I have an activity that contains a number of fragments. Each fragment has a viewModel scoped to its lifetime with some logic inside. The host activity has a viewModel too, including some code to show a popup-style message.
I want my fragment viewModels to be able to post messages to this popup. However, how could I access the activity-viewModel from inside one of my fragment-viewModels?
I'll write some exemplary Kotlin code, but the question is not specific to Kotlin since it's more of an architectural issue.
class MyActivityViewModel {
...
popupMessage = MutableLiveData<String>("") // is observed by my activity
fun postMessage(text: String) {
popupMessage.value = text
}
}
class MyFragmentAViewModel {
...
fun someFunctionA() {
// want to call ActivityViewModel's postMessage from here
}
}
class MyFragmentBViewModel {
...
fun someFunctionB() {
// want to call ActivityViewModel's postMessage from here too
}
}
I can't easily call ViewModelProvider since I'd rather not keep a reference to an Activity in my viewModel. The only direct option I see is to pass the activity-viewModel to the fragment-viewModels through the constructor or an init() method. That should be safe since the parent viewModel's lifetime should exceed the fragment viewModels' lifetime. I think.
Still, that solution rubs me the wrong way.
Are there any other alternatives? Or perhaps an entirely different approach to the issue?
Here's the thought of a greenhorn:
Can't you tell the activity that your fragment wants to use its method?
If you
Make an interface with a method a la "fragmentAWantsToUsePostMessage" in your fragment
Implement the interface in the activity, so that every time fragmentAWantsToUsePostMessage is called, the activity calls postMessage
Get a reference to the implementation of the interface in your fragment
Use that reference when the fragment needs to call "post message"
Shouldn't that work? Or is that against your "not keeping a reference"?
As I said: I'm new to all of this, so I might be completely wrong.
I can see that there's a post on medium that might be relevant: How to Communicate between Fragment and Activity
Related
I have built an Android Java MVVM app, based on some google codelabs no longer published.
But to demonstrate my issue, I found that Google currently has 'Room With a View' app https://github.com/googlecodelabs/android-room-with-a-view, so I cloned it and it exhibits the issue I am experiencing.
In the Activity or Fragment, google suggest to Observe Livedata with a construct like:
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
...
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
...
mWordViewModel.getAllWords().observe(this, words -> {
// Update the cached copy of the words in the adapter.
adapter.submitList(words);
});
}
}
Which is communicating with a ViewModel :
public class WordViewModel extends AndroidViewModel {
....
LiveData<List<Word>> getAllWords() {
return mAllWords;
}
}
And all works nicely.
However, if I annotate the Activity with #UiThread, and the ViewModel with #WorkerThread, most of my observe methods, asuch as the one above in MainAvtivity, I am told (by lint):
Method getAllWords must be called from the worker thread, currently inferred thread is main thread
Inspection info:Ensures that a method which expects to be called on a specific thread, is actually called from that thread. For example, calls on methods in widgets should always be made on the UI thread.
I see three options:
My Observes and VM are badly constructed and need re-work
I can ignore Lint's warning in this case
I have erred in useing #UiThread on MainActivity and #WorkerThread on ViewModel?
Happy to hear which it is. First SO question, so apologies if I have fumbled in my submission.
I tried an Observe on Livedata as listed above, and I annotated MainActivity #UiThread and ViewModel #WorkerThread. I expected to not see a lint warning on the Observes.
I'm using an ASyncTask in my app to get some data (a short URL) via a REST API from a web service (Bitly).
When the ASyncTask completes I want to pass the result back to my MainActivity.
Getting the data back to the MainActivity is acheievd by using the onPostExecute method of the AsyncTask.
I've read and read and read about how to do this and there seem to be two general approaches.
Originally I was using a 'WeakReference' approach whereby at the start of the AsyncTask class you create a weak reference to your MainActivity as follows:
private class getShortURL extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {
private WeakReference<MainActivity> mainActivityWeakReference;
myASyncTask(MainActivity activity) {
mainActivityWeakReference = new WeakReference<>(activity);
}
{etc etc}
With this approach your AsyncTask class sits outside of your MainActivity class and so a lot of things need to be referenced via the weak reference.
This worked fine (except I suspected - possibly incorrectly - that this weak reference may have been the cause of occassional NPEs), but I then found another way of doing things.
This second approach involved moving the ASyncTask class inside of the MainActivity class.
This way I was able to access everything that was accessible in the MainActivity class directly, inlcuding UI elements and methods defined in the MainActivity. It also means that I can access resources such as strings etc and can generate toasts to advise the user what is happening.
