAttach() method of the fragment, then my FragmentActivity must implement the interface. I have found several instances where I have callback methods that have the same name (or I'm forced to name them something similar but different because of a namespace collision). One solution to this would be to use an anonymous classes as callbacks instead of having the FragmentActivity implement the interface. This seems to work well enough, but goes against what the Android documentation says about using the onAttach() method to set the listener.
Are there any elegant ways to approach this problem? It seems to me the tradeoff is that you either force the FragmentActivity to implement an interface for each Fragment that you want to display in it and have the fun problem of watching out for method signature collisions, or you go against the Android documentation and use Anonymous classes to handle the callbacks (not sure of the implications of this).
I am fairly new to Java and feel like I could be missing a concept here that would solve my problem. Can anyone set me straight on how to solve this problem elegantly?

I completely understand your problem since i was dealing it for a long time. Here is the solution i came up right now! It may need some modification based on your need but i it works well.
first of all to to make communicating of event easier in your app use an EventBus! here is the most famous one https://goo.gl/nAEW6
event bus allows you to send event from anywhere to anywhere without need to worry about implementing interfaces, broadcast receivers, threading, etc.
Then add FragmentOrganizer to your app. It's a base class for all of your Fragment Organizers. basically you need one for each activity. Here is the code
public abstract class FragmentOrganizer {
protected FragmentManager fragmentManager;
public FragmentOrganizer(FragmentManager fragmentManager) {
this.fragmentManager = fragmentManager;
openFragment(getInitialFragment());
EventBus.getDefault().register(this);
}
protected abstract Fragment getInitialFragment();
protected abstract void onEvent(Object event);
public abstract boolean handleBackNavigation();
public void freeUpResources(){
EventBus.getDefault().unregister(this);
}
protected Fragment getOpenFragment(){
String tag = fragmentManager.getBackStackEntryAt(fragmentManager.getBackStackEntryCount() -1).getName();
return fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(tag);
}
protected boolean isFragmentOpen(Fragment fragment){
return isFragmentOpen(fragment, true);
}
protected boolean isFragmentOpen(Fragment fragment, boolean useArgs){
String fragmentTag = createFragmentTag(fragment, useArgs);
if (fragmentManager.getBackStackEntryCount() != 0) {
String name = fragmentManager.getBackStackEntryAt(fragmentManager.getBackStackEntryCount() - 1).getName();
if(!useArgs)
name = name.substring(0, name.indexOf("-"));
return name.equals(fragmentTag);
}
return false;
}
private String createFragmentTag(Fragment fragment, boolean addArgs) {
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
stringBuilder.append(fragment.getClass().getSimpleName());
if(addArgs) {
stringBuilder.append("-");
if (fragment.getArguments() != null)
stringBuilder.append(fragment.getArguments().toString());
}
return stringBuilder.toString();
}
public void openFragment(Fragment fragment) {
if(isFragmentOpen(fragment))
return;
String fragmentTag = createFragmentTag(fragment, true);
FragmentTransaction transaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
transaction.replace(R.id.activity_main_fragment_container, fragment, fragmentTag);
transaction.addToBackStack(fragmentTag).commit();
}
}
Now you need to create your fragment organizer that inherit from FragmentOrganizer and implements 3 required methods. here the sample
public class MainFragmentOrganizer extends FragmentOrganizer {
public MainFragmentOrganizer(FragmentManager fragmentManager) {
super(fragmentManager);
}
#Override
protected Fragment getInitialFragment() {
return HomeFragment.newInstance();
}
#Override
public void onEvent(Object event){
if(event instanceof ClickedOnPhotoEvent){
String photoCode = ((ClickedOnPhotoEvent) event).photoCode;
openFragment(PhotoFragment.newInstance(photoCode));
}
}
#Override
public boolean handleBackNavigation(){
Fragment fragment = getOpenFragment();
if (fragment instanceof HomeFragment){
return false;
} else {
fragmentManager.popBackStack();
return true;
}
}
}
And in your activity you just need to insatiate your FragmentManager and let it do the magic!
fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
fragmentOrganizer = new MainFragmentOrganizer(getSupportFragmentManager());
#Override
public void onBackPressed() {
//first let fragment organizer handle back. If it does not activity takes cares of it!
if(!fragmentOrganizer.handleBackNavigation()){
finish();
}
}
#Override
protected void onDestroy() {
fragmentOrganizer.freeUpResources();
super.onDestroy();
}
It may seem a lot of code but as you see most of the code encapsulated in FragmentOrganizer base class and it does all the general works so you just have to copy this file from one project to another.
As i said in the beginning i just came up with this solution right now, so it may not be perfect. I Plan to use this in my next project i hope you do to. And if you do i really appritiate if you share your though. have a good time

