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Handling hidden and shown fragments onbackpressed

I have an activity which hosts three Fragment's and I can switch between Fragment's using BottomNavigationView.The mechanism that I use to switch between Fragment's is using show and hide functions of FragmentTransaction instead of replace function of FragmentTransaction. I am doing so because I want some network operations to be done only once and also to inflate Layout only once.
The problem that I am facing using this mechanism is that when I start another Activity from any of the Fragment and then hit the back button the selectedItem of the BottomNavigationView and the Fragment shown are mismatching.
I was able to solve this problem though but I feel it has less efficiency. The procedure was that whenever I clicked a tab in BottomNavigation while switching Fragment's I gave it some predecided number and saved in a static variable(X) and whenever I clicked back button in the OnResume() method of the hosting activity I made a switch-case block using X to know which Fragment was visible before starting the new Activity and then finally making three FragmentTransaction's to show and hide required Fragment's.
protected void onResume() {
super.onResume();
if(selectedId!=63){
switch(selectedId){
case 0:if(bottomNavigationView.getSelectedItemId()==R.id.navigation_home){handleHomeFragmentVisibility();}
break;
case 1:if(bottomNavigationView.getSelectedItemId()==R.id.navigation_dashboard)
{handleDashboardFragmentVisibility();}
break;
case 2:if(bottomNavigationView.getSelectedItemId()==R.id.navigation_notifications)
{handleNotificationFragmentVisibility();}
break;
}
}
I feel using three FragmentTransaction's is costly and I was looking for some efficient way. Can you tell me one if you know ?
public void handleHomeFragmentVisibility(){
FragmentManager fragmentManager= getSupportFragmentManager();
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("home") != null) {
//if the fragment exists, show it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("home")).commit();
} else {
//if the fragment does not exist, add it to fragment manager.
Log.e(TAG,"homeFragmentAdded");
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().add(R.id.container, new HomeFragment(), "home").commit();
}
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("dashboard") != null) {
//if the other fragment is visible, hide it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("dashboard")).commit();
}
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("requests") != null) {
//if the other fragment is visible, hide it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("requests")).commit();
}
}
public void handleDashboardFragmentVisibility(){
FragmentManager fragmentManager= getSupportFragmentManager();
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("dashboard") != null) {
//if the fragment exists, show it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("dashboard")).commit();
} else {
//if the fragment does not exist, add it to fragment manager.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().add(R.id.container, new DashboardFragment(), "dashboard").commit();
}
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("home") != null) {
//if the other fragment is visible, hide it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("home")).commit();
}
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("requests") != null) {
//if the other fragment is visible, hide it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("requests")).commit();
}
}
public void handleNotificationFragmentVisibility(){
FragmentManager fragmentManager= getSupportFragmentManager();
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("requests") != null) {
//if the fragment exists, show it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("requests")).commit();
} else {
//if the fragment does not exist, add it to fragment manager.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().add(R.id.container, new NotificationFragment(), "requests").commit();
}
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("home") != null) {
//if the other fragment is visible, hide it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("home")).commit();
}
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("dashboard") != null) {
//if the other fragment is visible, hide it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("dashboard")).commit();
}
}
bottomNavigationView.setOnNavigationItemSelectedListener(new BottomNavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener() {
#Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(#NonNull MenuItem item) {
FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.navigation_home:
selectedId=0;
handleHomeFragmentVisibility();
break;
case R.id.navigation_dashboard:
selectedId=1;
handleDashboardFragmentVisibility();
break;
case R.id.navigation_notifications:
selectedId=2;
handleNotificationFragmentVisibility();
break;
}
return true;
}
});