In this case the whole of the WeakReference code above can be removed and the AsyncTask class can be made private.
I am also then able to do things like this directly in onPostExecute or to keep this in a method within the MainActivity that I can call directly from onPostExecute:
shorten_progress_bar.setIndeterminate(false);
shorten_progress_bar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
if (!shortURL.equals("")) {
// Set the link URL to the new short URL
short_link_url.setText(shortURL);
} else {
CommonFuncs.showMessage(getApplicationContext(), getString(R.string.unable_to_shorten_link));
short_link_url.setHint(R.string.unable_to_shorten_link);
}
(note that CommonFuncs.showMessage() is my own wrapper around the toast function to make it easier to call).
BUT, Android Studio then gives a warning that "the AsyncTask class should be static or leaks might occur".
If I make the method static I then get a warning that the method from the MainActivity that I want to call from onPostExecute cannot be called as it is non-static.
If I make that method from MainActivity a static method, then it cannot access string resources and any other methods that are non static - and down the rabbit hole I go!
The same is true, as you would expect, if I just move the code from the method in the MainActivity into the onPostExecute method.
So...
Is having an AsyncTask as a non-static method really a bad thing? (My
app seems to work fine with this warning in AS, but I obviously don't
want to be creating a memory leak in my app.
Is the WeakReference appraoch actually a more correct and safer approach?
If I use the WeakReference approach, how can I create things like toasts which need to be run on the UI thread and access string
resources etc from the MainActivity?
I read somewhere about creating an interface but got a bit lost and couldn't find that again. Also would this not have the same kind of reliance on the MainActivity that a WeakReference does and is that a bad thing?
I'm really looking for best practice guidance on how to get some data back to the MainActivity and the UI thread from an AsyncTask that is safe and doesn't risk memory leaks.
Is having an AsyncTask as a non-static method really a bad thing? (My app seems to work fine with this warning in AS, but I obviously don't want to be creating a memory leak in my app.
Yes, your Views and your Context will leak.
Enough rotations and your app will crash.
Is the WeakReference approach actually a more correct and safer approach?
It's lipstick on a dead pig, WeakReference in this scenario is more-so a hack than a solution, definitely not the correct solution.
What you're looking for is a form of event bus from something that outlives the Activity.
You can use either retained fragments* or Android Architecture Component ViewModel for that.
And you'll probably need to introduce Observer pattern (but not necessarily LiveData).
If I use the WeakReference approach, how can I create things like toasts which need to be run on the UI thread and access string resources etc from the MainActivity?
Don't run that sort of thing in doInBackground().
I'm really looking for best practice guidance on how to get some data back to the MainActivity and the UI thread from an AsyncTask that is safe and doesn't risk memory leaks.
The simplest way to do that would be to use this library (or write something that does the same thing yourself, up to you), put the EventEmitter into a ViewModel, then subscribe/unsubscribe to this EventEmitter inside your Activity.
public class MyViewModel: ViewModel() {
private final EventEmitter<String> testFullUrlReachableEmitter = new EventEmitter<>();
public final EventSource<String> getTestFullUrlReachable() {
return testFullUrlReachableEmitter;
}
public void checkReachable() {
new testFullURLreachable().execute()
}
private class testFullURLreachable extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, String> {
...
#Override
public void onPostExecute(String result) {
testFullUrlReachableEmitter.emit(result);
}
}
}
And in your Activity/Fragment
private MyViewModel viewModel;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(MyViewModel.class);
// ...
}
private EventSource.NotificationToken subscription;
#Override
protected void onStart() {
super.onStart();
subscription = viewModel.getTestFullUrlReachable().startListening((result) -> {
// do `onPostExecute` things here
});
}
#Override
protected void onStop() {
super.onStop();
if(subscription != null) {
subscription.stopListening();
subscription = null;
}
}
This question is mostly to solicit opinions on the best way to handle my app. I have three fragments being handled by one activity. Fragment A has one clickable element the photo and Fragment B has 4 clickable elements the buttons. The other fragment just displays details when the photo is clicked. I am using ActionBarSherlock.
The forward and back buttons need to change the photo to the next or previous poses, respectively. I could keep the photo and the buttons in the same fragment, but wanted to keep them separate in case I wanted to rearrange them in a tablet.
I need some advice - should I combine Fragments A and B? If not, I will need to figure out how to implement an interface for 3 clickable items.
I considered using Roboguice, but I am already extending using SherlockFragmentActivity so that's a no go. I saw mention of Otto, but I didn't see good tutorials on how to include in a project. What do you think best design practice should be?
