Android Tabs in middle of layout

Question

In the middle of my layout I want to have 2 tabs to choose between viewing 2 different lists in the second half of the screen. How can I do this?

Here is an image illustrating what I wish to achieve. This image has a questions tab and an answers tab in the middle of the screen. Depending on which tab you select it shows a different listview:

I wish to achieve this exact same thing.

I tried doing it with TabHost widget, but for the life of me I couldn't get rid of the title bar (I tried selecting themes with no title bar, tried setting the theme in the manifest to a no title bar one)

I also tried make action bar tabs, but those were at the top of the screen....

How can I create tabs in the middle of my screen like in the image?

Answer 1

I had to do the same today! I tried with PagerTabStrip, because I thought you can't use TabLayout if it's not with a Toolbar. Turns out I was wrong, and it's even used in Google iosched. So you can put a TabLayout + ViewPager wherever you want.

I know you want to do some very custom tabs, which would be easier to customize if they were buttons, but in my opinion it's better to use TabLayout + ViewPager, since it makes things more scalable.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin">

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/top_layout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:orientation="horizontal"></LinearLayout>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/bottom_layout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_below="@+id/top_layout"
        android:layout_weight="1">

        <android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
            android:id="@+id/pager_header"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center"
            android:minHeight="60dp"
            app:tabGravity="fill"
            app:tabIndicatorColor="@color/colorAccentSecondary"
            app:tabMode="fixed"
            app:tabSelectedTextColor="@color/colorAccentSecondary"
            app:tabTextAppearance="@style/TournamentWaitingTimerTabTextAppearance" />

        <android.support.v4.view.ViewPager xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
            android:id="@+id/pager"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_below="@+id/pager_header"></android.support.v4.view.ViewPager>
    </RelativeLayout>

</LinearLayout>

MainActivity class:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

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

        // Locate the viewpager in activity_main.xml
        ViewPager viewPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.pager);

        // Set the ViewPagerAdapter into ViewPager
        ViewPagerAdapter adapter = new ViewPagerAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager());
        adapter.addFrag(new LeftFragment(), "Players");
        adapter.addFrag(new RightFragment(), "Prizes");

        viewPager.setAdapter(adapter);

        TabLayout mTabLayout = (TabLayout) findViewById(R.id.pager_header);
        mTabLayout.setupWithViewPager(viewPager);
    }

    class ViewPagerAdapter extends FragmentStatePagerAdapter {
        private final List<Fragment> mFragmentList = new ArrayList<>();
        private final List<String> mFragmentTitleList = new ArrayList<>();

        public ViewPagerAdapter(FragmentManager manager) {
            super(manager);
        }

        @Override
        public Fragment getItem(int position) {
            return mFragmentList.get(position);
        }

        @Override
        public int getCount() {
            return mFragmentList.size();
        }

        public void addFrag(Fragment fragment, String title) {
            mFragmentList.add(fragment);
            mFragmentTitleList.add(title);
        }

        @Override
        public CharSequence getPageTitle(int position) {
            return mFragmentTitleList.get(position);
        }
    }
}

You can change the adapter you use, it doesn't matter.

To customize tabs, I'd take a look at this amazing tutorial.