A co-worker of mine came up with what I consider an elegant solution to this problem.
Remember, what we're trying to achieve is a way for fragments to callback to the parent activity without having the activity implement the interface. Also, we need to be able to automatically set the listener again if the activity is destroyed and then recreated.
Activities have a lifecycle callback called onAttachFragment(Fragment fragment) which is called whenever a fragment is being attached to the activity. So, for instance, when a new fragment is created within the activity, this gets called. It also gets called if an activity that was previously destroyed gets recreated. What you can do is use an interface or an anonymous class to set a listener on the new fragment in onAttachFragment like this:
#Override
public void onAttachFragment(Fragment fragment) {
super.onAttachFragment(fragment);
//Determine which fragment this is by checking its tag
if(fragment.getTag().contains(TextFrag.FRAG_TAG)){
//set a listener on this fragment using an anonymous class or interface
((TextFrag)fragment).setListener(new TextFragButtonListener() {
#Override
public void onButtonClicked() {
count++;
counterTV.setText(String.valueOf(count));
}
});
}
}
Using this technique we are able to avoid the activity having to implement an interface for the callback and thus we avoid any naming conflicts with our callback methods. Also, if the activity is destroyed, once it is recreated the listener will be automatically reset so our callbacks will still work.
There are probably many other ways to do this and I'd love to here anyone's criticisms of this technique and suggestions for any other techniques.

Quiz android app using ViewPager

I've created an Activity that contains a ViewPager with n number of Fragments. I have also added a Previous, Next and Finish buttons. Fragments are either multiple choice ListViews or just a single answer type.
How should I get the data from each fragment when the user hits Finish? Should I get each answer on the onPageSelected event from the ViewPager?

Communications between a Fragment and the activity that contains it is done via Interfaces.
The fragment should expose an interface listener and the activity should implement it and get notified by the fragment once an event happens.
You can use my example, and you can also change so the activity doesn't implement, but you can create the listener in run time anonymously (like you do for buttons on click listener many times).
class MyFragment {
// Container Activity must implement this interface
public interface OnNextPageListener {
public void onNextPageSelected(String DataString);
}
// define listener in fragment
OnNextPageListener mNextPageListener;
.... class code
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
try {
mNextPageListener = (OnNextPageListener) activity;
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString()
+ " must implement OnNextPageListener");
}
.... class code...
...button press onclick listener method...
mNextPageListener.onNextPageSelected("My Name is Slim Shaddy");
}
class MainActivity extends Activity implements MyFragment.OnNextPageListener
public void onNextPageSelected(String StringData) {
}
...
read more here http://developer.android.com/training/basics/fragments/communicating.html
Either way I suggest you do this when someone pressed the button in the fragment, or hooking the ViewPager.OnPageChangeListener, starting the saving the data on onPageScrollStateChanged and completing it on the OnPageSelected so you ensure you have the data even if the fragment is not available anymore.