I also need help figuring out how to communicate between a fragment and an activity. I'd like to keep some data "global" in the application, like the pose id. Is there some example code I can see besides the stock android developer's information? That is not all that helpful.
BTW, I'm already storing all the information about each pose in a SQLite database. That's the easy part.
The easiest way to communicate between your activity and fragments is using interfaces. The idea is basically to define an interface inside a given fragment A and let the activity implement that interface.
Once it has implemented that interface, you could do anything you want in the method it overrides.
The other important part of the interface is that you have to call the abstract method from your fragment and remember to cast it to your activity. It should catch a ClassCastException if not done correctly.
There is a good tutorial on Simple Developer Blog on how to do exactly this kind of thing.
I hope this was helpful to you!
The suggested method for communicating between fragments is to use callbacks\listeners that are managed by your main Activity.
I think the code on this page is pretty clear:
http://developer.android.com/training/basics/fragments/communicating.html
You can also reference the IO 2012 Schedule app, which is designed to be a de-facto reference app. It can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/iosched/
Also, here is a SO question with good info:
How to pass data between fragments
It is implemented by a Callback interface:
First of all, we have to make an interface:
public interface UpdateFrag {
void updatefrag();
}
In the Activity do the following code:
UpdateFrag updatfrag ;
public void updateApi(UpdateFrag listener) {
updatfrag = listener;
}
from the event from where the callback has to fire in the Activity:
updatfrag.updatefrag();
In the Fragment implement the interface in CreateView do the
following code:
((Home)getActivity()).updateApi(new UpdateFrag() {
#Override
public void updatefrag() {
.....your stuff......
}
});
To communicate between an Activity and Fragments, there are several options, but after lots of reading and many experiences, I found out that it could be resumed this way:
Activity wants to communicate with child Fragment => Simply write public methods in your Fragment class, and let the Activity call them
Fragment wants to communicate with the parent Activity => This requires a bit more of work, as the official Android link https://developer.android.com/training/basics/fragments/communicating suggests, it would be a great idea to define an interface that will be implemented by the Activity, and which will establish a contract for any Activity that wants to communicate with that Fragment. For example, if you have FragmentA, which wants to communicate with any activity that includes it, then define the FragmentAInterface which will define what method can the FragmentA call for the activities that decide to use it.
A Fragment wants to communicate with other Fragment => This is the case where you get the most 'complicated' situation. Since you could potentially need to pass data from FragmentA to FragmentB and viceversa, that could lead us to defining 2 interfaces, FragmentAInterface which will be implemented by FragmentB and FragmentAInterface which will be implemented by FragmentA. That will start making things messy. And imagine if you have a few more Fragments on place, and even the parent activity wants to communicate with them. Well, this case is a perfect moment to establish a shared ViewModel for the activity and it's fragments. More info here https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/viewmodel . Basically, you need to define a SharedViewModel class, that has all the data you want to share between the activity and the fragments that will be in need of communicating data among them.
The ViewModel case, makes things pretty simpler at the end, since you don't have to add extra logic that makes things dirty in the code and messy. Plus it will allow you to separate the gathering (through calls to an SQLite Database or an API) of data from the Controller (activities and fragments).
I made a annotation library that can do the cast for you. check this out.
https://github.com/zeroarst/callbackfragment/
#CallbackFragment
public class MyFragment extends Fragment {
#Callback
interface FragmentCallback {
void onClickButton(MyFragment fragment);
}
private FragmentCallback mCallback;
#Override
public void onClick(View v) {
switch (v.getId()) {
case R.id.bt1
mCallback.onClickButton(this);
break;
case R.id.bt2
// Because we give mandatory = false so this might be null if not implemented by the host.
if (mCallbackNotForce != null)
mCallbackNotForce.onClickButton(this);
break;
}
}
}
It then generates a subclass of your fragment. And just add it to FragmentManager.
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements MyFragment.FragmentCallback {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
.add(R.id.lo_fragm_container, MyFragmentCallbackable.create(), "MY_FRAGM")
.commit();
}
Toast mToast;
#Override
public void onClickButton(MyFragment fragment) {
if (mToast != null)
mToast.cancel();
mToast = Toast.makeText(this, "Callback from " + fragment.getTag(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
mToast.show();
}
}
Google Recommended Method
If you take a look at this page you can see that Google suggests you use the ViewModel to share data between Fragment and Activity.
