Android 4.2: back stack behaviour with nested fragments

Question

With Android 4.2, the support library got support for nested fragments see here. I\'ve played around with it and found an interesting behaviour / bug regarding back stack an

Answer 1

More than 5 years and this issue is still relevant. If you do not want to use the fragmentManager.getFragments() due to its restriction. Extend and use the below classes:

NestedFragmentActivity.java

abstract public class NestedFragmentActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private final Stack mActiveFragmentIdStack = new Stack<>();
    private final Stack mActiveFragmentTagStack = new Stack<>();

    @Override
    public void onBackPressed() {
        if (mActiveFragmentIdStack.size() > 0 && mActiveFragmentTagStack.size() > 0) {

            // Find by id
            int lastFragmentId = mActiveFragmentIdStack.lastElement();
            NestedFragment nestedFragment = (NestedFragment) getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(lastFragmentId);

            // If cannot find by id, find by tag
            if (nestedFragment == null) {
                String lastFragmentTag = mActiveFragmentTagStack.lastElement();
                nestedFragment = (NestedFragment) getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(lastFragmentTag);
            }

            if (nestedFragment != null) {
                nestedFragment.onBackPressed();
            }

            // If cannot find by tag, then simply pop
            mActiveFragmentTagStack.pop();
            mActiveFragmentIdStack.pop();

        } else {
            super.onBackPressed();
        }
    }

    public void addToBackStack(int fragmentId, String fragmentTag) {
        mActiveFragmentIdStack.add(fragmentId);
        mActiveFragmentTagStack.add(fragmentTag);
    }
}

NestedFragment.java

abstract public class NestedFragment extends Fragment {

    private final Stack mActiveFragmentIdStack = new Stack<>();
    private final Stack mActiveFragmentTagStack = new Stack<>();

    private NestedFragmentActivity mParentActivity;
    private NestedFragment mParentFragment;

    @Override
    public void onAttach(Context context) {
        super.onAttach(context);

        if (getParentFragment() == null) {
            try {
                mParentActivity = (NestedFragmentActivity) context;
            } catch (ClassCastException e) {
                throw new ClassCastException(context.toString()
                        + " must implement " + NestedFragmentActivity.class.getName());
            }
        } else {
            try {
                mParentFragment = (NestedFragment) getParentFragment();
            } catch (ClassCastException e) {
                throw new ClassCastException(getParentFragment().getClass().toString()
                        + " must implement " + NestedFragment.class.getName());
            }
        }
    }

    public void onBackPressed() {

        if (mActiveFragmentIdStack.size() > 0 && mActiveFragmentTagStack.size() > 0) {

            // Find by id
            int lastFragmentId = mActiveFragmentIdStack.lastElement();
            NestedFragment nestedFragment = (NestedFragment) getChildFragmentManager().findFragmentById(lastFragmentId);

            // If cannot find by id, find by tag
            if (nestedFragment == null) {
                String lastFragmentTag = mActiveFragmentTagStack.lastElement();
                nestedFragment = (NestedFragment) getChildFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(lastFragmentTag);
            }

            if (nestedFragment != null) {
                nestedFragment.onBackPressed();
            }

            // If cannot find by tag, then simply pop
            mActiveFragmentIdStack.pop();
            mActiveFragmentTagStack.pop();

        } else {
            getChildFragmentManager().popBackStack();
        }
    }

    private void addToBackStack(int fragmentId, String fragmentTag) {
        mActiveFragmentIdStack.add(fragmentId);
        mActiveFragmentTagStack.add(fragmentTag);
    }

    public void addToParentBackStack() {
        if (mParentFragment != null) {
            mParentFragment.addToBackStack(getId(), getTag());
        } else if (mParentActivity != null) {
            mParentActivity.addToBackStack(getId(), getTag());
        }
    }
}

Explanation:

Each activity and fragment extended from the above classes manages their own back stack for each of their children, and children's children, and so on. The backstack is simply a record of "active fragment" tags/ids. So the caveat is to always provide a tag and/or id for your fragment.

When adding to the backstack in a childFragmentManager, you will need to also call "addToParentBackStack()". This ensures that the fragment's tag/id is added in the parent fragment/activity for later pops.

Example:

    getChildFragmentManager().beginTransaction().replace(
            R.id.fragment,
            fragment,
            fragment.getTag()
    ).addToBackStack(null).commit();
    addToParentBackStack();