A first note on your code: Avoid boilerplate! Write only one method instead of three and use a signature of the type handleFragmentVisibility(String show, String hide1, String hide2, int container). In case the fragment to be shown is null, instantiate it by testing for show, something like:
Fragment newFragment = (show == "home") ? new HomeFragment() : (show == "dashboard") ? new DashboardFragment() : new NotificationFragment();
However, none of your fragments should ever get null through hiding (please check for yourself), since you don't remove them from your activity or replace them with other fragments. Instead of using show and hide you could also use attach and detach, both sets of methods keep state. I don't see an efficiency problem and you do indeed need to call three FragmentTransactions. It only can be done with less code:
public void handleFragmentVisibility(String show, String hide1, String hide2){
FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(show)).commit();
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(hide1)).commit();
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(hide2)).commit();
}
Please note, that although this method keeps the state of the fragment while hiding or detaching them, other events like orientation change still make it necessary that you take care of saving state in onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState).

How to reuse existing fragment from FragmentManager instead of re-creating them again?

I am using NavigationDrawer in my application and each menu item in drawer is a fragment.Whenever user chooses a menu item I replace the current fragment in the main container with the requested one but it recreates the fragment every-time, so i updated my code to reuse the existing fragments instead of creating them again and again as content of fragments remain same. My updated code to show fragment is :
public void showTabFragment() {
TabFragment Tf = (TabFragment) mFragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(Constants.TAB_FRAGMENT);
mFragmentTransaction = mFragmentManager.beginTransaction();
if (Tf != null) {
mFragmentTransaction.replace(R.id.containerView, Tf, Constants.TAB_FRAGMENT);
} else {
mFragmentTransaction.replace(R.id.containerView, new TabFragment(), Constants.TAB_FRAGMENT);
}
mFragmentTransaction.commit();
}
In above code I am trying to get fragments by Tag but it always returns null and executes the else case(new fragment).Could someone please guide me what am I doing wrong in my code?

I guess the code you've shown is for one of your menu fragment? If that's the case, what is probably happening is every time you open a menu item, the container is replaced with the new fragment(say, Fragment B) with its new tag(say, TAG 'B'). So, when you try to open the previous fragment(say, Fragment A) using it's tag(TAG 'A'), it won't be there, because that's what you replaced.
One possible solution is to hold references to the fragment as they are created, in, say a hashmap, and reuse them instead.
private HashMap<String, Fragment> menuFragments = new HashMap<>();
public void showMenu(String fragmentID)
{
MenuFragment fragment = menuFragments.get(fragmentID);
if(fragment == null)
{
fragment = new MenuFragment(); //Create the respective menu fragment based on the ID.
menuFragments.put(fragmentID, fragment);
}
FragmentTransaction transaction = getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
transaction.replace(R.id.containerView, fragment, fragmentID);
transaction.commit();
}

State of nested Fragments is lost when re-attached to their fragment container in bottom tab navigation

I am working on an app that has the following UI structure:
One Activity, called FoodActivity
This Activity implements bottom navigation. Hence, can show three categories of food: fruit, meat and fish
The Activity has a big Fragment container, where I attach the Fragment for fruit, meat and fish as the user interacts with the bottom tabs.
Each outer Fragment (fish, meat and fish) presents navigation between Fragments: it can show a list of fruits, and the the detail for the selected fruit.
Hence, the outer Fragments have another Fragment container in where I attach Fragments for the fruit list or fruit detail.
So, it's one main Activity, which has a big Fragment container where I swap Fragments, which in turn nest other Fragments
To switch from one outer Fragment to another using the tabs (ie: switch from fruit to meat), I perform a Fragment Transaction in the outer Fragment container:
private void switchFragment(Fragment fragment, String fragmentTag) {
final FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
final FragmentTransaction ft = fm.beginTransaction();
ft.replace(R.id.fragment_outer, fragment, fragmentTag);
ft.commit();
}
The problem is that when switching the first-level Fragments, the state of their ChildFragmentManager is not kept.
For example, imagine that:
- I start in FuitFragment
- The FruitFragment, when created, attaches the nested FruitListFragment
- The user navigates in the nested Fragment container, from FruitListFragment to FruitDetailFragment
- The user switches to another tab
- The user switches back to the fruit tab
- The child `FragmentManager* of the FuitFragment does not automatically put FruitDetailFragment in the nested fragment container.
More specifically, when switching back to the outer Fragment:
onCreate is called, with savedInstance == null
onCreateView is called, with savedInstance == null
Hence, as the outer Fragment onCreate method is called, and I cannot tell whether or not to attach the child Fragment (as one usually does with Activities).
Moreover if I don't attach it (using an instance variable to check if I'm switching back to it) the child Fragment container will be just empty.
Experiments and notes
I have experimented that if I add the outer fragment transaction to the backstack when attaching it, when switching back to it, onCreate method is NOT called and the child FragmentManager will remember and attach the fragment it had before.
However, I cannot add it to the backstack as per Google's specifications on bottom navigation.
Setting setRetainInstace to true does not make any effect.
So, what should I do for properly restoring the state of the child FragmentManager?
Am I doing something wrong, or is it that everything around nested Fragments in Android is not well supported (or a bit broken) and I simply should not provide navigation using nested Fragments?