Add this dependency:
implementation "androidx.activity:activity-ktx:$activity_version"
First, define the ViewModel you are going to use to pass data.
class ItemViewModel : ViewModel() {
private val mutableSelectedItem = MutableLiveData<Item>()
val selectedItem: LiveData<Item> get() = mutableSelectedItem
fun selectItem(item: Item) {
mutableSelectedItem.value = item
}
}
Second, instantiate the ViewModel inside the Activity.
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
// Using the viewModels() Kotlin property delegate from the activity-ktx
// artifact to retrieve the ViewModel in the activity scope
private val viewModel: ItemViewModel by viewModels()
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
viewModel.selectedItem.observe(this, Observer { item ->
// Perform an action with the latest item data
})
}
}
Third, instantiate the ViewModel inside the Fragment.
class ListFragment : Fragment() {
// Using the activityViewModels() Kotlin property delegate from the
// fragment-ktx artifact to retrieve the ViewModel in the activity scope
private val viewModel: ItemViewModel by activityViewModels()
// Called when the item is clicked
fun onItemClicked(item: Item) {
// Set a new item
viewModel.selectItem(item)
}
}
You can now edit this code creating new observers or settings methods.
There are severals ways to communicate between activities, fragments, services etc. The obvious one is to communicate using interfaces. However, it is not a productive way to communicate. You have to implement the listeners etc.
My suggestion is to use an event bus. Event bus is a publish/subscribe pattern implementation.
You can subscribe to events in your activity and then you can post that events in your fragments etc.
Here on my blog post you can find more detail about this pattern and also an example project to show the usage.
I'm not sure I really understood what you want to do, but the suggested way to communicate between fragments is to use callbacks with the Activity, never directly between fragments. See here http://developer.android.com/training/basics/fragments/communicating.html
You can create declare a public interface with a function declaration in the fragment and implement the interface in the activity. Then you can call the function from the fragment.
I am using Intents to communicate actions back to the main activity. The main activity is listening to these by overriding onNewIntent(Intent intent). The main activity translates these actions to the corresponding fragments for example.
So you can do something like this:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
public static final String INTENT_ACTION_SHOW_FOO = "show_foo";
public static final String INTENT_ACTION_SHOW_BAR = "show_bar";
#Override
protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
routeIntent(intent);
}
private void routeIntent(Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
if (action != null) {
switch (action) {
case INTENT_ACTION_SHOW_FOO:
// for example show the corresponding fragment
loadFragment(FooFragment);
break;
case INTENT_ACTION_SHOW_BAR:
loadFragment(BarFragment);
break;
}
}
}
Then inside any fragment to show the foo fragment:
Intent intent = new Intent(context, MainActivity.class);
intent.setAction(INTENT_ACTION_SHOW_FOO);
// Prevent activity to be re-instantiated if it is already running.
// Instead, the onNewEvent() is triggered
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
getContext().startActivity(intent);
There is the latest techniques to communicate fragment to activity without any interface follow the steps
Step 1- Add the dependency in gradle
implementation 'androidx.fragment:fragment:1.3.0-rc01'
I have a class that handles Bluetooth communication and this class needs to forward data that it received from Bluetooth to my activity class. I used to pass this data via Broadcasts but now I am trying to pass the data via an interface. The problem I am having is that upon receiving the data in my activity, I can`t make changes in the UI and I am getting an error that says "Only the original thread that created a view hierarchy can touch its views."
//My Activity class implements an interface and receiveDataFromBluetoothConnection is a method in that interface
//My bluetooth service sends data to my activity via this method.
public void receiveDataFromBluetoothConnection(String data) {
processIncomingBtMessage(data);
}
private void processIncomingBtMessage(String incomingMessage) {
//...
//...
//...
if (message == BtMessageIn.BT_MESSAGE_IN_SYSTEM_OFF) {
Log.d(TAG, "remoteControlBubblePillar: bReceiver: Setting Button to On");
arduinoPowerStatus = false;
LightsButtonsBackgroundUnpressed();
btnOnOff.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.button_shape_round_corners_gradient_green);
btnOnOff.setText(R.string.On);
}
//...
//...
//...
