How to persist fragment data after backstack transactions? - android

I've got an activity, containing fragment 'list', which upon clicking on one of its items will replace itself to a 'content' fragment. When the user uses the back button, he's brought to the 'list' fragment again.
The problem is that the fragment is in its default state, no matter what I try to persist data.
Facts:
both fragments are created through public static TheFragment newInstance(Bundle args), setArguments(args) and Bundle args = getArguments()
both fragments are on the same level, which is directly inside a FrameLayout from the parent activity (that is, not nested fragments)
I do not want to call setRetainInstance, because my activity is a master/detail flow, which has a 2 pane layout on larger screens. 7" tablets have 1 pane in portrait and 2 panes in landscape. If I retain the 'list' fragment instance, it will (I think) fuck things up with screen rotations
when the users clicks an item in the 'list' fragment, the 'content' fragment is displayed through FragmentTransaction#replace(int, Fragment, String), with the same ID but a different tag
I did override onSaveInstanceState(Bundle), but this is not always called by the framework, as per the doc: "There are many situations where a fragment may be mostly torn down (such as when placed on the back stack with no UI showing), but its state will not be saved until its owning activity actually needs to save its state."
I'm using the support library
From the bullet 5 above, I guess that low-end devices that need to recover memory after a fragment transaction may call Fragment#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle). However, on my testing devices (Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7), the framework doesn't call that method. So that's not a valid option.
So, how can I retain some fragment data? the bundle passed to Fragment#onCreate, Fragment#onActivityCreated, etc. is always null.
Hence, I can't make a difference from a brand new fragment launch to a back stack restore.
Note: possible related/duplicate question

This doesn't seem right, but here's how I ended up doing:
public class MyActivity extends FragmentActivity {
private Bundle mMainFragmentArgs;
public void saveMainFragmentState(Bundle args) {
mMainFragmentArgs = args;
}
public Bundle getSavedMainFragmentState() {
return mMainFragmentArgs;
}
// ...
}
And in the main fragment:
public class MainFragment extends Fragment {
#Override
public void onActivityCreated(final Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Bundle args = ((MyActivity) getActivity()).getSavedMainFragmentState();
if (args != null) {
// Restore from backstack
} else if (savedInstanceState != null) {
// Restore from saved instance state
} else {
// Create from fragment arguments
args = getArguments();
}
// ...
}
// ...
#Override
public void onDestroyView() {
super.onDestroyView();
Bundle args = new Bundle();
saveInstance(args);
((MyActivity) getActivity()).saveMainFragmentState(args);
}
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
saveInstance(outState);
}
private void saveInstance(Bundle data) {
// put data into bundle
}
}
It works!
if back from backstack, the fragment uses the parameters saved in onDestroyView
if back from another app/process/out of memory, the fragment is restored from the onSaveInstanceState
if created for the first time, the fragment uses the parameters set in setArguments
All events are covered, and the freshest information is always kept.
It's actually more complicated, it's interface-based, the listener is un/registered from onAttach/onDetach. But the principles are the same.

Related

When is fragment finally attached to activity?

