Develop Reference

Save Data when ViewPager page changes

I'm trying to save data a user enters in a fragment to a file.
Scenario:
one viewpager and 7 fragments
A user starts in fragment 0 and can enter text into edittexts,
by swiping, using tabhost or pressing floating arrows the user can switch to other fragments.
I want to save alle entered text of the fragment the user leaves with the methods above.
I tried a OnPageChangeListener, but there i can't get the previous tab. I logged the values of the implementation methods onPageScrolled, onPageSelected, onPageScrollStateChanged.
Non of these seem to work for my needs.
onPageScrolled is called several times and shows only the current tab until it is of screen, the offset is different and not always starts by 0.0, so i can't use this reliably.
onPageSelected is the only reliable one but only returns the new current tab
onPageScrollStateChanged has no information i could use to determine the tab
I also looked into onInterceptTouchEvent in the ViewPager but this is also some times invoked several times (for MOVE events) and does not always work for every tab.
Is there a way to get this cost efficent? I want to store the data in an encrypted file and don't want to do this several times over.

Because the suggestions didn't work for my case I came up with another idea I wan't to share with others.
First instead of focusing on the ViewPager to suite my needs I thought wouldn't it be clever to led the fragment know if its changed and handle that instead.
So I created an abstract class extending the android Fragment with a boolean attribute dataChanged which I check every time the OnPageChangeListener calls onPageSelected (iterate over all fragments in the pager).
Naturally all Fragments in the pager should extend the abstract class. Furthermore I added abstract methods save() and load() to the abstract class.
So in onPageSelected(int position), after saving all changes for all fragments, which should only be one at a time, I load the data of the now selected fragment via the position attribute.
There was but one problem. If a fragment was paused and resumed the dataChanged attribute was always true if I set it in onTextChangeListeners, because of the automatic loading of widget values that android does. So I also override onResume to set the dataChanged to false.
Also every MyFragment has to handle the dataChanged attribute in the save() and load() method.
Abstract Fragment
public abstract class MyFragment extends Fragment {
private boolean dataChanged = false;
#Override
public void onResume() {
super.onResume();
setDataChanged(false);
}
public boolean isDataChanged() {
return dataChanged;
}
public void setDataChanged(boolean dataChanged) {
this.dataChanged = dataChanged;
}
public abstract void save();
public abstract void load();
}
OnPageChangeListener of ViewPager
fragmentViewPager.addOnPageChangeListener(new ViewPager.OnPageChangeListener() {
...
#Override
public void onPageSelected(int position) {
for(Fragment f : fragments) {
if(f instanceof MyFragment && ((MyFragment)f).isDataChanged()) {
((MyFragment) f).save();
}
}
if(fragmentViewPager.getCurrentItem() == position) {
Fragment fragment = getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag("android:switcher:" + R.id.view_pager + ":" + fragmentViewPager.getCurrentItem());
if(fragment instanceof MyFragment) {
((MyFragment) fragment).load();
}
}
}
...
});

Android ViewPager setCurrentItem not working after onResume

I've got this strange issue, ViewPager's setCurrentItem(position, false) works perfectly fine, then im switching to another activity, and after I'm back to the first activity, the ViewPager always ends up on the first item. Even though I've added setCurrentItem to onResume method it still ignores it. It's not even throwing any exception when I'm trying to set item to out of bounds index.
Though later on when I call this method, when the button "next" is tapped, it works like expected.
Checked my code 10 times for any possible calls to setCurrentItem(0) or something but it's just not there at all.

i can't really answer WHY exactly this happens, but if you delay the setCurrentItem call for a few milliseconds it should work. My guess is that because during onResume there hasn't been a rendering pass yet, and the ViewPager needs one or something like that.
private ViewPager viewPager;
#Override
public void onResume() {
final int pos = 3;
viewPager.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
viewPager.setCurrentItem(pos);
}
}, 100);
}
UPDATE: story time
so today i had the problem that the viewpager ignored my setCurrentItem action, and i searched stackoverflow for a solution. i found someone with the same problem and a fix; i implemented the fix and it didn't work. whoa! back to stackoverflow to downvote that faux-fix-provider, and ...
it was me. i implemented my own faulty non-fix, which i came up with the first time i stumbled over the problem (and which was later forgotten). i'll now have to downvote myself for providing bad information.
the reason my initial "fix" worked was not because of of a "rendering pass"; the problem was that the pager's content was controlled by a spinner. both the spinners and the pagers state were restored onResume, and because of this the spinners onItemSelected listener was called during the next event propagation cycle, which did repopulate the viewpager - this time using a different default value.
removing and resetting the listener during the initial state restoration fixed the issue.
the fix above kind-of worked the first time, because it set the pagers current position after the onItemSelected event fired. later, it ceased to work for some reason (probably the app became too slow - in my implementation i didn't use 100ms, but 10ms). i then removed the postDelayed in a cleanup cycle, because it didn't change the already faulty behaviour.
update 2: i can't downvote my own post. i assume, honorable seppuku is the only option left.

