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How to pass complex, non serializable object to android fragments

Hello fellow Android developers,
I wanna know how do you guys pass complex non serializable (& non parcelable) object to fragments. (such as Listener, Api client, ...)
Let me explain my use case:
The use case
I'm building an Android application composed of one "host" activity and 3 fragments.
Currently I'm passing the object using a custom constructor on the fragment (bad practice I know).
The fragments constructors looks like the following:
/**
* Do not remove ever or you'll face RuntimeException
*/
public FirstFragment() {
}
public FirstFragment(Session session,
ApiClient apiClient,
FirebaseAnalytics firebaseAnalytics) {
mSession = session;
mApiClient = apiClient;
mFirebaseAnalytics = firebaseAnalytics;
}
And I'm using them in the host activity like this
private FirstFragment getFirstFragment() {
if (mFirstFragment == null) {
mFirstFragment = new FirstFragment(mSession, mApiClient, mFirebaseAnalytics);
}
return mHomeFragment;
}
[...]
private void loadFragment(Fragment fragment, String tag) {
FragmentTransaction transaction = getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
transaction.replace(R.id.frame_container, fragment, tag);
transaction.commit();
}
[...]
private BottomNavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener mOnNavigationItemSelectedListener
= new BottomNavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener() {
#Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(#NonNull MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case FIRST_FRAGMENT_RES_ID:
toolbar.setTitle(R.string.first_fragment_title);
loadFragment(getFirstFragment(), "first_fragment");
return true;
[...]
}
return false;
}
};
This solution works well almost all the time. But sometimes (and I don't know when exactly) the default constructor is invoked and therefore all local members are null.
Possible solutions
To solve the problem I'm thinking about the following solutions:
Singletons, singletons everywhere
Most of the objects I'm passing are singletons therefore I can access them in the default constructor of the fragments:
public FirstFragment() {
mSession = Session.getInstance(getContext());
mApiClient = ApiClient.getInstance(getContext());
mFirebaseAnalytics = FirebaseAnalytics.getInstance(getContext());
}
Problems
However the above solution wouldn't work if I need to pass a callback or something. How can it be done like this then?
Access the objects using parent activity
I think it's one of the ugliest possible solutions because it will couple the Fragments to the parent activity. The idea is something like this
public FirstFragment() {
mSession = Session.getInstance(getContext());
mApiClient = ApiClient.getInstance(getContext());
mFirebaseAnalytics = FirebaseAnalytics.getInstance(getContext());
mListener = (Listener) getActivity(); // <- will works because parent activity implement the interface
}
Using broadcast & receiver
The idea is to keep passing singleton everywhere and use broadcast & receiver instead of listener.
How do you guys managed this scenario?
Thanks in advance !

You probably want to look into dependency injection (using a tool like Dagger or alternatives), especially for objects like an Api Client. Post the setup, you'd define, just once, how an Api Client instance could be constructed. And later you can use it pretty much everywhere with a one-line statement. The instance is guaranteed to be available upon the fragment instantiation. Further reading: https://dagger.dev/tutorial/

According to your use case, it might be easier to use a ViewModel and store your objects there. Your ViewModel will be shared across your fragments and your host
activity.
See https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/viewmodel

Have you considered using "Shared" ViewModel?
Essentially, a sub-class of ViewModel (which is class designed to store and manage UI-related data in a lifecycle conscious way for activities and fragments) can be created like below,
class SharedViewModel : ViewModel()
Inside this class you can have your custom objects with their correct state
Next, in your 1st Fragment you can obtain a handle to this SharedViewmodel like below,
class MasterFragment : Fragment() {
private lateinit var model: SharedViewModel
And obtain the handle to it using below code,
model = activity?.run {
ViewModelProviders.of(this)[SharedViewModel::class.java]
}
You can write your own logic/method/flow inside SharedViewModel to manipulate any custom object's states.
And once all this is done, In your 2nd Fragment, you can create the handle to SharedViewModel similar to above code and using SharedViewModel object you can retrieve the "modified" custom object from same SharedViewModel

It's been several months and I have now come up with a different solution.
For the UI related data
For the UI related stuff I'm now using the androidx livedata
For the complex non serializable data
My use case was to pass complex object to the fragment, such as manager, parent activity (trough a listener), etc... The approach I have taken is by injecting these data manually from the parent activity.
The first things to do was to remove the objects from the fragment constructor and use the default constructor instead, so that I won't face any instantiation errors.
Then I have created an inject() method on the fragment classes that look like this:
public void inject(BillingManager billingManager, Listener listener) {
mBillingManager = billingManager;
mListener = listener;
}
Each fragment will have their own inject method width the objects that should be injected as parameters.
In the parent activity I have override the onAttachFragment() method to handle the fragment attach process:
#Override
public void onAttachFragment(#NonNull Fragment fragment) {
super.onAttachFragment(fragment);
if (fragment.getClass().equals(FirstFragment.class)) {
((FirstFragment) fragment).inject(mBillingManager, this);
} else if (fragment.getClass().equals(HomeFragment.class)) {
((HomeFragment) fragment).inject(this);
}
}
Simple, and now everything work great.