I have a main fragment with a viewpager inside it. This viewpager has 2 pages (list fragments). When I start the activty, the main fragment is shown and I also show the first paged fragment. This paged fragment displays data from a db using AsyncTask.
In the main fragment I have:
#Override
public void onViewCreated(View view, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState);
onPageSelected(0);
}
#Override
public void onPageSelected(int position) {
Fragment fragment = (Fragment) pagerAdapter.instantiateItem(viewPager, position);
if (fragment instanceof IPagedFragment) {
((IPagedFragment) fragment).onShown(getActivity());
}
}
And the interface is:
public interface IPagedFragment {
void onShown(FragmentActivity activity);
}
The first issue I have is that I have to pass the activity as a parameter because when onShown gets called, the activity is still null.
Furthermore, the paged fragments use progressbar logic similar to the LoginActivity sample. I also get the following exception:
IllegalStateException: Fragment PagedFragment1{4201f758} not attached to Activity
at android.support.v4.app.Fragment.getResources(Fragment.java:620)
So what is the correct stage to start retrieving data from db once the paged fragment is fully available to the UI?
Issues like yours is the reason some developers are starting to question if fragments are really that good or useful.
Also "the correct" is debatable as you can do it in a variety of places and different developers will give you different answers, But let me try to supply you some useful info.
The attach/detach callbacks:
public void onAttach(Activity activity);
public void onDetach();
between those two methods any call to getActivity() will return the non-null activity the fragments is connected to. You can override them and use a private boolean isAttached to keep track of that call.
Also useful is the:
public void onActivityCreated (Bundle savedInstanceState)
this method is called AFTER the Activity.onCreate method. That is very important if you rely on some initialisation that happened there.
Also it's important to remember that on the moment the fragment transaction happens, the Fragment.onCreate happens after the Activity.onCreate and during rotation it happens before it.
As a general rule of thumb I use the Fragment.onStart() / Fragment.onStop() for getting/listening to data. On those calls, all the UI have been created, the fragment is attached to the activity and those callbacks don't get called if there's a dialog/popup (pause/resume does)
From the documentation:
public void onActivityCreated (Bundle savedInstanceState)
[...] tells the fragment when it is fully associated with the new activity instance.
source: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Fragment.html#onActivityCreated(android.os.Bundle)
To get the reference of your activity, create a local object of fragmentActivity and get your activity reference as shown below.
private FragmentActivity fragmentActivity;
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
super.onAttach(activity);
fragmentActivity=activity;
}

Why do you check for savedInstanceState == null when adding fragment?

In the fragment doc, in one of the example, they check for savedInstanceState == null when adding a fragment:
public static class DetailsActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
if (getResources().getConfiguration().orientation
== Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE) {
// If the screen is now in landscape mode, we can show the
// dialog in-line with the list so we don't need this activity.
finish();
return;
}
if (savedInstanceState == null) {
// During initial setup, plug in the details fragment.
DetailsFragment details = new DetailsFragment();
details.setArguments(getIntent().getExtras());
getFragmentManager().beginTransaction().add(android.R.id.content, details).commit();
}
}
}
What is the purpose of this check? What would happen if it is not there?
What is the purpose of this check?
To not add the fragment twice, though I prefer checking to see if the fragment is there instead of relying on that Bundle being null.
What would happen if it is not there?
Initially, nothing, as the Bundle will be null when the activity is first created.
However, then, the user rotates the device's screen from portrait to landscape. Or, the user changes languages. Or, the user puts the device into a manufacturer-supplied car dock. Or, the user does any other configuration change.
Your activity will be destroyed and recreated by default. Your fragments will also be destroyed and recreated by default (exception: those on which setRetainInstance(true) are called, which are detached from the old activity and attached to the new one).
So, the second time the activity is created -- the instance created as a result of the configuration change -- your fragment already exists, as it was either recreated or retained. You don't want a second instance of that fragment (usually), and therefore you take steps to detect that this has occurred and not run a fresh FragmentTransaction.

ViewPager + Fragment + saveInstanceState

I have a simple Activity containing a ViewPager, which displays Fragments.
My Activity should display information about a football league, and each fragment displays information like livescroes/matchdays, tables, etc.
The Intent with which I start the Activity, contains the league id.
And each Fragment needs this league id to load the correct data.
So my FragmentPagerAdapter looks like this
public class LeaguePagerAdapter extends FragmentPagerAdapter {
private String leagueId;
public LeaguePagerAdapter(FragmentManager fm, String leagueId) {
super(fm);
this.leagueId = leagueId;
}
#Override
public Fragment getItem(int pos) {
if (pos == 0){
return TableFragment.newInstance(leagueId);
} else {
return MatchdayFragment.newInstance(leagueId);
}
}
}
The TableFragment looks like this ( the matchday fragment looks similar):
public class TableFragment extends PullToRefreshListViewAdFragment {
private String leagueId;
public static TableFragment newInstance(String leagueId) {
TableFragment t = new TableFragment();
t.leagueId = leagueId;
return t;
}
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Setup UI and load data
}
}
Sometimes the leagueId is null. I see the exceptions in the crash logs (crittercism). But Im asking my self why. It seems to me, that the problem is when the activity has been destroyed in the background and reconstructed if (for instance) the user uses the multitasking button to switch to my app.
So as far as I know, the original Intent will be stored internally by Android itself if the Activity has been destoryed. Therefore I have not implemented any onSaveInstanceState() in my activity nor in the fragment. In my activity I read the Intent Extra to retrieve the leagueId. This works fine, also on restoring the activity. I have assumed that by recreating the activity, a new LeaguePagerAdapter will be created and all fragments will also be new created.
Is that correct? Or does the "old" fragment instance will be restored and hence the leagueId is null (because the fragment has not stored the leagueId in Fragments onSaveInstanceState method?).
Is there a way to test such lifecycle things
The reason it is null is because the system restores the Fragment with the default constructor. Here's what the documents say:
Every fragment must have an empty constructor, so it can be instantiated when restoring its activity's state. It is strongly recommended that subclasses do not have other constructors with parameters, since these constructors will not be called when the fragment is re-instantiated; instead, arguments can be supplied by the caller with setArguments(Bundle) and later retrieved by the Fragment with getArguments().
edit: also, take a look at this: Fragment's onSaveInstanceState() is never called
edit: To further add on, you are creating your Fragment with your newInstance(String) method. If your Fragment is killed by Android, it uses the default constructor and so your leagueId variable won't be set. Try using setArguments/getArguments to pass the value into your Fragment instead.