Handling onNewIntent in Fragment

I am writing an application that uses NFC to read some data stored on it. My application uses Fragments and Fragment don't come with onNewIntent() method. Since, the data I am reading is done with my separate class which handles NFC related operation, the only thing I need to do is update the TextView inside the Fragment. However this implementation can also be used to pass new Intent to the Fragment.
Here is my current implementation which makes use of an interface. I am calling the listener after new Intent is received and NFC related checks succeeds. This is the FragmentActivity which hosts Fragment.
public class Main extends FragmentActivity implements
ActionBar.OnNavigationListener {
private Bundle myBalanceBundle;
private NFC nfcObj;
private NewBalanceListener newBlanceListener;
#Override
public void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
setIntent(intent);
}
#Override
protected void onResume() {
getNFCState();
super.onResume();
}
private void getNFCState() {
//Other NFC related codes
else if (nfc_state == NFC.NFC_STATE_ENABLED){
readNFCTag();
}
}
private void readNFCTag() {
//Other NFC related codes
if (getIntent().getAction().equals(NfcAdapter.ACTION_TECH_DISCOVERED)) {
nfcObj.setTag((Tag) getIntent().getParcelableExtra(
NfcAdapter.EXTRA_TAG));
nfcObj.readQuickBalance();
transitQuickReadFragment(nfcObj.getCurrentBalance());
}
}
private void transitQuickReadFragment(String balance) {
// Creates a balance bundle and calls to select MyBalance Fragment if it
// is not visible. Calls listener is it is already visible.
if (actionBar.getSelectedNavigationIndex() != 1) {
if (myBalanceBundle == null)
myBalanceBundle = new Bundle();
myBalanceBundle.putString(Keys.BALANCE.toString(), balance);
actionBar.setSelectedNavigationItem(1);
} else {
newBlanceListener.onNewBalanceRead(balance);
}
}
#Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(int position, long id) {
// Other fragment related codes
fragment = new MyBalance();
fragment.setArguments(myBalanceBundle);
newBlanceListener = (NewBalanceListener) fragment;
// Other fragment related codes
}
// Interface callbacks. You can pass new Intent here if your application
// requires it.
public interface NewBalanceListener {
public void onNewBalanceRead(String newBalance);
}
}
This is MyBalance Fragment which has TextView that needs to be updated whenever NFC is read:
public class MyBalance extends Fragment implements NewBalanceListener {
private TextView mybalance_value;
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
//Other onCreateView related code
Bundle bundle = this.getArguments();
if (bundle != null)
mybalance_value.setText(bundle.getString(Keys.BALANCE.toString(),
"0.00"));
else
mybalance_value.setText("0.00");
//Other onCreateView related code
}
#Override
public void onNewBalanceRead(String newBalance) {
mybalance_value.setText(newBalance);
}
}
This code works perfectly like expected for my application but, I want to know if there is better way to handle new Intent from Fragments?

This is an old question, but let me answer it in case anybody bumps into it.
First of all you have a bug in your code:
You can't register Fragments as listeners inside Activity the way you do it. The reason is that Activity and Fragments can be destroyed by the system and re-created later from saved state (see documentation on Recreating an Activity). When this happens, new instances of both the Activity and the Fragment will be created, but the code that sets the Fragment as a listener will not run, therefore onNewBalanceRead() will never be called. This is very common bug in Android applications.
In order to communicate events from Activity to Fragment I see at least two possible approaches:
Interface based:
There is an officially recommended approach for communication between Fragments. This approach is similar to what you do now in that it uses callback interfaces implemented by either Fragment or Activity, but its drawback is a tight coupling and lots of ugly code.
Event bus based:
The better approach (IMHO) is to make use of event bus - "master component" (Activity in your case) posts "update" events to event bus, whereas "slave component" (Fragment in your case) registers itself to event bus in onStart() (unregisters in onStop()) in order to receive these events. This is a cleaner approach which doesn't add any coupling between communicating components.
All my projects use Green Robot's EventBus, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

There is at least one alternative: From Activity.onNewIntent documentation:
An activity will always be paused before receiving a new intent, so you can count on onResume() being called after this method.
Note that getIntent() still returns the original Intent. You can use setIntent(Intent) to update it to this new Intent.
FragmentActivity.onNewIntent documentation is different but I don't think it contradicts the above statements. I also make the assumption that Fragment.onResume will be called after FragmentActivity.onResume, even though the documentation seems a little fussy to me, though my tests confirm this assumption. Based on this I updated the Intent in the activity like so (examples in Kotlin)
override fun onNewIntent(intent: Intent?) {
setIntent(intent)
super.onNewIntent(intent)
}
And in Fragment.onResume I could handle the new intent like so
override fun onResume() {
super.onResume()
doStuff(activity.intent)
}
This way the activity don't need to know about what fragments it holds.

No, there is no better way. Fragments can live longer than Activities and are not necessarily tied to them at all so providing new intents would not make sense.
Btw, you have a few bugs in your code :)
if (actionBar.getSelectedNavigationIndex() != 1) {
Magic numbers are bad! use a constant.
if (myBalanceBundle == null)
myBalanceBundle = new Bundle();
myBalanceBundle.putString(Keys.BALANCE.toString(), balance);
actionBar.setSelectedNavigationItem(1);
we already know that the navigationitem is set to 1
} else {
newBlanceListener.onNewBalanceRead(balance);
Add a null check. The user might have never selected a navigation item.

how to access button of fragment A from fragment B

I have two Fragments in my Activity: fragment A with button X and fragment B with button Y.
How can I change button X's background image when I click button B? Is it possible?

