Separate Back Stack for each tab in Android using Fragments

Question

I\'m trying to implement tabs for navigation in an Android app. Since TabActivity and ActivityGroup are deprecated I would like to implement it using Fragments instead.

Answer 1

This thread was very very interesting and useful.
Thanks Krishnabhadra for your explanation and code, I use your code and improved a bit, allowing to persist the stacks, currentTab, etc... from change configuration (rotating mainly).
Tested on a real 4.0.4 and 2.3.6 devices, not tested on emulator

I change this part of code on "AppMainTabActivity.java", the rest stay the same. Maybe Krishnabhadra will add this on his code.

Recover data onCreate:

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.app_main_tab_fragment_layout);

    /*  
     *  Navigation stacks for each tab gets created..
     *  tab identifier is used as key to get respective stack for each tab
     */

  //if we are recreating this activity...
    if (savedInstanceState!=null) {
         mStacks = (HashMap>) savedInstanceState.get("stack");
         mCurrentTab = savedInstanceState.getString("currentTab");
    }
    else {
    mStacks = new HashMap>();
    mStacks.put(AppConstants.TAB_A, new Stack());
    mStacks.put(AppConstants.TAB_B, new Stack());

    }

    mTabHost = (TabHost)findViewById(android.R.id.tabhost);
    mTabHost.setup();

    initializeTabs();

  //set the listener the last, to avoid overwrite mCurrentTab everytime we add a new Tab
    mTabHost.setOnTabChangedListener(listener);
}

Save the variables and put to Bundle:

 //Save variables while recreating
@Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
    super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
    outState.putSerializable("stack", mStacks);
    outState.putString("currentTab", mCurrentTab);
    //outState.putInt("tabHost",mTabHost);
}

If exist a previous CurrentTab, set this, else create a new Tab_A:

public void initializeTabs(){
    /* Setup your tab icons and content views.. Nothing special in this..*/
    TabHost.TabSpec spec    =   mTabHost.newTabSpec(AppConstants.TAB_A);

    spec.setContent(new TabHost.TabContentFactory() {
        public View createTabContent(String tag) {
            return findViewById(R.id.realtabcontent);
        }
    });
    spec.setIndicator(createTabView(R.drawable.tab_a_state_btn));
    mTabHost.addTab(spec);


    spec                    =   mTabHost.newTabSpec(AppConstants.TAB_B);
    spec.setContent(new TabHost.TabContentFactory() {
        public View createTabContent(String tag) {
            return findViewById(R.id.realtabcontent);
        }
    });
    spec.setIndicator(createTabView(R.drawable.tab_b_state_btn));
    mTabHost.addTab(spec);

//if we have non default Tab as current, change it
    if (mCurrentTab!=null) {
        mTabHost.setCurrentTabByTag(mCurrentTab);
    } else {
        mCurrentTab=AppConstants.TAB_A;
        pushFragments(AppConstants.TAB_A, new AppTabAFirstFragment(), false,true);
    }
}

I hope this helps other people.