I had a similar issue in the OnCreate of my Activity.
The adapter was set up with the correct count and I
applied setCurrentItem after setting the adapter to the
ViewPager however is would return index out of bounds. I think the ViewPager had not loaded all my Fragments at the point i set the current item. By posting a runnable on the ViewPager i was able to work around this. Here is an example with a little bit of context.
// Locate the viewpager in activity_main.xml
final ViewPager viewPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.pager);
// Set the ViewPagerAdapter into ViewPager
viewPager.setAdapter(new ViewPagerAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager()));
viewPager.setOffscreenPageLimit(2);
viewPager.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
viewPager.setCurrentItem(ViewPagerAdapter.CENTER_PAGE);
}
});

I found a very simple workaround for this:
if (mViewPager.getAdapter() != null)
mViewPager.setAdapter(null);
mViewPager.setAdapter(mPagerAdapter);
mViewPager.setCurrentItem(desiredPos);
And, if that doesn't work, you can put it in a handler, but there's no need for a timed delay:
new Handler().post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
mViewPager.setCurrentItem(desiredPos);
}
});

ViewTreeObserver can be used to avoid a static delay.
Kotlin:
Feel free to use Kotlin extension as a concise option.
view_pager.doOnPreDraw {
view_pager.currentItem = 1
}
Please, make sure you have a gradle dependency: implementation 'androidx.core:core-ktx:1.3.2' or above
Java
OneShotPreDrawListener.add(view_pager, () -> view_pager.currentItem = 1);

A modern approach in a Fragment or Activity is to call ViewPager.setcurrentItem(Int) function in a coroutine in the context of Dispatchers.Main :
lifecycleScope.launch(Dispatchers.Main) {
val index = 1
viewPager.setCurrentItem(index)
}

I had similar bug in the code, the problem was that I was setting the position before changing the data.
The solution was simply to set the position afterwards and notify the data changed
notifyDataSetChanged()
setCurrentItem()

I have the same problem and I edit
#Override
public int getCount() { return NUM_PAGES; }
I set NUM_PAGES be mistake to 1 only.

some guy wrote on forums here. https://code.i-harness.com/en/q/126bff9 worked for me
if (mViewPager.getAdapter() != null)
mViewPager.setAdapter(null);
mViewPager.setAdapter(mPagerAdapter);
mViewPager.setCurrentItem(desiredPos);

Solution (in Kotlin with ViewModel etc.) for those trying to set the current item in the onCreate of Activity without the hacky Runnable "solutions":
class MyActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
lateinit var mAdapter: MyAdapter
lateinit var mPager: ViewPager
// ...
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.fragment_pager)
// ...
mainViewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(MainViewModel::class.java)
mAdapter = MyAdapter(supportFragmentManager)
mPager = findViewById(R.id.pager)
mainViewModel.someData.observe(this, Observer { items ->
items?.let {
// first give the data to the adapter
// this is where the notifyDataSetChanged() happens
mAdapter.setItems(it)
mPager.adapter = mAdapter // assign adapter to pager
mPager.currentItem = idx // finally set the current page
}
})
This will obviously do the correct order of operations without any hacks with Runnable or delays.
For the completeness, you usually implement the setItems() of the adapter (in this case FragmentStatePagerAdapter) like this:
internal fun setItems(items: List<Item>) {
this.items = items
notifyDataSetChanged()
}

I've used the post() method described here and sure enough it was working great under some scenarios but because my data comes from the server, it was not the holy grail.
My problem was that i want to have
notifyDataSetChanged
called at an arbitrary time and then switch tabs on my viewPager. So right after the notify call i have this
ViewUtilities.waitForLayout(myViewPager, new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
myViewPager.setCurrentItem(tabIndex , false);
}
});
and
public final class ViewUtilities {
public static void waitForLayout(final View view, final Runnable runnable) {
view.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
//noinspection deprecation
view.getViewTreeObserver().removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(this);
runnable.run();
}
});
}
}
Fun fact: the //noinspection deprecation at the end is because there is a spelling mistake in the API that was fixed after API 16, so that should read
removeOnGlobalLayoutListener
^^
ON Global
instead of
removeGlobalOnLayoutListener
^^
ON Layout
This seems to be covering all cases for me.