Prevent Fragment recovery in Android

We are using Fragments and we don't need them to be automatically recovered when the Activity is recreated.
But Android every time when Activity::onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) -> super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) is called, restores Fragments even if we use setRetainInstance(false) for those Fragments.
Moreover, in those Fragments Fragment.performCreateView() is called directly without going through Fragment::onAttach() and so on. Plus, some of the fields are null inside restored Fragment...
Does anybody know how to prevent Android from restoring fragments?
P.S. We know that in case of recreating Activity for config changes it could be done by adding to manifest android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize|screenLayout. But what about recreating activity in case of automatic memory cleaning?
We finished by adding to activity:
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(null);
}
It suppresses any saved data on create/recreate cycle of an Activity and avoids fragments auto re-creation.
#goRGon 's answer was very useful for me, but such use cause serious problems when there is some more information you needs to forward to your activity after recreate.
Here is improved version that only removes "fragments", but keep every other parameters.
ID that is removed from bundle is part of android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity class as FRAGMENTS_TAG field. It may of course change over time, but it's not expected.
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(createBundleNoFragmentRestore(savedInstanceState));
}
/**
* Improve bundle to prevent restoring of fragments.
* #param bundle bundle container
* #return improved bundle with removed "fragments parcelable"
*/
private static Bundle createBundleNoFragmentRestore(Bundle bundle) {
if (bundle != null) {
bundle.remove("android:support:fragments");
}
return bundle;
}
I was having a problem with TransactionTooLargeException. So thankfully after using tolargetool I founded that the fragments (android:support:fragments) were been in memory, and the transaction became too large. So finally I did this, and it worked great.
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(final Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
outState.putSerializable("android:support:fragments", null);
}
Edit: I added it to the Activity. In my case I have one single Activity app and Multiple Fragments.
Those who got NPE with ViewPager when use this method described in the accepted answer, please override
ViewPager.onRestoreInstanceState(Parcelable state)
method and call
super.onRestoreInstanceState(null);
instead.
I removed the fragments in Activity's onCreate.
For an app with a ViewPager, I remove the fragments in onCreate(), before their creation.
Based on this thread: Remove all fragments from container, we have:
FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
for (Fragment fragment: fm.getFragments()) {
fm.beginTransaction().remove(fragment).commitNow();
}
Use this one for androidx
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
preventFragmentRecreation()
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
}
private fun preventFragmentRecreation() {
supportFragmentManager.addFragmentOnAttachListener { _, _ ->
savedStateRegistry.unregisterSavedStateProvider("android:support:fragments")
}
}
This worked for me
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(final Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
outState.remove("androidx.lifecycle.BundlableSavedStateRegistry.key");
}
View hierarchy in not restored automatically. So, in Fragment.onCreateView() or Activity.onCreate(), you have to restore all views (from xml or programmatically). Each ViewGroup that contains a fragment, must have the same ID as when you created it the first time. Once the view hierarchy is created, Android restores all fragments and put theirs views in the right ViewGroup thanks to the ID. Let say that Android remembers the ID of the ViewGroup on which a fragment was. This happens somewhere between onCreateView() and onStart().

