Am I using fragments right? - android

I am a bit confused about what is the ideologically correct way of using fragments.
As the Android Developers states,
A Fragment represents a behavior or a portion of user interface in an
Activity. You can combine multiple fragments in a single activity to
build a multi-pane UI and reuse a fragment in multiple activities. You
can think of a fragment as a modular section of an activity, which has
its own lifecycle, receives its own input events, and which you can
add or remove while the activity is running (sort of like a "sub
activity" that you can reuse in different activities).
And also:
Fragments decompose application functionality and UI into reusable
modules Add multiple fragments to a screen to avoid switching
activities
And my usage of fragments goes the following way:
I have only one main Activity and a whole bunch of fragments. Instead of starting activities, I prefer replacing fragments.
For example, I have FeedsFragment, FriendsFragment, MessagesFragment, and when I select something from sliding menu, my Activity just replaces the main Fragment. If I'm launching a Fragment from other Fragment, I put the previous one in backstack.
Some fragments require the Activity to change the actionbar, an I do it directly by
((MainActivity)getActivity()).setupActionBar();
Currently I don't have any code that supports tablet layouts (as seen in examples on android developers), but I'm planning to add it.
So, is this the right way of doing things? Or am I completely missing something?

As you know fragment has their own lifecycle, and you can use its event when ever you want from the activity lifecyle.
But Fragments lifecycle depens on activity lifecycle So when actvity destroyed, fragments destroyed also.
// Create new fragment and transaction
Fragment newFragment = new ExampleFragment();
FragmentTransaction transaction = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
// Replace whatever is in the fragment_container view with this fragment,
// and add the transaction to the back stack
transaction.replace(R.id.fragment_container, newFragment);
transaction.addToBackStack(null);
// Commit the transaction
transaction.commit();
Yo can use the fragment transaction, to replace them in one activity, I think you use the same way,
i think you arent wrong way and there are no problem to use fragment instead of using different activites.
But you should think about, you realy need to use them in one activty ? If you dont need to show them in one activity you dont need to use fragment.
A fragment must always be embedded in an activity and the fragment's
lifecycle is directly affected by the host activity's lifecycle. For
example, when the activity is paused, so are all fragments in it, and
when the activity is destroyed, so are all fragments. However, while
an activity is running (it is in the resumed lifecycle state), you can
manipulate each fragment independently, such as add or remove them.
When you perform such a fragment transaction, you can also add it to a
back stack that's managed by the activity—each back stack entry in the
activity is a record of the fragment transaction that occurred. The
back stack allows the user to reverse a fragment transaction (navigate
backwards), by pressing the Back button.
As a result , it is not wrong , but i think if you dont need, creating different activity is easy to maintain.

Related

How to make button open another fragment from within another fragment in kotlin

how to make button to open another fragment. being within a fragment. kotlin
I'm starting in kotlin and I'm having a hard time trying to open a fragment with a button, how do I?
You need to use FragmentManager and FragmentTransaction to add your fragment on the fly. you can call a function similar to this in your button's onClick method. But it is recommended for the parent activity to handle each fragment's lifecycle and the fragments
are not supposed to interact each other. The following is taken from the developer docs, that can be found here.
"Often you will want one Fragment to communicate with another, for example to change the content based on a user event. All Fragment-to-Fragment communication is done either through a shared ViewModel or through the associated Activity. Two Fragments should never communicate directly."
fun createFragmentonTheFly(){
var mFragmentTransaction: FragmentTransaction = getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
mFragmentTransaction.add(R.id.fr_container,new ProductListFragment())
mFragmentTransaction.commit()
}
The best way to do it would be to add an interface let say onFragmentDetachedLisetner and add one method replaceFragment() or something and make your Activity implement this interaface and had it replace as soon as the fragment is detached and make your fragment that contains your button finish itself when user clicks the button, then your activity will replace it with the one you wanted to start. And also consider reusing fragments, as that is the main purpose of fragments at the first place.