Is there a way to manage fragment flow navigation dynamically using something like LiveData observers?

I'm newbie to Android development and I recently started to create a new application.
Consider that you have an application with 2 activities :MainActivity & TourneeFlowActivity. Also, you have 3 Fragments (I will call them StartTourneeFragment, ValidateTourneeFragment and EndingTourneeFragment for the example).
I've implemented Room and Repository pattern for retrieving local and remote data. Also, I've implemented ViewModels to refresh and manage UI data (LiveData) using observers.
Inside my TourneeFlowActivity, I have a fragmentNavigationImplementation (object class), for my fragment navigation flow (for ex: switch from StartTourneeFragment to ValidateTourneeFragment, using a callback listener in activity).
For now, fragment navigation is only called on user events caughted (such as a click on a button Next or Previous.
Could it be possible to use observers on object property change to trigger something like a callback which could change fragment dynamically?
Code example is not what I've done, but for illustrating what kind of mechanism I would like to do ...
I hope I'm clear with that.
public class TourneeFlowActivity extends Activity {
private FragmentNavigationImpl fragmentNavigation;
private BordereauViewModel bordereauViewModel;
#Override
public void onCreate() {
/// Some initializations
this.bordereau = ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(BordereauViewModel.class);
}
#Override
protected onActivityCreated(){
this.bordereauViewModel.getCurrentBorderau().observe(this, new Observer<Bordereau>{
#Override
public onChanged(#Nullable Bordereau bordereau) {
// Here my value has been changed so I would start a new fragment dynamically
if(bordereau != null && bordereau.getStep() == MyEnum.STEP_TO_ENDING) {
if(fragmentNavigation.getCurrentFragment()
instanceof ValidateTourneeFragment)
{
EndingFragment fragment = new EndingFragment();
fragmentNavigation.nextFragment(fragment);
}
}
}
});
}
}

Communication objects between multiple fragments in ViewPager

I have 5 fragments in ViewPager used to fill business object with several fields step by step, in each step some of those fields will be set. I've read many articles about communication between fragments but I'm not feeling comfortable the way others preferred, so after thinking about HOW should I do this in my case, finally I start thinking to use singleton model object which all fragments can easily access to its fields and fill them in specific steps.
As I'm new to android I want to hear from experts about using singleton instead of passing data between fragments such as implemented interface(It seems its so complicated and hard to maintenance). Any advice will be helpful.

While singleton approach seems easy to implement and understand it is way not to best way to achieve what you need. One reason is that your model object or as you call it business object lives outside of your activity's context which can create hard to find bugs. E.g. in case when more than one instance of your activity class is created by system and both keep reference to your singleton. See how you lose track of your objects?
What I would do is
Make my model object to implement Parcelable you will hate it at the beginning but once you get use to it it will become your model's best friend
Since your model is parcelable now you can easily pass it between fragments, activities, and even save it in shared preferences. One important thing to note here when you pass your parcelable between fragment or activity it is like pass by value, i.e. every time new instance is created.
Set your fragment's argument or if it is already instantiated then get arguments and add your model. here is an example:
if a fragment is not active yet:
Bundle args = new Bundle();
args.putParcable("businessObject", yourBusinessObjectThatIsParcable);
yourFragment.setArguments(args);
Otherwise:
yourFragment.getArguments().putParcelable("businessObject", yourBusinessObjectThatIsParcable);
In your fragment perhaps in onCreateView method get your model object like this MyParcableObject mpo = (MyParcableObject)getArguments().getParcelable("businessObject") and use it set whatever data you want.
When you finish editing your object on button click or in onPause method updated your fragment's arguments same way getArguments().putParcelable("businessObject", mpo);
in your last page or last fragment you can pass your object to your activity, here is how to do it
Even though it looks cumbersome but it is a practice that you need to get used to as an android developer. You get lot more control when your model implements parcelable.
Another way to do what you need is thru Delegation Pattern but it is mostly used for callbacks even though you can pass objects as well.