I was working on this problem for one week and I realized that this problem happens because I was using home activity context in view pager fragments and we can only use context in fragment after it gets attached to activity..
When a view pager gets created, activity only attach to the first (0) and second (1) page. When you open the second page, the third page gets attached and so on! When you use setCurrentItem() method and the argument is greater than 1, it wants to open that page before it is attached, so the context in fragment of that page will be null and the application gets crashed! That's why when you delay setCurrentItem(), it works! At first it gets attached and then it'll open the page...

This is a lifecycle issue, as pointed out by several posters here. However, I find the solutions with posting a Runnable to be unpredictable and probably error prone. It seems like a way to ignore the problem by posting it into the future.
I am not saying that this is the best solution, but it definitely works without using Runnable. I keep a separate integer inside the Fragment that has the ViewPager. This integer will hold the page we want to set as the current page when onResume is called next. The integer's value can be set at any point and can thus be set before a FragmentTransaction or when resuming an activity. Also note that all the members are set up in onResume(), not in onCreateView().
public class MyFragment extends Fragment
{
private ViewPager mViewPager;
private MyPagerAdapter mAdapter;
private TabLayout mTabLayout;
private int mCurrentItem = 0; // Used to keep the page we want to set in onResume().
#Nullable
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.my_layout, container, false);
mViewPager = (ViewPager) view.findViewById(R.id.my_viewpager);
mTabLayout = (TabLayout) view.findViewById(R.id.my_tablayout);
return view;
}
#Override
public void onResume()
{
super.onResume();
MyActivity myActivity = (MyActivity) getActivity();
myActivity.getSupportActionBar().setTitle(getString(R.string.my_title));
mAdapter = new MyPagerAdapter(getChildFragmentManager(), myActivity);
mViewPager.setAdapter(mAdapter);
mViewPager.setOffscreenPageLimit(PagerConstants.OFFSCREEN_PAGE_LIMIT);
mViewPager.setCurrentItem(mCurrentItem); // <-- Note the use of mCurrentItem here!
mTabLayout.setupWithViewPager(mViewPager);
}
/**
* Call this at any point before needed, for example before performing a FragmentTransaction.
*/
public void setCurrentItem(int currentItem)
{
mCurrentItem = currentItem;
// This should be called in cases where onResume() is not called later,
// for example if you only want to change the page in the ViewPager
// when clicking a Button or whatever. Just omit if not needed.
mViewPager.setCurrentItem(mCurrentItem);
}
}

For me this worked setting current item after setting adapter
viewPager.setAdapter(new MyPagerAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager()));
viewPager.setCurrentItem(idx);
pagerSlidingTabStrip.setViewPager(viewPager);// assign viewpager to tabs

I've done it this way to restore the current item:
#Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
if (mViewPager != null) {
outState.putInt(STATE_PAGE_NO, mViewPager.getCurrentItem());
}
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
}
#Override
protected void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
if (savedInstanceState != null) {
mCurrentPage = savedInstanceState.getInt(STATE_PAGE_NO, 0);
}
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
#Override
protected void onRestart() {
mViewPager.setCurrentItem(mCurrentPage);
super.onRestart();
}

By the time I call setCurrentItem() the view is about to be recreated. So in fact I invoke setCurrentItem() for the viewpager and afterwards the system calls onCreateView() and hence creates a new viewpager.
This is the reason for me why I do not see any changes. And this is the reason why a postDelayed() may help.
Theoretical solution: Postpone the setCurrentItem() invocation until the view has been recreated.
Practical solution: I have no clue for a stable and simple solution. We should be able to check if the class is about to recreate it's view and if that is the case postpone the invocation of setCurrentItem() to the end of onCreateView()

I use the dsalaj code as a reference. If necessary I share the code with the complete solution.
I also strongly recommend using ViewPager2
Solution
Both cases have to go within the Observer {}:
First case: Initialize the adapter only when we have the first data set and not before, since this would generate inconsistencies in the paging. To the first data set we have to pass it as the argument of the Adapter.
Second case: From the first change in the observable we would have from the second data sets onwards which have to be passed to the Adapter through a public method only if we have already initialized the adapter with a first data set.
GL

