Android how to stop refreshing Fragments on tab change

Question

I have the following code :

MainActivity.java

package com.erc.library;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;

import android.app.ActionBar;
import android.app.ActionBar.Tab;
import android.app.FragmentTransaction;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.content.res.Resources;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.os.StrictMode;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity;
import android.support.v4.view.ViewPager;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuInflater;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;

import com.erc.sayeghlibrary.adapter.TabsPagerAdapter;

public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity implements
        ActionBar.TabListener {

    private ViewPager viewPager;
    private TabsPagerAdapter mAdapter;
    private ActionBar actionBar;
    // Tab titles
    private String[] tabs = { "Stories", "Dictionaries", "eBooks"};

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






        int actionBarTitleId = Resources.getSystem().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", "android");
        if (actionBarTitleId > 0) {
            TextView title = (TextView) findViewById(actionBarTitleId);
            if (title != null) {
                title.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
            }
        }       

        // Initilization
        viewPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.pager);
        actionBar = getActionBar();
        mAdapter = new TabsPagerAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager());

        viewPager.setAdapter(mAdapter);
        actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(false);
        actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);


        // Adding Tabs
        for (String tab_name : tabs) {
            actionBar.addTab(actionBar.newTab().setText(tab_name)
                    .setTabListener(this));
        }

        /**
         * on swiping the viewpager make respective tab selected
         * */
        viewPager.setOnPageChangeListener(new ViewPager.OnPageChangeListener() {

            @Override
            public void onPageSelected(int position) {
                // on changing the page
                // make respected tab selected
                actionBar.setSelectedNavigationItem(position);
            }

            @Override
            public void onPageScrolled(int arg0, float arg1, int arg2) {
            }

            @Override
            public void onPageScrollStateChanged(int arg0) {
            }
        });







    }

    @Override
    public void onTabReselected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onTabSelected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {
        // on tab selected
        // show respected fragment view
        viewPager.setCurrentItem(tab.getPosition());


    }

    @Override
    public void onTabUnselected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {
    }






       @Override
       public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
         MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
         inflater.inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
         return true;
       } 




       @Override
       public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
         switch (item.getItemId()) {
         // action with ID action_refresh was selected
         case R.id.Favorites:
           Toast.makeText(this, "Favorites selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
               .show();
           break;
         // action with ID action_settings was selected

         default:
           break;
         }

         return true;
       } 


}

TabsPagerAdapter.java

package com.erc.library.adapter;

import com.erc.library.Dictionaries;
import com.erc.library.Ebooks;
import com.erc.library.Stories;

import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentPagerAdapter;

public class TabsPagerAdapter extends FragmentPagerAdapter {

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

    @Override
    public Fragment getItem(int index) {

        switch (index) {
        case 0:

            return new Stories();
        case 1:

            return new Dictionaries();
        case 2:
            // Movies fragment activity
            return new Ebooks();
        }

        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int getCount() {
        // get item count - equal to number of tabs
        return 3;
    }

}

I'm making a library application in which the navigation is by tabs, the problem is each time I go from the third tab to the first or the first to the third, the tab content is refreshing, I want to prevent the refresh, Any help please ?

Answer 1

By default, ViewPager recreates the fragments when you swipe the page. To prevent this, you can try one of three things:

1. In the onCreate() of your fragments, call setRetainInstance(true).

2. If the number of fragments is fixed & relatively small, then in your onCreate() add the following code:

mViewPager = (ViewPager)findViewById(R.id.pager);
mViewPager.setOffscreenPageLimit(limit);         /* limit is a fixed integer*/

3. Use a FragmentPagerAdapter as part of your ViewPager.

If I remember correctly, the second option is more promising. But I urge you to try all three and see which of them work.

Answer 2

one has to instance the FragmentPagerAdapter first, then .getCount() will return a value -

while .getCount() - 1 should be set as the default off-screen limit:

TabsPagerAdapter adapter = new TabsPagerAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager());

/* the ViewPager requires a minimum of 1 as OffscreenPageLimit */
int limit = (adapter.getCount() > 1 ? adapter.getCount() - 1 : 1);

ViewPager viewPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.pager);
viewPager.setAdapter(adapter);
viewPager.setOffscreenPageLimit(limit);