}
Here is the full error message that I get
android.view.ViewRootImpl$CalledFromWrongThreadException: Only the original thread that created a view hierarchy can touch its views.
at android.view.ViewRootImpl.checkThread(ViewRootImpl.java:7913)
at android.view.ViewRootImpl.invalidateChildInParent(ViewRootImpl.java:1373)
at android.view.ViewGroup.invalidateChild(ViewGroup.java:5449)
at android.view.View.invalidateInternal(View.java:14825)
at android.view.View.invalidate(View.java:14761)
at android.view.View.invalidateDrawable(View.java:19051)
at android.widget.TextView.invalidateDrawable(TextView.java:6353)
at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.invalidateSelf(Drawable.java:436)
at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.setVisible(Drawable.java:820)
at android.view.View.setBackgroundDrawable(View.java:19522)
at android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton.setBackgroundDrawable(AppCompatButton.java:86)
at android.view.View.setBackground(View.java:19498)
at android.view.View.setBackgroundResource(View.java:19481)
at android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton.setBackgroundResource(AppCompatButton.java:78)
at com.bubblewall.saik.bubblewall.remoteControlBubblePillar.processIncomingBtMessage(remoteControlBubblePillar.java:354)
at com.bubblewall.saik.bubblewall.remoteControlBubblePillar.receiveDataFromBluetoothConnection(remoteControlBubblePillar.java:275)
at com.bubblewall.saik.bubblewall.BluetoothConnection$1.onCharacteristicChanged(BluetoothConnection.java:97)
at android.bluetooth.BluetoothGatt$1.onNotify(BluetoothGatt.java:400)
at android.bluetooth.IBluetoothGattCallback$Stub.onTransact(IBluetoothGattCallback.java:177)
at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:573)
Any ideas how can I fix this issue? Or should I just switch back to Broadcasts?
The problem is that your Bluetooth class doesn't run on the main/UI thread, as the activity does. In order to avoid race conditions, Android crashes the app to let you know that you're doing something wrong.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to fix this by using runOnUiThread(Runnable):
public void receiveDataFromBluetoothConnection(String data) {
runOnUiThread(() -> processIncomingBtMessage(data));
}
But I have a better suggestion. Instead of letting the activity handle this, it would be better to design your other class such that it makes sure that when it notifies your activity it does so on the proper thread.
new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).post(() -> listener.receiveDataFromBluetoothConnection(data))
It's better to do it this way because in case other activities use the Bluetooth class they don't have to worry about making sure they execute code on the proper thread, the Bluetooth class already handles that.
For a more in-depth explanation on exactly what's happening and what the proper way to handle it is you can read Communicating with the UI Thread, on developer.android.com.
I am combining a static code analysis with a dynamic one. I basically create a new activity and set it up as the starting activity. During the run various methods in existing activities should be called.
I can call e.g. onCreate from outside, however, the super call to Activity will fail (or calls to SharedPreferences or other interesting classes) since Android does some initialization stuff when using the intents in order to call an activity (e.g. setting the context). But I need to somehow call methods like onCreate or onPause from outside while giving the target activity a valid context.
In my newly created activity I have got a valid context. I tried to pass it via calling ContextWrapper.attachBaseContext, but there is still a NullPointerException somewhere in Android due a the missing context. Is there some way to hack this somehow into a working state? Using reflection or other hacks would be no problem, since it is for analysis purposes only.
Thank you very much for any tips. I'd be able to modify the analyzed apps in any way to get this working.
However: Using an Intent is no option, since I cannot control which Activity-methods are being called, when and how often. I know that android has not been made for calling these methods directly, but it is not a common use case either :);
I have created a hack, which seems to help (I can get a valid context in the hacked activity). Let's see how far I get using this.
public static void hack(Activity hack, Activity main) {
try {
Field mActivityInfo = getField(Activity.class, "mActivityInfo");
mActivityInfo.set(hack, getClass("android.content.pm.ActivityInfo").newInstance());
Field mFragments = getField(Activity.class, "mFragments");
Field mContainer = getField(Activity.class, "mContainer");
Field mApplication = getField(Activity.class, "mApplication");
Field mWindow = getField(Activity.class, "mWindow");
Class FragmentManagerImpl = getClass("android.app.FragmentManagerImpl");
FragmentManager manager = (FragmentManager) mFragments.get(hack);
mApplication.set(hack, main.getApplication());
mWindow.set(hack, main.getWindow());
Class<?> FragmentContainer = getClass("android.app.FragmentContainer");
Method attachActivity = getMethod(FragmentManagerImpl, "attachActivity", Activity.class, FragmentContainer, Fragment.class);
attachActivity.invoke(manager, hack, mContainer.get(hack), null);
Method attachBaseContext = getMethod(ContextWrapper.class, "attachBaseContext", Context.class);
attachBaseContext.invoke(hack, new HackContext(main));
System.out.println("Hack performed");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
System.err.println("Hack failed :(");
}
}