From the documentation,
Because each fragment defines its own layout and its own behavior with its own lifecycle callbacks, you can include one fragment in multiple activities, so you should design for reuse and avoid directly manipulating one fragment from another fragment.
That being said, what you want to do is create event callbacks to the activity. A good way to do that is to define a callback interface inside the fragment and require that the host activity implement it. When the activity receives a callback through the interface, it can share the information with other fragments in the layout as necessary. This is the recommended way to share events between two separate Fragments--that is, sharing the event through the activity.
Check out the link above... it provides a couple nice examples. If you are still having trouble, let me know and maybe I can be more explicit.
Edit #1:
Let's say you click a button in fragment A and you want this to cause changes to a button in fragment B. Here's some sample code illustrating the concept:
The callback interface:
public interface OnButtonClickedListener {
public void onButtonClicked();
}
The activity:
public class SampleActivity extends Activity implements OnButtonClickedListener {
/* Implementation goes here */
public void onButtonClicked() {
// This method is called from fragment A, and when it is called,
// it will send information to fragment B. Remember to first
// check to see if fragment B is non-null.
/* Make call to a method in fragment B that will update its display */
}
}
Fragment A:
public class FragmentA extends Fragment {
OnButtonClickedListener mListener;
/* Implementation goes here */
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
super.onAttach(activity);
try {
mListener = (OnButtonClickedListener) activity;
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString() + " must implement OnButtonClickedListener ");
}
}
public void clickButton() {
// When the button is clicked, notify the activity.
// The activity will then pass the information to fragment
// B (if it has been created).
mListener.onButtonClicked();
}
}
Edit #2:
Now, you might be wondering, "Why would anyone ever go through all of this trouble? What's the point of creating a separate activity callback method when you could just have fragment A directly manipulate fragment B?"
The main reason you want to do this is to ensure that each fragment is designed as a modular and reusable activity component. This is especially important because a modular fragment allows you to change your fragment combinations for different screen sizes. When designing your application to support both tablets and handsets, you can reuse your fragments in different layout configurations to optimize the user experience based on the available screen space. For example, on a handset, it might be necessary to separate fragments to provide a single-pane UI when more than one cannot fit within the same activity. Making use of activity callbacks ensures that you will easily be able to reuse your fragments in situations where fragment B is not visible on the screen. For example, if you are on a handheld device and there is not enough room to display fragment B, then you can easily have your activity check to see if fragment B is currently being shown on the screen.
Sorry if this isn't clear... I'm finding it difficult to describe :P. Working your way through this tutorial might help... Activity callbacks make your life especially easier as a developer when you are working with interactive multi-pane layouts.

Base on Alex Lockwood's answer:
The activity:
public class SampleActivity extends Activity{
public interface OnButtonClickedListener {
public void onButtonClicked();
}
private OnButtonClickedListener onButtonClickedListener = null;
public OnButtonClickedListener getOnButtonClickedListener () {
return onButtonClickedListener
}
public void setOnButtonClickedListener (
OnButtonClickedListener onButtonClickedListener {
this.onButtonClickedListener = onButtonClickedListener;
}
}
Fragment A:
public class FragmentA extends Fragment {
private OnButtonClickedListener onButtonClickedListener = null;
private OnClickListener actionBarClickListener = new OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View view) {
if (onButtonClickedListener == null){
onButtonClickedListener = ((SampleActivity) getActivity()).onButtonClickedListener ();
}
if (onButtonClickedListener != null) {
onButtonClickedListener
.onButtonClicked();
}
}
};
}
Fragment B:
public class FragmentB extends Fragment {
private OnButtonClickedListener onButtonClickedListener = new OnButtonClickedListener() {
#Override
public void onButtonClicked() {
Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Button clicked", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
};
#Override
public void onResume() {
super.onResume();
SampleActivity sampleActivity = (SampleActivity) getActivity();
sampleActivity.setSearchBoxTextChangedListener(onButtonClickedListener);
}
}
Hope can help someone.

Setting the onClick attribute for a button in your layout, even your fragment's layout, will call the appropriate method on your Activity.
Your app can then send this signal from your Activity to fragment B.