I was confused with the onActivityCreated() getting invoked for unrelated tab #Mahdi Arabpour was an eye opener for me :)
For me the problem was the third page (as elaborated by #Mahdi Arabpour above) was getting reconstructed when I click the second tab, etc and it was losing its data adapter, setting it again in onActivityCreted solves my problems:
if (myXXRecyclerAdapter != null) {
myXXRecyclerAdapter = new MyXXRecyclerAdapter(myStoredData);
mRecyclerView.setAdapter(myXXRecyclerAdapter );
return;
}

You need to call pager.setCurrentItem(activePage) right after pager.setAdapter(buildAdapter())
#Override
public void onResume() {
if (pager.getAdapter() != null) {
activePage=pager.getCurrentItem();
Log.w(getClass().getSimpleName(), "pager.getAdapter()!=null");
pager.setAdapter(null);
}
pager.setAdapter(buildAdapter());
pager.setCurrentItem(activePage);
}

Fragment become visible

Each time my fragment become visible to the user I want to execute a peace of code that will call a web service, fetch some data and display it on the screen. I got the web service part etc working but not sure in what event I must add my code.... I tried:
onStart
onResume
onAttach
But my code doesn't fire everytime.
Am using the Android v4 comp lib with SherlockFragment as my base class.

You can use
#Override
public void setUserVisibleHint(boolean isVisibleToUser) {
super.setUserVisibleHint(isVisibleToUser);
if (isVisibleToUser) { }
else { }
}
Have a look at this

This may be very old but I found setUserVisibleHint() didn't work for many of my use cases. Instead I had to resort to a hack using the ViewTreeObserver.
Basically, after your fragment is initialised, you get a view within it and do the following:
myViewInFragment.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(
new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
myMethodWhenFragmentFirstBecomesVisible();
myViewInFragment.getViewTreeObserver().removeOnGlobalLayoutListener(this);
}
});
}

onCreateView()
Called Every time when you change the Fragment and new Fragment become visible..
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState)

Below method is used determine when Fragment becomes visible in the front of a user.
private boolean loding= false; // your boolean flage
#Override
public void setUserVisibleHint(boolean isFragmentVisible) {
super.setUserVisibleHint(true);
if (this.isVisible()) {
// we check that the fragment is becoming visible first time or not
if (isFragmentVisible && !loding) {
//Task to doing while displaying fragment in front of user
loding = true;
}
}}

onResume() is called every time your fragment becomes visible to the user. There is something else wrong with your code if it doesn't
onCreateView() is called the first time the fragment needs to draw its UI
Update: This accepted answer was working 5 years ago - it doesn't anymore

How to test if a fragment view is visible to the user?

I have a ViewPager, each page is a Fragment view. I want to test if a fragment is in a visible region. the Fragment.isVisible only test
the fragment is attached to a activity
the fragment is set to visible
the fragment has been added to a view
The ViewPager will create 3 (by default) fragment and all three of them meet the above criteria, but only one is actually visible to the user (the human eyes)

This is what I use to determine the visibility of a fragment.
private static boolean m_iAmVisible;
#Override
public void setUserVisibleHint(boolean isVisibleToUser) {
super.setUserVisibleHint(isVisibleToUser);
m_iAmVisible = isVisibleToUser;
if (m_iAmVisible) {
Log.d(localTAG, "this fragment is now visible");
} else {
Log.d(localTAG, "this fragment is now invisible");
}
}

You're right there is a better way to do this!
Have a look at the FragmentPagerAdapter javadoc online and you'll see there is a method setPrimaryItem(ViewGroup container, int position, Object object):void doing exactly what you need.
From the javadoc
public void setPrimaryItem (ViewGroup container, int position, Object object)
Called to inform the adapter of which item is currently considered to
be the "primary", that is the one show to the user as the current
page.
Parameters container The containing View from which the page will be
removed. position The page position that is now the primary.
object The same object that was returned by instantiateItem(View,
int).
Note on scroll state
Now if you implement this and start debugging to get a feel of when exactly this is called you'll quickly notice this is triggered several times on preparing the fragment and while the user is swiping along.
So it might be a good idea to also attach a ViewPager.OnPageChangeListener and only do what has to be done once the viewpagers scroll state becomes SCOLL_STATE_IDLE again.

For my purposes, it worked to use ViewPager.OnPageChangeListener.onPageSelected() in conjunction with Fragment.onActivityCreated() to perform an action when the Fragment is visible. Fragment.getUserVisibleHint() helps too.