I wouldn't recommend a global singleton. There are two main reasons:
By definition, a singleton limits your app to a single instance of the main business object. If you (or a designer, or your boss's boss's boss) ever decide to have multiple of these ViewPagers at a time, you will have to change your architecture anyways.
The "Android way of thinking" is to expect that your user may put your app in the background and use other apps before returning to your app. If the system decides to kill your app in the background, then your singleton memory object will be destroyed, and your user will have lost all of their progress. The correct Android way to save state is by keeping the state in an Activity or Fragment, saving it appropriately in onSaveInstanceState(), and restoring it in onCreate().
All of the Fragments in the ViewPager can get a reference to the parent Activity via a call to getActivity(). Or if your ViewPager is within a Fragment, then all of the Fragments can access the parent Fragment via a call to getParentFragment(). You can then cast the result to the appropriate class (or better yet, interface) and make method calls to pass data back and forth. Keep track of your business data in the parent Activity/Fragment. This way, you don't need a global singleton
For example,
public class MyParentFragment extends Fragment {
private String mPageOneData;
private int mPageTwoData;
private List<Date> mPageThreeData;
public void setPageOneData(String data) {
mPageOneData = data;
}
...
}
public class PageOneFragment extends Fragment {
private void sendDataToParent(String data) {
Fragment f = getParentFragment();
if (f != null && f instanceof MyParentFragment) {
MyParentFragment parent = (MyParentFragment) f;
f.setPageOneData(data);
}
}
}

you can save your data in onSaveInstanceState() event of the activity in case your process will go into the background.
you can restore your data in onCreate() event by using Bundle and getExtras().
you can save your data in application class and the data will still be there in case your process will go into the background.
i prefer the first option because you don't want to make a mess in the application class with all the data from different activities and fragments.
I hope i could help :)

Have you checkout EventBus?
I'm not sure if it is the best approach, specially when your question is too broad, however it will be cool with just 5 fragments.
Hope it helps

I suppose in your MainActivity there is a ViewPager, and FragmentOne will be one of the fragments inside the view pager. Here the MainActivity is communicating to the FragmentOne to refreshhis adapter. Hope is clear.
In your MainActivity add this interface:
public interface Updateable {
public void update();
}
Implement this interface in a fragment that needs to be updated, and write the code to notify the adapter inside the update method:
public class FragmentOne extends Fragment implements MainActivity.Updateable {
...
#Override
public void update() {
// YOUR CODE TO UPDATE HERE, FOR EXAMPLE, HERE I'M UPDATING THE ADAPTER
if ( adapter != null ) {
adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
} else {
Log.d("LOG_TAG", "null");
}
}
...
}
Call the update method from the MainActivity when the fragment loads first. You can do this overriding the getItemPosition method in your PagerAdapter, like this:
#Override
public int getItemPosition(Object object) {
if ( object != null && object instanceof FragmentOne ) {
FragmentOne f = (FragmentOne) object;
f.update();
}
return super.getItemPosition(object);
}
Finally, you have to call notifyDataSetChanged() of your viewPager adapter. This will force the adapter of your viewpager to call the getItemPosition method.
mViewPager.addOnPageChangeListener(new ViewPager.OnPageChangeListener() {
int previousState;
#Override
public void onPageScrolled(int position, float positionOffset, int positionOffsetPixels) {
}
#Override
public void onPageSelected(int position) {
}
#Override
public void onPageScrollStateChanged(int state) {
if (previousState == ViewPager.SCROLL_STATE_SETTLING && state == ViewPager.SCROLL_STATE_IDLE) {
if ( viewPagerAdapter.getItem(viewpager.getCurrentItem()) instanceof Pictures ) {
Log.d("LOG_TAG", "New Position=" + viewpager.getCurrentItem());
viewPagerAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
}
}
previousState = state;
}
});

Before choosing any option, keep in mind user can navigate or open any other app(s) so you lost your data.
You can use onSaveInstanceState but it will somehow difficult to maintain (as you said you are new in android). You can go with with singleton by using
Database - Use when you want to store maintain multiple records but you have to create a database getter/setter or use any ORM like RushOrm etc.
SharefPreference(preferably) - If you want to use single values.
In both cases you will create a singleton object and access its properties in your fragments.

make your objects parcelable and then pass it to other fragments using bundle. i.e bundle.putParcelable(obj) parcelable is very efficient and fast.
it should motivate you
http://www.developerphil.com/parcelable-vs-serializable/

Name technique for passing data from fragment/activity to fragment/activity with interfaces

At school we're now learning on how to make fragments more universal by using interfaces.
This technique is still kinda abstract and I don't really know when/how to use it.
Can anybody point me to some resources on how to use that technique (Could it be called interface callbacks?)
All help is very appreciated!

