I've been working a lot with fragments lately and I was just curious as to what the best practice is for using a reference to a fragment's parent activity. Would it be better to keep calling getActivity() or have a parentActivity variable initialized on the onActivityCreated callback.
This is actually included in the official Android document on Fragments. When you need the context of the parent activity (e.g. Toast, Dialog), you would call getActivity(). When you need to invoke the callback methods in your Fragment's interface, you should use a callback variable that is instantiated in onAttach(...).
public static class FragmentA extends ListFragment {
ExampleFragmentCallbackInterface mListener;
...
#Override
public void onAttach(Context context) {
super.onAttach(context);
try {
mListener = (ExampleFragmentCallbackInterface ) context;
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
throw new ClassCastException(context.toString() + " must implement ExampleFragmentCallbackInterface ");
}
}
...
}
Source
getActivity() is best. You need not maintain a variable to store (always, til app cycle!). If needed invoke the method and use! :)
If you are in the fragment which is called from some activity, to get the reference to parent activity you can call it inside onViewCreated() or later hook methods of fragment directly by, it is just to make sure that parent activity is not null
getActivity()
If you want to really make sure you need to check first
if (getActivity() != null){ // then your logic with getActivity()}
Related
I have a fragment that can either be attached to an Activity or a parent fragment. This fragment has an interface that must be implemented by anyone it is attached to. For activities, this is quite simple:
#Override
public void onAttach(Context context) {
super.onAttach(context);
if (context instanceof Activity){
Activity activity =(Activity) context;
try {
mCallback = (OnMyListener) activity;
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString() +
" must implement OnMyListener");
}
}
}
However, I am unable to set the mCallback listener for other Fragments that are hosting this particular Fragment.
You can't directly communicate between 2 fragments, it has to go thorough the activity hosting it (and I saw you already implemented the first half).
After the activity received the data from sender fragment, you can send it to the receiver fragment by resolving the receiver fragment's reference first, using:
ReceiverFragment fragment = ( ReceiverFragment) getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.receiver_fragment_id);
if it's null then you need to instantiate it first and pass the data using fragment.setArguments(Bundle), otherwise you can directly call the member function of the receiver fragment.
Check: https://developer.android.com/training/basics/fragments/communicating.html
Im trying to implement fragment to activity communication.
Went through android developer doc where an Activity object is passed to onAttach life cycle and set up the Fragment-Activity communication.
This documentation asks to pass Context object instead of Activity. I replaced all the Activity objects by Context objects in the life cycle method onAttach. But it is throwing a NullPointerException while calling the method of the interface from Fragment.
#Override
public void onAttach(Context context) {
super.onAttach(context);
try {
colourChangerInterface = (ColourChangerInterface) context;
}
catch (Exception exp){
System.out.println("error!");
}
}
Can anyone please give a small example of the usage in the new way ?
Thanks
Edit :
Found this link where detail discussion is there on the same issue.
The issue is because of the broken API 'onAttach()'; it doesn't get called at all when Context object is passed.
A simple and quick solution found from the above link is to move the code from onAttach to onCreate.
Here is a small example that will describe you the communication between Activity and Fragment. Suppose you have a Interface ICommunication. This is given below:
public interface ICommunication {
public void testMethod();
}
Now you have a Activity name MainActivity that implements ICommunication then it must have implements the method testMethod(). This method will like this:
#Override
public void testMethod() {
Toast toast = Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "It's called from Fragment", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
Now, suppose this MainActivity belongs a Fragment name TestFragment . If you want to access testMethod() of MainActivity from TestFragment then you can simply call using this way :
((ICommunication)getActivity()).testMethod();
Here , TestFragment must be hold on MainActivity.