As Abbas pointed out, the problem was that I was using replace to switch between fragments.
I have changed to code in the Activity that puts the outer Fragment, and it works:
private void showChildFragment(int itemId) {
final FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
final FragmentTransaction transaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
final Fragment currentFragment = getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.fragment_outer);
if (currentFragment != null) {
Log.v(TAG, "Detaching item #" + currentFragment);
currentFragment.setMenuVisibility(false);
currentFragment.setUserVisibleHint(false);
transaction.detach(currentFragment);
}
// Do we already have this fragment?
final String tag = makeFragmentTag(container.getId(), itemId);
Fragment fragment = fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(tag);
if (fragment == null) {
fragment = createFragmentForViewId(itemId);
Log.v(TAG, "Adding item #" + itemId + ": f=" + fragment);
transaction.add(container.getId(), fragment, tag);
} else {
Log.v(TAG, "Attaching item #" + itemId + ": f=" + fragment);
transaction.attach(fragment);
}
fragment.setMenuVisibility(true);
fragment.setUserVisibleHint(true);
transaction.commitAllowingStateLoss();
fragmentManager.executePendingTransactions();
}
private Fragment createFragmentForViewId(int itemId) {
switch (itemId) {
case FRAGMENT_ID_LIBRARY:
return LibraryNavigationFragment.createInstance();
case FRAGMENT_ID_FEED:
return WebAppFragment.createInstance("feed");
case FRAGMENT_ID_SUGGEST:
return WebAppFragment.createInstance("suggest");
default:
throw new IllegalArgumentException();
}
}
This code is almost copy pasted from android.support.v4.app.FragmentPagerAdapter as ViewPagers using Fragments work like I wanted to.

With getChildFragmentManager() it won't crash.
private void switchFragment(Fragment fragment, String fragmentTag) {
final FragmentManager fm = getChildFragmentManager();
final FragmentTransaction ft = fm.beginTransaction();
ft.replace(R.id.fragment_outer, fragment, fragmentTag);
ft.commit();
}