The callback approach, as you would call it, is as simple as Listener interface found in many parts of Java or Android. You may check the Observer pattern if you want to learn about a very general description. But if you already understand how to work with Listener, you will easily get the point about callbacks.
NOTE: Do not mix it with Callback term - these are not the same.
Suppose we have Activity MyActivity and Fragment MyFragment. We want to post some data from Fragment to Activity. Then let us create an interface within MyFragment:
public class MyFragment extends Fragment{
private PostDataCallback mCallback;//our Activity will implement this
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
super.onAttach(activity);
// This makes sure that the container activity has implemented
// the callback interface. If not, it throws an exception
try {
mCallback = (PostDataCallback) activity;
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString()
+ " must implement OnHeadlineSelectedListener");
}
}
public interface PostDataCallback{
public void onPostData(Object data);
}
/*
we trigger this method when we calculated
data or something like that and want to post it*/
public void onSomeEvent(Object data){
mCallback.onPostData(data);
}
}
Our MyActivity will look like this:
public class MyActivity extends Activity implements MyFragment.PostDataCallback{
private Object data;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
getFragmentManager().beginTransaction().add(R.id.some_container_id, new MyFragment(), "my fragment");
}
#Override
public void onPostData(Object data){
this.data = data;
//some operations
}
}
So, MyFragment knows nothing about the implementation of it's callback. But it knows, that it can call the method onPostData(Object o) on the instance of PostDataCallback, which is held in the variable mCallback.
Thus, when MyFragment triggers it's mCallback.onPostData(data), MyActivity get's the result.
Exactly the same approach would work if we wanted to send message from MyActivity to MyFragment, but we would do it do it vice versa: the trigger method, callback interface definition and instance would reside in MyActivity, and MyFragment would implement the interface.

Here are steps:
Download sample data from http://developer.android.com/training/basics/fragments/index.html(given in right side) and also look at url to how to add fragments from xml or dynamically to performing fragment transaction operations..
Then would recommend you to go through with fragment guide..http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html
Once you understand complete life cycle and its fragment callback methods then would be easy to understand example given by Google as sample.
To defining interface in fragment to calling interface or passing callback to activity..
Let’s say you have two fragments which shows list as article titles and article details.
In your article list extends fragment list public class Fragment1 extends ListFragment
Set your list view using list adapter in oncreateview method.
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(getActivity(),
android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, Array);
setListAdapter(adapter);
Now we need to display article details when user click on article, so we need to pass position to activity to it can call back corresponding article details to show in fragment2.
So when user click on article, system call onListItemClick callback method.
public void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);
Call interface here and pass article position
Define interface and pass position in method which activity will override.
public interface OnArticleSelectedListener {
public void onArticleSelected(int position);
}
In on attach method instantiates an instance of interface by casting the Activity, If the activity has not implemented the interface, then the fragment throws a ClassCastException. On success.
Override interface method to display article details by passing position as bundle data to Fragment2.
Hope it will help you to understand sample code.

You can simple create new Android Application project in eclipse.
Then create Android Object (Fragment) with callback methods. This will give you an idea for interfaces.
And then the same you can apply for activity to fragment.

Call Activity Method From Fragment

I'm dealing with fragments.
I have an Activity and different fragments.
Each fragment need the access to a Class(call it X) that allow it to access a database, but, because I have a lot of fragments, I don't want to create a different instance of the Class X in every fragment as I think it will require lots of memory.
So how can I do?
I wrote something like this (with a getter), but it doesn't work!
public class MyActivity {
private ClassX classx;
.....
public ClassX getClassX() {
return classx;
}
.....
}
But than, how can I call it from the fragment?

From the fragment call your activity's method
((MyActivity ) getActivity()).getClassX() ;

This is a little bit more of a Java question and android.
If you looking at accessing the database, look at creating a database singleton.
So something like:
public class Database {
// This starts off null
private static Database mInstance;
/**
* Singleton method, will return the same object each time.
*/
public static final Database getInstance() {
// First time this method is called by Database.getInstance() from anywhere
// in your App. It will create this Object once.
if(mInstance == null) mInstance = new Database();
// Returns the created object from a statically assigned field so its never
// destroyed until you do it manually.
return mInstance;
}
//Private constructor to stop you from creating this object by accident
private Database(){
//Init db object
}
}
So then from your fragments and activities you can then place the following field in your class's (Better use use a base activity and fragment to save you repeating code).
public abstract class BaseFragment extends Fragment {
protected final Database mDatabase = Database.getInstance();
}
Then your concrete fragments can extend your BaseFragment e.g. SearchListFragment extends BaseFragment
Hope this helps.
Worth reading about singletons and database
Regards,
Chris

Define an interface called Callbacks (or something else if you want). In it, have a public method called getClassX(). Then make your Activity implement the Callbacks interface.
In your Fragments, in onAttach, store a reference to a Callbacks object (i.e. your activity via something like:
if(activity instanceof Callbacks)
mCallbacks = (Callbacks)activity;
This will guarantee that the Fragments are able to call the function. (in case you want to reuse the fragments later in another app)
Then in your Activity, in onCreate(), create an instance of ClassX. In your getClassX() method, just return a reference to it.
When you want a reference to it from your Fragments, call mCallbacks.getClassX() and you should be sorted.

You can use a static object in your activity, and use it from the fragment, or call the getActivity() method in your fragment to access the whole activity objects/methods