Android Tabbed Activity, overthinking it?

Question

So I've just been messing around with the built in Tabbed Activity example in Android Studio. After being confused (fairly new beginner) on how to move the view (or at least the content) when changing between tabs/views I've come up with something that works. However the code is quite substantial and i'm wanting to understand it as much as possible so here it goes.

Here's code.

Thanks for any suggestions, answers or comments.

package com.ak273.tabbedexample;

import java.util.Locale;

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentTransaction;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentPagerAdapter;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.view.ViewPager;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.Gravity;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.TextView;


public class MainActivity 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_main);

    // 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.menu_main, 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 a PlaceholderFragment (defined as a static inner class below).

        Fragment fragment = null;

        // HELLO STACKOVERFLOW, I ADDED THE IF STATEMENT BELOW.

        if (position == 0) {

            return firstFragment.newInstance(position + 1);

        } else if (position == 1) {

            return secondFragment.newInstance(position + 1);

        } else if (position == 2) {

            return thirdFragment.newInstance(position + 1);

        }

        return fragment;
    }

    @Override
    public int getCount() {
        // Show 3 total pages.
        return 3;
    }

    @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);
            case 2:
                return getString(R.string.title_section3).toUpperCase(l);
        }
        return null;
    }
}

/**
 * A placeholder fragment containing a simple view.
 */
public static class firstFragment extends Fragment {
    /**
     * The fragment argument representing the section number for this
     * fragment.
     */
    private static final String ARG_SECTION_NUMBER = "section_number";

    /**
     * Returns a new instance of this fragment for the given section
     * number.
     */
    public static firstFragment newInstance(int sectionNumber) {

        Log.d(ARG_SECTION_NUMBER, Integer.toString(sectionNumber));

        firstFragment fragment = new firstFragment();
        Bundle args = new Bundle();
        args.putInt(ARG_SECTION_NUMBER, sectionNumber);
        fragment.setArguments(args);
        return fragment;

    }

    public firstFragment() {

    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                             Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_one, container, false);

        return rootView;

    }
}

// HELLO STACKOVERFLOW, I ADDED THE FRAGMENT BELOW.
public static class secondFragment extends Fragment {
    /**
     * The fragment argument representing the section number for this
     * fragment.
     */
    private static final String ARG_SECTION_NUMBER = "section_number";

    /**
     * Returns a new instance of this fragment for the given section
     * number.
     */
    public static secondFragment newInstance(int sectionNumber) {

        Log.d(ARG_SECTION_NUMBER, Integer.toString(sectionNumber));

        secondFragment fragment = new secondFragment();
        Bundle args = new Bundle();
        args.putInt(ARG_SECTION_NUMBER, sectionNumber);
        fragment.setArguments(args);
        return fragment;

    }

    public secondFragment() {

    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                             Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_two, container, false);

        return rootView;

    }
}

// HELLO STACKOVERFLOW, I ADDED THE FRAGMENT BELOW.

public static class thirdFragment extends Fragment {
    /**
     * The fragment argument representing the section number for this
     * fragment.
     */
    private static final String ARG_SECTION_NUMBER = "section_number";

    /**
     * Returns a new instance of this fragment for the given section
     * number.
     */
    public static thirdFragment newInstance(int sectionNumber) {

        Log.d(ARG_SECTION_NUMBER, Integer.toString(sectionNumber));

        thirdFragment fragment = new thirdFragment();
        Bundle args = new Bundle();
        args.putInt(ARG_SECTION_NUMBER, sectionNumber);
        fragment.setArguments(args);
        return fragment;

    }

    public thirdFragment() {

    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                             Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_three, container, false);

        return rootView;

    }
}

}

Answer 1

ActionBar.newTab() was deprecated in Android API 21 (Android 5.0) and not replaced by a new method.

It is recommanded to use a different navigation style discribed in the new navigation patterns . So if it is possible for you, you should use the new navigation patterns to be conform with the recommanded best practices and don't use a tabbed view.