How to properly remove retained instance Fragment

Currently, I would like to retain an expensive data structure, during configuration changes. I choose not to use Bundle to handle it, as the expensive data structure is not parcelable.
Hence, I use a non-UI Fragment (Called it RetainInstanceFragment), with its setRetainInstance(true) to hold the data structure.
public class RetainInstanceFragment extends Fragment {
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
// Creating expensive data structure
expensiveDataStructure = CreateExpensiveDataStructure();
// Tell the framework to try to keep this fragment around
// during a configuration change.
setRetainInstance(true);
}
public ExpensiveDataStructure expensiveDataStructure = null;
}
An UI Fragment (Called it UIFragment) will get the expensive data structure from RetainInstanceFragment. Whenever there is configuration changes on UIFragment, UIFragment will always try to get the "cached" RetainInstanceFragment from FragmentManager, before it decides to create a new RetainInstanceFragment.
Example code is as follow.
public class UIFragment extends SherlockListFragment
#Override
public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
// Check to see if we have retained the worker fragment.
retainInstanceFragment = (RetainInstanceFragment)fm.findFragmentByTag("data");
// If not retained (or first time running), we need to create it.
if (retainInstanceFragment == null) {
retainInstanceFragment = new RetainInstanceFragment();
fm.beginTransaction().add(watchlistArrayFragment, "data").commit();
} else {
// We can re-use retainInstanceFragment.expensiveDataStructure even
// after configuration change.
}
}
}
However, there's a problem. Whenever I destroy my old UIFragment, and replace it with new UIFragment, I expect old RetainInstanceFragment will be destroyed as well. Here is how I destroy and create new UIFragment
public class MyFragmentActivity extends SlidingFragmentActivity
// Being triggered when there is different menu item in sliding menu being
// selected.
public void selectActiveContent(Country country) {
Fragment fragment = new UIFragment(country);
getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content, fragment).commitAllowingStateLoss();
}
But old RetainInstanceFragment is never destroyed.
My guess is, perhaps I forget to perform clean up in UIFragment. Hence, I add the following code
UIFragment
#Override
public void onDetach() {
super.onDetach();
// To differentiate whether this is a configuration changes, or we are
// removing away this fragment?
if (this.isRemoving()) {
FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
fm.beginTransaction().remove(retainInstanceFragment).commit();
}
}
However, it doesn't work all the time. I perform several sliding menu clicks.
1. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment and new RetainInstanceFragment
2. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment, but re-use previous RetainInstanceFragment. (Wrong behavior)
3. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment, and new RetainInstanceFragment.
4. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment, but re-use previous RetainInstanceFragment. (Wrong behavior)
Any idea how I can properly remove retained instance Fragment?
As suggested by #Luksprog, the following method works. However, it still do not explain why the previous cleanup done through onDetach doesn't work. If anyone can explain why this solution works and previous doesn't, I would be very thankful. :)
UIFragment
#Override
public void onDetach() {
super.onDetach();
}
public void cleanupRetainInstanceFragment() {
FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
fm.beginTransaction().remove(this.retainInstanceFragment).commit();
}
MyFragmentActivity
public class MyFragmentActivity extends SlidingFragmentActivity
// Being triggered when there is different menu item in sliding menu being
// selected.
public void selectActiveContent(Country country) {
// *******************************************
// Solution suggested by #Luksprog. It works!
// But I have no idea why it works and previous doesn't work...
// *******************************************
Fragment oldFragment = getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.content);
if (oldFragment instanceof UIFragment) {
((UIFragment)oldFragment).cleanupRetainInstanceFragment();
}
Fragment fragment = new UIFragment(country);
getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content, fragment).commitAllowingStateLoss();
}
(Edited) Useful comment by #Luksprog
The fragment transactions are not made right away. My assumption was
that doing that transaction in the onDetach() callback will not remove
the retain fragment instance before the UI fragment's replace
transaction finished and so your new UI fragment will still see the
retain fragment instance still available, so it will not create a new
one. Your previous method is not in the spirit of the fragments
framework where fragments are unaware of other fragments and the
activity manages all of them as it knows more about the overall
application state.
I think you can just remove the fragment from fragment transaction.
if (mWorkFragment != null) {
fm.beginTransaction().remove(mWorkFragment).commitAllowingStateLoss();
}

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