IntentExtras and tabbed activity

Question

I used Android Studio new -> tabbed activity wizard to create, well, tabbed activity. I open that activity through intent from another activity's fragment. And I send additional data to this tabbed activity through intent extras.

I understand that I should catch intent extras in activity and then put that data to fragment arguments. I have done that multiple times in my app in regular blank activity with fragments. But I seem to be lost where exactly in tabbed activity code should I catch intent extra and declare arguments to fragment. Can anybody offer any directions? As of now, I only got errors, regardless of where I put standard intent extra-> fragment argument code.

This is my tabbed activity code from Android studio template:

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentPagerAdapter;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentTransaction;
import android.support.v4.view.ViewPager;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;

import java.util.Locale;


public class therapy_screen extends ActionBarActivity implements ActionBar.TabListener {

    /**
     * The {@link android.support.v4.view.PagerAdapter} that will provide
     * fragments for each of the sections. We use a
     * {@link FragmentPagerAdapter} derivative, which will keep every
     * loaded fragment in memory. If this becomes too memory intensive, it
     * may be best to switch to a
     * {@link android.support.v4.app.FragmentStatePagerAdapter}.
     */
    SectionsPagerAdapter mSectionsPagerAdapter;

    /**
     * The {@link ViewPager} that will host the section contents.
     */
    ViewPager mViewPager;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_therapy_screen);

        // Set up the action bar.
        final ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
        actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);

        // Create the adapter that will return a fragment for each of the three
        // primary sections of the activity.
        mSectionsPagerAdapter = new SectionsPagerAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager());

        // Set up the ViewPager with the sections adapter.
        mViewPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.pager);
        mViewPager.setAdapter(mSectionsPagerAdapter);

        // When swiping between different sections, select the corresponding
        // tab. We can also use ActionBar.Tab#select() to do this if we have
        // a reference to the Tab.
        mViewPager.setOnPageChangeListener(new ViewPager.SimpleOnPageChangeListener() {
            @Override
            public void onPageSelected(int position) {
                actionBar.setSelectedNavigationItem(position);
            }
        });

        // For each of the sections in the app, add a tab to the action bar.
        for (int i = 0; i < mSectionsPagerAdapter.getCount(); i++) {
            // Create a tab with text corresponding to the page title defined by
            // the adapter. Also specify this Activity object, which implements
            // the TabListener interface, as the callback (listener) for when
            // this tab is selected.
            actionBar.addTab(
                    actionBar.newTab()
                            .setText(mSectionsPagerAdapter.getPageTitle(i))
                            .setTabListener(this));
        }
    }


    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.home_screen, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();

        //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    @Override
    public void onTabSelected(ActionBar.Tab tab, FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction) {
        // When the given tab is selected, switch to the corresponding page in
        // the ViewPager.
        mViewPager.setCurrentItem(tab.getPosition());
    }

    @Override
    public void onTabUnselected(ActionBar.Tab tab, FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onTabReselected(ActionBar.Tab tab, FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction) {
    }

    /**
     * A {@link FragmentPagerAdapter} that returns a fragment corresponding to
     * one of the sections/tabs/pages.
     */
    public class SectionsPagerAdapter extends FragmentPagerAdapter {

        public SectionsPagerAdapter(FragmentManager fm) {
            super(fm);
        }

        @Override
        public Fragment getItem(int position) {
            // getItem is called to instantiate the fragment for the given page.
            return therapy_screen_fragment.newInstance(position + 1);
        }

        @Override
        public int getCount() {
            // Show 2 total pages.
            return 2;
        }

        @Override
        public CharSequence getPageTitle(int position) {
            Locale l = Locale.getDefault();
            switch (position) {
                case 0:
                    return getString(R.string.title_section1).toUpperCase(l);
                case 1:
                    return getString(R.string.title_section2).toUpperCase(l);
            }
            return null;
        }
    }
}

I tried to catch and parse intent extra like:

@Override
    public Fragment getItem(int position) {
        // getItem is called to instantiate the fragment for the given page.
        return therapy_screen_fragment.newInstance(position + 1, getIntent().getExtras().getString("btnId"));
    }

But I get an error. I also tried to position getExtras() under "onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)" like I have in other blank activities. But I also get an error.

So, what is the right approach to catch intent extras in tabbed activity and then pars those arguments to fragment that display content under active tab?

Answer 1

Oh, for f**k sake! I'm very sorry for taking your time! Problem was that for this specific activity I had typo in my putExtra(). And I presumed that problem is in my method of getting those extras... And naturally, error was NullPointException (or something like that) and reason was that extra I was looking for was not set. Thank you to NSimon for steering me in right direction with comment under question!

So, it is correct to get extras in onCreate method. Just to clarify if anybody gets in same dilemma.

In end I used solution I already posted in answer (but was getting an error due to typo in putExtra):

@Override
public Fragment getItem(int position) {
    // getItem is called to instantiate the fragment for the given page.
    return therapy_screen_fragment.newInstance(position + 1, getIntent().getExtras().getString("btnId"));
}