I'm using "setMenuVisibility"-Method for resolving this Problem. As every Fragment can have actionbar-items this is the part where you can determine which Fragment is currently visible to the user.
#Override
public void setMenuVisibility(final boolean visible) {
super.setMenuVisibility(visible);
if (!visible) {
//not visible anymore
}else{
yay visible to the user
}
}

What is wrong with using getView().isShown() to find out if a Fragment is actually visible?

isVisible()
Can still return true even if the fragment is behind an activity.
I'm using the following:
if (getView() != null && getView().isShown()) {
//your code here
}

If you know what "page" each fragment is attached to you could use ViewPager.getCurrentItem() to determine which fragment is "visible".

In my case i a have to do some work on the first fragment when the fragment is visible to the user
#Override
public void onWindowFocusChanged(boolean hasFocus) {
super.onWindowFocusChanged(hasFocus);
if(viewPager.getAdapter() instanceof YourPager)
{
Fragment fragemnt=((YourPager)viewPager.getAdapter()).getFragment(0); //getFragment(int index) custom method
if( fragemnt instanceof YourFragment)
{
((YourFragment)fragemnt).methodWhochShouldBeCalledAfterUIVisible();
}
}
}

setUserVisibleHint probably may not be called, onHiddenChanged may be called not every time when another fragment is being closed. So, you may rely on onResume (and onPause), but it is usually called too often (for example, when you turn on a device screen). Also in some situations it is not called, you should manage current fragment in host activity and write:
if (currentFragment != null) {
currentFragment.onResume();
}

Kotlin:
if (userVisibleHint) {
// the fragment is visible
} else {
// the fragment is not visible
}
Java
if (getUserVisibleHint()) {
// the fragment is visible
} else {
// the fragment is not visible
}
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Fragment.html#getUserVisibleHint()
https://stackoverflow.com/a/12523627/2069407

Animation in framgent won't restart after rotation

I have an animation which starts correctly the first time the fragment is displayed. However after an orientation change, it won't restart. The animation is an animation-list resource set as the background of an ImageView.
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
final View root = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_lead_manual,
container, false);
final ImageView badgeEntryView = (ImageView) root
.findViewById(R.id.manual_image);
mAnimation = (AnimationDrawable) badgeEntryView.getBackground();
return root;
}
#Override
public void onResume() {
super.onResume();
mAnimation.start();
}
#Override
public void onPause() {
super.onPause();
mAnimation.stop();
}
EDIT: I forgot to add that the animation is inside a tab, which makes things more difficult. However, I've figured out the problem and will add the answer below.

There are two cases that need to be solved, based on when the tab is created:
FIRST the tab is created, and SECOND its Activity is attached to the Window
FIRST the Activity is attached to the Window, and SECOND the tab is created
Case one occurs if the tab is the first one displayed or during rotation. Case two occurs when the user switches to that tab because it's not the first. Let's handle each case separately:
Case 1: a) Create tab b) Attach to window
Calling AnimationDrawable.start() before it is attached to the window (i.e. inside onCreate() or onResume()) breaks the animation. As stated in the Android docs :
It's important to note that the start() method called on the AnimationDrawable cannot be called during the onCreate() method of your Activity, because the AnimationDrawable is not yet fully attached to the window. If you want to play the animation immediately, without requiring interaction, then you might want to call it from the onWindowFocusChanged() method in your Activity, which will get called when Android brings your window into focus.
It's more difficult with Fragments, but basically the same. We override the method in the Activity and then call over to the Fragment:
#Override
public void onWindowFocusChanged(boolean hasFocus) {
super.onWindowFocusChanged(hasFocus);
if (hasFocus) {
final FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
ManualLeadFragment manualFragment = (ManualLeadFragment) fm
.findFragmentByTag(TAG_MANUAL);
if (manualFragment != null) {
manualFragment.startAnimation();
}
}
}
And then in the Fragment, implement startAnimation():
void startAnimation() {
mAnimation.start();
}
Case 2: a) Attach to window b) Create tab
In this case, the call to onWindowFocusChanged() has already occurred and so the animation won't start. So we still need to start it during onResume(), but slightly differently:
#Override
public void onResume() {
super.onResume();
if (isVisible()) {
startAnimation();
}
}
This calls into the same startAnimation() method as in Case 1, but because the Fragment is already attached to the Window, it can be called during onResume().
Summary
AnimationDrawable.start() can only be called when the Fragment is visible. Sometimes it is visible during onResume(), and the animation can be started at that point. Other times it is not yet visible at that time, and then the overridden onWindowFocusChanged() method is called when when it becomes visible, and the animation is started then.