Fragment does not call lifecycle methods

I've a fragment A. I add() it with tag like this:
fragmentTransaction.addToBackStack(special_tag);
Then I simply add() fragment B on top of fragment A. After that, I decide to remove fragment B and go back to fragment A using:
activity.fragmentManager.popBackStackImmediate(special_tag, 0)
When I reach the fragment A, it seems that fragment doesn't re-run it's lifecycle methods: onAttach(), onResume(), onCreate() ect.
Can someone explain this behavior and maybe suggest an alternative?
(I need to "refresh" the data when I come back to fragment A second time)
What is causing this result?
Is there a clean solution/work-around?
Update
Fragment B is GuidedStepFragment and does not have a .replace() function. I found that it has finishGuidedStepFragments(), but it behaves the same (it does not call fragment life cycle functions)
Situation (again):
Fragment A (Simple fragment) -> .add(Fragment B) (GuidedStepFragment) -> popBackStackImmediate() or finishGuidedStepFragments()
I add Fragment B like this:
GuidedStepFragment.add(activity.fragmentManager, fragmentB.createInstance())
Using fragmentTransaction.add(Fragment) doesn't remove Fragment A. What is actually happening is that Fragment A is still running behind Fragment B. Since Fragment A never stopped running, it's lifecycle has no need to retrigger.
Consider using fragmentTransaction.replace(Fragment) and replace the fragment in the container (fragment A) with fragment B. If you pop that transaction from the back stack, then Fragment A will reattach and follow your expected lifecycle.
Update
Since you seem to be using GuidedStepFragments from the leanback library, this is a little tricky. GuidedStepFragment actually performs replace(...) under the hood, but you're adding fragment B to a different container so the original behavior I mentioned doesn't apply.
I'm not super familiar with leanback (since it's usually only used for android tv), but I do know that you can at least do the following. If you keep track of your backstack size, when all of the GuidedStepFragments have been popped, you will have returned to your original fragment. For example, let's assume your backstack starts at zero:
activity.fragmentManager.addOnBackStackChangedListener(new FragmentManager.OnBackStackChangedListener() {
#Override
public void onBackStackChanged() {
if (activity.fragmentManager.getBackStackEntryCount() == 0){
// handle your updates
}
}
});
// the next line of code will add an entry to the backstack
GuidedStepFragment.add(activity.fragmentManager, fragmentB.createInstance());
// eventually when back is pressed and the guided fragment is removed, the backstack listener should trigger

FragmentManager popBackStack doesn't remove fragment

I'm implementing menu navigation using Fragments. So I begin with Home, and then users can navigate to diferent sections and details of each section.
When a user changes section, then I call pop on the fragmentmanager backstack until I reach Home, and then load the new section.
This is all working as expected. But I'm getting this problem:
load a section that calls setHasOptionsMenu(true) on onResume()
loads another section (old section it's suposed to get out of the stack). I see it OK. No menu is shown
leave the application (for example, go to Android Laucher activity) and then when I return, I see the correct section, but it's showing the Menu of the old Fragment.
I've iterated the backstack and printed each fragment, and there it's not the fragment with the menu.
I put a debug mark on the onResume() method (where the setHasOptionsMenu(true) is flagged) and it indeed enters here, so the Fragment it's still somewhere.
I want to know if I'm doing something wrong and how could I solve it, thx
Update:
I'm using this code to load new fragments
fm.beginTransaction()
.add(container, sectionFragment.getFragment())
.addToBackStack(sectionFragment.getFragmentName())
.commit();
And for remove:
private void clearStack(){
int count = fm.getBackStackEntryCount();
while(count > 1){
fm.popBackStack();
count--;
}
}
NOTE 1: I'm using add instead replace because I don't want to loose the state of my fragment when I navigate back from detail section. When I load another different section, then I call clearStack to pop the stack up to 1, and then loads new fragment. At the end, I'm calling executePendingTransactions() to finish to remove the fragments from the transaction.
NOTE 2: I'm seeing that it is entering on my fragment onDestroy() method, so it is suposed to be destroyed. But I don't know why it is getting called again when the Main activity resumes.
I found that the problem was not in the logic of adding and removing fragment of the stack.
The problem was that some of the fragment loaded another fragments inside of it (it had ViewPager component). Then I thought that when the fragment was removed then these fragments were removed too.
This is true ONLY if you use getChildFragmentManager() method. This method MUST be used when loading fragments inside other fragmets. If not, then the fragments are asociated with the fragments activity.
popBackStack will just revert your last FragmentTransaction.
If you use FragmentTransaction.add, popBackStack will just call FragmentTransacetion.remove.
But if you call FragmentTransaction.replace, popBackStack will call FragmentTransaction.remove and FragmentTransaction.add
For your "NOTE 1" :
FragmentTransaction.replace will not change your fragment state.
I found this question, because after calling
fragmentManager.popBackStack(null, FragmentManager.POP_BACK_STACK_INCLUSIVE);
this code fragmentManager.getFragments().size() returns me the maximum number of fragments, which were in the stack. I checked every fragment on null. And I found that some fragment is null in my case. Maybe it will help someone)
If you are really looking to remove fragments at once then follow:
How to replace Fragments of different types?
Otherwise use replace transaction for fragments to smooth transitiona and hassel free approach, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/23013075/3176433
Also understand Fragment lifecycle,
http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html
I had a similar problem where the popBackStack() didn't remove my fragment.
However, I noticed that I called the wrong FragmentManager, where I had to call getSupportFragmentMananger() instead of getFragmentManager().
Maybe there is a <fragment> or <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView> in an activity with android:name="androidx.navigation.fragment.NavHostFragment", app:defaultNavHost="true" and app:navGraph="#navigation/nav_graph".
In this case navigation is held by nav_graph. If you don't want to use NavController and NavHostFragment, maybe you should remove navigation and clean <fragment> tag.

