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Configuration changed (orientation change) and destroying Activities - is this the way it's supposed to work?

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android

I read up on how Android handles "configuration changes" - by destroying the active Activity.

I really want to know from Android Team why this is. I would appreciate an explanation on how the reasoning went, because I don't understand it. The fact that it acts in that way puts us all, as I see it, in a world of pain.

Lets assume you have a Activity which presents a number of EditText:s, checkboxes etc. If a User starts to fill that form with text/data and then changes orientation (or get a Phonecall), then all input the User made is gone. I haven't found any way to preserve state. That forces us to make extremely painful coding to not lose all data.

As I see it, you need another "non-Activity" class (or "value-holding" class perhaps) that has one field for each "form element" (EditText, checkbox etc).

For every single "form element" that exists, you then need to attach an Event like "onChanged" (or onTextChanged or something like that) that updates the corresponding field in the "value-holding" class to make sure that for every single character you type (in a EditText for example) is saved at once.

Perhaps you can use some listener (like "onDestroy" or something) and then fill the value-holding class with data.

I have also found this piece of info where they talk about using Bundle, onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState, but that also mean that the programmer has to manually save and then later put back the values in the correct place? This approach is a bit less messier than my suggestions above, but still not very nice.

Can someone tell me that I am totally wrong and that this is not how it works and that I totally missed some vital information?

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Ted Avatar asked Jan 09 '10 02:01

Ted


People also ask

What happens to the activity when the configuration changes?

When such a change occurs, Android restarts the running Activity ( onDestroy() is called, followed by onCreate() ). The restart behavior is designed to help your application adapt to new configurations by automatically reloading your application with alternative resources that match the new device configuration.

What happens when orientation changes Android?

When you rotate your device and the screen changes orientation, Android usually destroys your application's existing Activities and Fragments and recreates them. Android does this so that your application can reload resources based on the new configuration.

What will happen to the activity life cycle if we change the device orientation?

Conclusion: On rotation of screen, The Activity is Destroyed. The Activity is Recreated fresh in requested orientation.

How do I stop Android from restarting activity when changing orientations?

If you want the activity to not restart during screen orientation change, you can use the below AndroidManifest. xml. Please note the activity android:configChanges=”orientation|screenSize” attribute. This attribute makes the activity not restart when change screen orientation.


1 Answers

You should read the Application Fundamentals (specifically, Activity lifecycle). Since Activitys must be able to handle being killed at any time due to memory contraints, etc. it's just a cleaner way to handle rotations without adding too much complexity - instead of checking every resource for an alternate resource, re-structuring the layout, etc. you just save your essential data, kill the activity, re-create it, and load the data back in (if you're willing to deal with the extra complexity of managing this yourself, you can use onConfigurationChanged to handle the configuration change yourself.) This also encourages better practices - developers have to be prepared for their Activity to be killed for orientation change, which has the (good) consequence of being prepared for being killed off by memory contraints also.

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Isaac Waller Avatar answered Oct 17 '22 00:10

Isaac Waller