My related answer with source is here
Thats it :)
I have a single Activity application with a number of Fragments (15 or so). Some of the methods in my MyActivity are required by all the Fragments, such as displaying Dialogs. So what I have in a sample call from a Fragment (and they all extend MyFragment) is something like:
getMyActivity().displayDialog(msg);
and getMyActivity is defined as in MyFragment:
MyActivity getMyActivity() {
return (MyActivity) getActivity();
}
however, sometimes getActivity() is null so I get NPEs in that case. So what I'm doing is moving those methods into MyFragment such that:
protected void displayDialog(String msg) {
if (getMyActivity() != null) {
getMyActivity().displayDialog(msg);
} else {
// what do I do here?
}
}
Does this approach make sense for the 10 or so methods I need to reference from MyActivity (and are there any pitfalls to doing so)? Also, what would I do to provide feedback in the case where getActivity() is null?
Edit: A common example of a cause for a NullPointerException would be something like a network call being dispatched by the Fragment and on completion of said network call, trying to display a Dialog when the Activity was destroyed in the meantime.
Its better to use some ParentFragment for example
public abstract class ParentFragment extends Fragment {
public Activity activity;
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
super.onAttach(activity);
this.activity = activity;
}
}
then you must owerride all yor fragments
public class SomeFragment extends ParentFragment {}
and use there activity for
activity.displayDialog(msg);
If the return value of getActivity () == null, then the Fragment is not attached in the FragmentManager of your parent activity.
A common mistake is to hold references of those fragments as object variables in the parent activity. This results in NPEs from Fragments.
I would recomend you to check whether this is your case.
If not, then:
See whether you are removing the Fragments from FragmentManager correctly
See whether you are adding the Fragments to the Framgnetmanager the right way.
if yes, remove the object variables and add the Fragments through the FragmentManager, see: http://www.survivingwithandroid.com/2013/04/android-fragment-transaction.html
Hope this helps
I am rarely getting this error while making an API call.
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Fragment not attached to Activity
I tried putting the code inside isAdded() method to check whether fragment is currently added to its activity but still i rarely gets this error. I fail to understand why I am still getting this error. How can i prevent it?
Its showing error on the line-
cameraInfo.setId(getResources().getString(R.string.camera_id));
Below is the sample api call that i am making.
SAPI.getInfo(getActivity(),
new APIResponseListener() {
#Override
public void onResponse(Object response) {
cameraInfo = new SInfo();
if(isAdded()) {
cameraInfo.setId(getResources().getString(R.string.camera_id));
cameraInfo.setName(getResources().getString(R.string.camera_name));
cameraInfo.setColor(getResources().getString(R.string.camera_color));
cameraInfo.setEnabled(true);
}
}
#Override
public void onError(VolleyError error) {
mProgressDialog.setVisibility(View.GONE);
if (error instanceof NoConnectionError) {
String errormsg = getResources().getString(R.string.no_internet_error_msg);
Toast.makeText(getActivity(), errormsg, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
});
This error happens due to the combined effect of two factors:
The HTTP request, when complete, invokes either onResponse() or onError() (which work on the main thread) without knowing whether the Activity is still in the foreground or not. If the Activity is gone (the user navigated elsewhere), getActivity() returns null.
The Volley Response is expressed as an anonymous inner class, which implicitly holds a strong reference to the outer Activity class. This results in a classic memory leak.
To solve this problem, you should always do:
Activity activity = getActivity();
if(activity != null){
// etc ...
}
and also, use isAdded() in the onError() method as well:
#Override
public void onError(VolleyError error) {
Activity activity = getActivity();
if(activity != null && isAdded())
mProgressDialog.setVisibility(View.GONE);
if (error instanceof NoConnectionError) {
String errormsg = getResources().getString(R.string.no_internet_error_msg);
Toast.makeText(activity, errormsg, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
}
Fragment lifecycle is very complex and full of bugs, try to add:
Activity activity = getActivity();
if (isAdded() && activity != null) {
...