Android Fragment View State Loss When Using FragmentTransaction.replace()

I am having a pretty big issue and I am not quite understanding what is happening. I am developing an application that uses Fragments (from the support library) and am using FragmentTransaction.replace() to place new Fragments on to the back stack and replace the old one. The code looks as follows:
FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
FragmentTransaction ft = ft.beginTransaction();
// Animations in my res/anim folder
ft.setCustomAnimations(R.anim.slide_in_right, R.anim.slide_out_left, R.anim.slide_in_left, R.anim.slide_out_right);
ft.replace(R.id.fragment_container, newFragment, tag);
ft.addToBackStack(null);
ft.commit();
This is successful in replacing my fragment. My issue is the following. In one Fragment, I have a list of items that is built from user input. Now, when the user clicks next and then clicks the back button (to return to the list), the list is empty because the view is destroyed. Now, I have noted the following:
onSaveInstanceState is not called. I believe this is because that is only called when the parent Activity tells it to. Based on the docs: " 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.". Apparently, performing a replace on the FragmentTransaction is not one of those times. Does anyone have confirmation on this or a better explanation?
setOnRetainInstanceState(true) is not helpful in this situation. Again, I believe this has to do with info from the docs: "Control whether a fragment instance is retained across Activity re-creation (such as from a configuration change)". I am not performing any action in re-creating the activity so this is of no use.
So, I guess my main question is: is there a way to preserve the View state (simply retain the Fragment) when using replace? There is FragmentTransaction.add(), but there are a few issues with this as well. One being that the exit animation is not performed, thus the animation is not correct. Another is that the new Fragment that the old fragment (the one that is being put into a non-visible state) is still clickable. For example, if I have a ListFragment, and I place a content fragment on top of that by using add, I can still click the list items in the ListFragment.
Without being able to see the code of your fragments this is a bit of a guess, but in the past I've run into this same issue and I've found that resetting the adapter in your ListFragment in onViewStateRestored seems to do the trick.
public void onViewStateRestored (Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onViewStateRestored (savedInstanceState);
setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter(Activity, R.layout.nav_item, objects));
}
Which is weird considering the documentation states that this method is called after onActivityCreated but before onStart. But it seems that it is also called at other times because when the most recent fragment transaction is popped off the back stack this method is called before the previously replaced fragment is displayed. The activity that owns the fragments has not been paused or obscured in any way, so according to the docs onViewStateRestored should not be called since just the fragments were modified. But this seems to work anyway.
It sounds like you simply need to make sure you have properly implemented onCreateView and onDestroyView. The situation you are describing seems to indicate that when the list fragment is put on the back stack (as a result of the replace transaction) Android is calling onDestroyView to free up some resources. However, it apparently has not destroyed the list fragment because when you tap back you are getting back the same instance of the fragment.
Assuming this is all true then, when the user taps back Android will call onCreateView. Any state that you have stored in the fragment's instance variables should still be there and all you need to do is repopulate the view...perhaps set the adapter on the ListView or whatever.
Also make sure your onSaveInstanceState() callback actually does save any instance state that you need to rebuild the view. That way if the fragment actually does get completely destroyed the FragmentManager can restore the state when it needs to recrete the fragment later.

How to pop back stack for Activity with multiple Fragments?

Assume I have an Activity which contains two FrameLayouts (let's call them FrameA and FrameB) which in turn each contain a Fragment (let's call them FragmentA1 and FragmentB1 respectively). Now, I commit a series of individual fragment transactions using code similar to the following...
getFragmentManager()
.beginTransaction()
.replace(frameId, fragment)
.addToBackStack(null)
.commit();
... such that I replace FragmentA1 in FrameA with FragmentA2, then I replace FragmentB1 in FrameB with FragmentB2, then I replace FragmentA2 in FrameA with FragmentA3, then I replace FragmentB2 in Frame2 with FragmentB3, and the final state looks like the picture above (where only FragmentA3 and FragmentB3 are visible).
If I understood correctly how the back stack works, pressing 'back' will interleave popping of the Fragments between FrameA and FrameB (reflecting how I added them).
Does anyone know if it is possible to pop the last transaction on FrameA or FrameB selectively? (i.e. if I pressed 'Pop FrameA' then FrameA would be transitioned back from FragmentA3 to FragmentA2 and, instead, if I pressed 'Pop FrameB' then FrameB would be transitioned back from FragmentB3 to FragmentB2)
Supplement: I know I can get the Fragment last added to a given FrameLayout using the FragmentManager.findFragmentById(int framelayoutId) method, but calling FragmentTransaction.remove(fragment).commit() only removes the Fragment from the View and does not transition the View back to the Fragment it previously displayed.
Basically, no, there is only one back stack for an activity.
You will just need to implement your own separate back stacks.
As of Android 4.0 (and the associated support library) there are APIs that should make this relatively easy -- FragmentTransaction.detach(Fragment) lets you put a fragment into the same state it is when in the back stack, and FragmentManager.saveFragmentInstanceState(Fragment) lets you go further and completely throw away the Fragment object. Not coincidentally, these are used to implement ViewPager's FragmentPagerAdapter and FragmentStatePagerAdapter, respectively, so you could look at the code for these as an example of how to use them.
FragmentManager.popBackStack(String name, FragmentManager.POP_BACK_STACK_INCLUSIVE)
Here is the simplest answer, and the explanation is very clear: Well there are a few ways to go about this depending on the intended behavior, but this link should give you all the best solutions and not surprisingly is from Dianne Hackborn...

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