Advanced Android Development
Fragments
Lesson 1
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 1
national License
1.1 Fragments
A reusable UI component with its own lifecycle
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 2
national License
Contents
● Understanding the Fragment class
● Creating a Fragment
● Using a layout for a Fragment
● Adding a Fragment to an Activity
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 3
national License
Understanding
the Fragment
class
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 4
national License
Fragment class
● Contains a portion of the UI and its behavior
● Has its own lifecycle states (like an Activity)
● Reusable—share across multiple activities
○ Each Fragment instance exclusively tied to host Activity
○ Fragment code defines layout and behavior
● Represents sections of a UI for different layouts
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 5
national License
Example: Pickers use DialogFragment
Date and time pickers:
Extend DialogFragment
(Fragment subclass)
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 6
national License
DialogFragment hosted by Activity
1 2
1. Activity before adding
date picker fragment
2. Date picker fragment
appears on top of
Activity
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 7
national License
Add a Fragment to an Activity
● Static part of UI (in Activity layout):
on screen during entire Activity lifecycle
● Dynamic part of UI:
added and removed while Activity is running
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 8
national License
Benefits of using fragments
● Reuse a Fragment in more than one Activity
● Add or remove dynamically as needed
● Integrate a mini-UI within an Activity
● Retain data instances after a configuration change
● Represent sections of a layout for different screen sizes
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 9
national License
Steps to using a fragment
1. Create a subclass of Fragment
2. Create a layout for the Fragment
3. Add Fragment to a host Activity
○ Statically in layout
○ Dynamically using fragment transactions
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 10
national License
Creating a
Fragment
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 11
national License
Add new Fragment in Android Studio
● Expand app > java in project and select package name
● Choose File > New > Fragment > Fragment (Blank)
● Check the Create layout XML option for layout
● Other options:
○ Include fragment factory methods to include a newInstance()
method to instantiate the Fragment
○ Include interface callbacks to define an interface with callbacks
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 12
national License
New Fragment
public class SimpleFragment extends Fragment {
public SimpleFragment() {
// Required empty public constructor
}
...
}
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 13
national License
Extend the Fragment class
● Extend Fragment class
○ public class SimpleFragment extends Fragment
● Extend specific Fragment subclass:
○ DialogFragment: Floating dialog (examples: date and time pickers)
○ ListFragment: List of items managed by adapter
○ PreferenceFragment: Hierarchy of Preference objects (useful for
Settings)
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 14
national License
Using a layout
for a Fragment
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 15
national License
Create a layout for a Fragment
● Create layout XML option adds XML layout
● Fragment callback onCreateView() creates View
○ Override this to inflate the Fragment layout
○ Return View: root of Fragment layout
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 16
national License
Inflate the layout for the Fragment (1)
@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater,
ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Inflate the fragment layout and return it as root view.
return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_simple,
container, false);
}
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 17
national License
Inflate the layout for the Fragment (2)
● Fragment layout is inserted into container ViewGroup in
Activity layout
● LayoutInflater inflates layout and returns View layout
root to Activity
● Bundle savedInstanceState saves previous Fragment
instance
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 18
national License
Inflate the layout for the Fragment (3)
return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_simple, container, false);
● Resource ID of layout (R.layout.fragment_simple)
● ViewGroup to be parent of inflated layout (container)
● Boolean: Whether layout should be attached to parent
○ Should be false
○ If adding Fragment in code, don't pass true (creates a redundant
ViewGroup)
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 19
national License
Adding a
Fragment to an
Activity
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 20
national License
Add a Fragment to an Activity
● Add statically in Activity layout, visible for entire
Activity lifecycle
● Add (or remove) dynamically as needed during Activity
lifecycle using Fragment transactions
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 21
national License
Add a Fragment statically
1. Declare Fragment inside Activity layout
(activity_main.xml) using <fragment> tag
2. Specify layout properties for the Fragment as if it were a
View
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 22
national License
Static Fragment example
Adding SimpleFragment to Activity layout:
<fragment android:name="com.example.appname.SimpleFragment"
android:id="@+id/simple_fragment"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 23
national License
Add a Fragment dynamically
1. Specify ViewGroup for Fragment in layout
2. Instantiate the Fragment in Activity
3. Instantiate FragmentManager
○ Use getSupportFragmentManager() for compatibility
4. Use Fragment transactions
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 24
national License
Specify a ViewGroup for the Fragment
Specify ViewGroup to place Fragment (such as FrameLayout):
<FrameLayout
android:id="@+id/fragment_container"
android:name="SimpleFragment"
tools:layout="@layout/fragment_simple"
... />
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 25
national License
Instantiate the Fragment
1. Create newInstance() factory method in Fragment:
public static SimpleFragment newInstance() {
return new SimpleFragment();
}
2. In Activity, instantiate Fragment by calling
newInstance():
SimpleFragment fragment = SimpleFragment.newInstance();
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 26
national License
Instantiate FragmentManager
In Activity, get instance of FragmentManager with
getSupportFragmentManager():
FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
Use the Support Library version—getSupportFragmentManager() rather than
getFragmentManager()—for compatibility with earlier Android versions
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 27
national License
Use Fragment transactions
Fragment operations are wrapped into a transaction:
● Start transaction with beginTransaction()
● Do all Fragment operations (add, remove, etc.)
● End transaction with commit()
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 28
national License
Fragment transaction operations
● Add a Fragment using add()
● Remove a Fragment using remove()
● Replace a Fragment with another using replace()
● Hide and show a Fragment using hide() and show()
● Add Fragment transaction to back stack using
addToBackStack(null)
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 29
national License
Fragment transaction example (1)
FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction =
fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
fragmentTransaction
.add(R.id.fragment_container, fragment)
.addToBackStack(null)
.commit();
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 30
national License
Fragment transaction example (2)
In the code on the previous slide:
● add() arguments:
○ The ViewGroup (fragment_container)
○ The fragment to add
● addToBackStack(null):
○ Add transaction to back stack of Fragment transactions
○ Back stack managed by the Activity
○ User can press Back button to return to previous Fragment state
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 31
national License
Fragment transaction example (3)
Removing a Fragment:
SimpleFragment fragment = (SimpleFragment) fragmentManager
.findFragmentById(R.id.fragment_container);
if (fragment != null) {
FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction =
fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
fragmentTransaction.remove(fragment).commit();
}
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 32
national License
What's next?
● Concept chapter: 1.1 Fragments
● Practical: 1.1 Creating a Fragment with a UI
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 33
national License
END
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Fragments Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 34
national License