}
I Found Very Simple Solution isAdded() method which is one of the fragment method to identify that this current fragment is attached to its Activity or not.
we can use this like everywhere in fragment class like:
if(isAdded())
{
// using this method, we can do whatever we want which will prevent **java.lang.IllegalStateException: Fragment not attached to Activity** exception.
}
Exception: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Fragment
DeadlineListFragment{ad2ef970} not attached to Activity
Category: Lifecycle
Description: When doing time-consuming operation in background thread(e.g, AsyncTask), a new Fragment has been created in the meantime, and was detached to the Activity before the background thread finished. The code in UI thread(e.g.,onPostExecute) calls upon a detached Fragment, throwing such exception.
Fix solution:
Cancel the background thread when pausing or stopping the
Fragment
Use isAdded() to check whether the fragment is attached
and then to getResources() from activity.
i may be late but may help someone .....
The best solution for this is to create a global application class instance and call it in the particular fragment where your activity is not being attached
as like below
icon = MyApplication.getInstance().getString(R.string.weather_thunder);
Here is application class
public class MyApplication extends Application {
private static MyApplication mInstance;
private RequestQueue mRequestQueue;
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
mInstance = this;
}
public static synchronized MyApplication getInstance() {
return mInstance;
}
}
In Fragment use isAdded()
It will return true if the fragment is currently attached to Activity.
If you want to check inside the Activity
Fragment fragment = new MyFragment();
if(fragment.getActivity()!=null)
{ // your code here}
else{
//do something
}
Hope it will help someone
This error can happen if you are instantiating a fragment that somehow can't be instantiated:
Fragment myFragment = MyFragment.NewInstance();
public classs MyFragment extends Fragment {
public void onCreate() {
// Some error here, or anywhere inside the class is preventing it from being instantiated
}
}
In my case, i have met this when i tried to use:
private String loading = getString(R.string.loading);
So the base idea is that you are running a UI operation on a fragment that is getting in the onDetach lifecycle.
When this is happening the fragment is getting off the stack and losing the context of the Activity.
So when you call UI related functions for example calling the progress spinner and you want to leave the fragment check if the Fragment is added to the stack, like this:
if(isAdded){ progressBar.visibility=View.VISIBLE }
This will solve your problem.
Add This on your Fragemnt
Activity activity;
#Override
public void onAttach(#NonNull Context context) {
super.onAttach(context);
activity = context instanceof Activity ? (Activity) context : null;
}
Then change getContext() , getActivity() , requireActivity() or requireContext() with activity
I adopted the following approach for handling this issue. Created a new class which act as a wrapper for activity methods like this
public class ContextWrapper {
public static String getString(Activity activity, int resourceId, String defaultValue) {
if (activity != null) {
return activity.getString(resourceId);
} else {
return defaultValue;
}
}
//similar methods like getDrawable(), getResources() etc
}
Now wherever I need to access resources from fragments or activities, instead of directly calling the method, I use this class. In case the activity context is not null it returns the value of the asset and in case the context is null, it passes a default value (which is also specified by the caller of the function).
Important This is not a solution, this is an effective way where you can handle this crash gracefully. You would want to add some logs in cases where you are getting activity instance as null and try to fix that, if possible.
this happen when the fragment does not have a context ,thus the getActivity()method return null.
check if you use the context before you get it，or if the Activity is not exist anymore . use context in fragment.onCreate and after api response usually case this problem
Sometimes this exception is caused by a bug in the support library implementation. Recently I had to downgrade from 26.1.0 to 25.4.0 to get rid of it.
This issue occurs whenever you call a context which is unavailable or null when you call it. This can be a situation when you are calling main activity thread's context on a background thread or background thread's context on main activity thread.
For instance , I updated my shared preference string like following.
editor.putString("penname",penNameEditeText.getText().toString());
editor.commit();
finish();
And called finish() right after it. Now what it does is that as commit runs on main thread and stops any other Async commits if coming until it finishes. So its context is alive until the write is completed. Hence previous context is live , causing the error to occur.