fragments sometimes overlap - Android

I have a navigation drawer and clicking on items shows/hides/creates full screen fragments.
For the most part, this code works great. But sometimes, maybe 1% of the time, I will get crazy full screen fragment overlapping when opening the app while it has already been running.
Is the problem with my code..? Or maybe something else in Android where it does not recognize I have the fragments with the tags already created?
Here is the relevant code for how I show/hide/create fragments:
#SuppressWarnings("StatementWithEmptyBody")
#Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
// Get to drawer layout so we can interact with it
mDrawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
// Get the fragment manager to remove/add fragments
FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
// Handle navigation view item clicks here.
int id = item.getItemId();
if (id == R.id.nav_profile) {
// Hide visible fragment
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(getVisibleFragment()).commit();
// Check if the fragment exists first.
if(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("profileFragment") != null) {
// If the fragment exists, show it (no reason to recreate it).
fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
.show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("profileFragment"))
.commit();
} else {
// If the fragment does not exist, add it to fragment manager with a tag to identify it.
// Create new fragment instance with required argument(s).
ProfileFragment fragment = ProfileFragment.newInstance();
fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
.add(R.id.content_frame, fragment, "profileFragment")
.commit();
}
// Set the title
mToolbarTitleTextView.setText(R.string.title_activity_profile);
} else if (id == R.id.nav_feed) {
// Hide visible fragment
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(getVisibleFragment()).commit();
// Check if the fragment exists first.
if(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("feedFragment") != null) {
// If the fragment exists, show it (no reason to recreate it).
fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
.show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("feedFragment"))
.commit();
} else {
// If the fragment does not exist, add it to fragment manager with a tag to identify it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
.add(R.id.content_frame, new feedFragment(), "feedFragment")
.commit();
}
// Set the title
mToolbarTitleTextView.setText(R.string.title_activity_feed);
} else if (id == R.id.nav_notifications) {
// Hide visible fragment
fragmentManager.beginTransaction().hide(getVisibleFragment()).commit();
// Hide the post button
mPostButton.setVisibility(View.GONE);
// Check if the fragment exists first.
if(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("notificationsFragment") != null) {
// If the fragment exists, show it (no reason to recreate it).
fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
.show(fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("notificationsFragment"))
.commit();
} else {
// If the fragment does not exist, add it to fragment manager with a tag to identify it.
fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
.add(R.id.content_frame, new NotificationsFragment(), "notificationsFragment")
.commit();
}
// Set the title
mToolbarTitleTextView.setText(R.string.title_activity_notifications);
}
mDrawerLayout.closeDrawer(GravityCompat.START);
return true;
}
// Useful method to hide the currently visible fragment
public Fragment getVisibleFragment(){
FragmentManager fragmentManager = MainActivity.this.getSupportFragmentManager();
List<Fragment> fragments = fragmentManager.getFragments();
if(fragments != null){
for(Fragment fragment : fragments){
if(fragment != null && fragment.isVisible())
return fragment;
}
}
return null;
}
EDIT: It is really hard to reproduce this error which makes it hard to debug. It seems to randomly happen.

Why hide and keep all the fragments with fragmentManager.beginTransaction().add(); you can avoid this error by keeping only one fragment in memory and avoiding the hassle of hiding fragments by using fragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace() and using the fragment lifecycle methods to store the fragment state if necessary.

Here is how I solved the problem. In my MainActivity I did this:
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(null);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
Basically what was happening is if I had 1+ fragments on the screen, if the android system ran low on resources while the app was in the background and shut it down, when restored, MainActivity.onCreate() would be called and it would re-instantiate all the fragments with the call
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
So I just made it null and this prevents from all those fragments to be recreated.
The reason they are overlapping is because they were all getting shown at once.
Definitely not the correct way to do it, but it solves my problem right now =P

How to prevent displaying multiple fragments over each other

I have a multiple-dialog-fragment layout. In the large layout, I show them as dialogs and there's no problem:
fragment.show(fragmentManager, "fragment_dialog");
But in normal devices, I am using a fragment transaction and replace fragments as below:
FragmentTransaction transaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
transaction.setTransition(FragmentTransaction.TRANSIT_FRAGMENT_OPEN);
transaction.replace(R.id.fragment_container, fragment).addToBackStack(null).commit();
The problem is that in normal devices, when I press the menu button twice (or more), the same fragment will be shown over the previous one. Is there a way to find out which fragment is visible right now and prevent it from opening again?

First of all, add tag to when you replace
transaction.replace(R.id.fragment_container, fragment, "fragment_foo")
.commit(); // etc
then make a control
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("fragment_foo") == null){
// do something
}

You can find fragment by tag:
if (fragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("fragment_dialog") == null) {
//show dialog here
}

// Replace fragmentCotainer with your container id
Fragment currentFragment = fragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.fragmentCotainer);
// Return if the class are the same
if(currentFragment.getClass().equals(fragment.getClass())) return;