So make sure to have your code rechecked if there is some code having this context issue.
I'm writing an app that has a parent Activity and several child Fragments. I am trying to get the Fragment to communicate back to the parent Activity. I know there are several ways to do this, including making an interface and implementing that in the parent Activity. However, I am interested in this method:
ParentActivity activity = (ParentActivity) getActivity();
activity.someMethod();
This approach takes less code and is less complex. However, is this cast safe to do in production code? Or is an interface safer?
You can use this -
private ParentActivity callback;
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity)
{
//callback = (ParentActivity ) activity;
// make sure there is no cast exception
callback = (ParentActivty.class.isAssignableFrom(activity
.getClass())) ? (ParentActivity) activity : null;
super.onAttach(activity);
}
#Override
public void onDetach()
{
callback = null;
super.onDetach();
}
now when you do any method call , call it like this -
if(callback!=null)
{
callback.someMethod();
}
this method is safe .
It is safe (i.e. you won't get a ClassCastException), as long as you make sure that only ParentActivity ever creates/adds your Fragment.
These classes are now effectively coupled, which is, in general, not a good thing.
By casting to a specific Activity class (ParentActivity), you are losing the ability to re-use the fragment with different activities. It's safe to cast, as long as you only use the fragment with that one activity.
Using an interface allows the fragment to be used with multiple activities - you just need to implement the interface in the activities that use the fragment.
Another option is to use an Event Bus - like GreenRobot's EventBus or Square's Otto
Directly from the Android documentation:
To allow a Fragment to communicate up to its Activity, you can define an interface in the Fragment class and implement it within the Activity. The Fragment captures the interface implementation during its onAttach() lifecycle method and can then call the Interface methods in order to communicate with the Activity.
Here is an example of Fragment to Activity communication:
// HeadlinesFragment.java
public class HeadlinesFragment extends ListFragment {
OnHeadlineSelectedListener mCallback;
public void setOnHeadlineSelectedListener(Activity activity) {
mCallback = activity;
}
// Container Activity must implement this interface
public interface OnHeadlineSelectedListener {
public void onArticleSelected(int position);
}
// ...
}
// MainActivity.java
public static class MainActivity extends Activity
implements HeadlinesFragment.OnHeadlineSelectedListener{
// ...
#Override
public void onAttachFragment(Fragment fragment) {
if (fragment instanceof HeadlinesFragment) {
HeadlinesFragment headlinesFragment = (HeadlinesFragment) fragment;
headlinesFragment.setOnHeadlineSelectedListener(this);
}
}
}
It is safe if you know that the fragment won't be used in another activity. You can also do checks with instanceof so you can be sure that it will be the right type.
There are some possibilities where getActivity() might return null (when the fragment is not attached) so it's a good habit to check if the activity is null, or even better: myFragment.isAdded(). Otherwise you would get a NullPointerException when calling activity.someMethod().
So the safe code would be:
if (isAdded() && getActivity() instanceof ParentActivity){
ParentActivity activity = (ParentActivity) getActivity();
activity.someMethod();
}
Of course there are some other approaches, like passing listeners to the fragments or using a shared eventbus like Guava or Otto, which also have their pros and cons. The easiest way is the one described above, and if you use it carefully (check against null, correct class) it will work as expected.
I guess ParentActivity is derived from Activity.
getActivity() will provide you a pointer to the parent activity. So, there's no problem in the cast.
It is not "the Android way" to do things, but anyway, neither Google does lots of thing "the Android way" and this cast will surely continue to work ok in future Android versions.
As you said yourself, this not a good approach, google own documentation recommends using the interface, but if you choose to use this approach try something like:
Activity mActivity;
#Override
public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
super.onAttach(activity);
this.mActivity = activity;
}
to avoid the type NullPointerException error
if(this.mActivity != null){
this.mActivity.someMethod();
}