Double fragment rotating Android with ActionBar

Question

I've made a simple Android Activity with an ActionBar to switch between 2 fragments. It's all ok until I rotate the device. In facts, when I rotate I've got 2 fragment one over the other: the previous active one and the first one. Why? If the rotation destroy and recreate my activity, why I obtain 2 fragments?

Sample code:

Activity

package rb.rfrag.namespace;

import android.app.ActionBar;
import android.app.ActionBar.Tab;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

    public class RFragActivity extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        // Notice that setContentView() is not used, because we use the root
        // android.R.id.content as the container for each fragment

     // setup action bar for tabs
        final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
        actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);
        //actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);

        Tab tab;
        tab = actionBar.newTab()
                .setText(R.string.VarsTab)
                .setTabListener(new TabListener<VarValues>(
                        this, "VarValues", VarValues.class));
        actionBar.addTab(tab);

        tab = actionBar.newTab()
                .setText(R.string.SecTab)
                .setTabListener(new TabListener<SecFrag>(
                        this, "SecFrag", SecFrag.class));
        actionBar.addTab(tab);
    }
}

TabListener

package rb.rfrag.namespace;

import android.app.ActionBar;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Fragment;
import android.app.FragmentManager;
import android.app.FragmentTransaction;
import android.app.ActionBar.Tab;

public class TabListener<T extends Fragment> implements ActionBar.TabListener {
    private Fragment mFragment;
    private final Activity mActivity;
    private final String mTag;
    private final Class<T> mClass;

    /** Constructor used each time a new tab is created.
      * @param activity  The host Activity, used to instantiate the fragment
      * @param tag  The identifier tag for the fragment
      * @param clz  The fragment's Class, used to instantiate the fragment
      */
    public TabListener(Activity activity, String tag, Class<T> clz) {
        mActivity = activity;
        mTag = tag;
        mClass = clz;
    }

    /* The following are each of the ActionBar.TabListener callbacks */

    public void onTabSelected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {    
        // Check if the fragment is already initialized
        if (mFragment == null) {
            // If not, instantiate and add it to the activity
            mFragment = Fragment.instantiate(mActivity, mClass.getName());
            ft.add(android.R.id.content, mFragment, mTag);
        } else {
            // If it exists, simply attach it in order to show it
            ft.attach(mFragment);
        }
    }

    public void onTabUnselected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {
        if (mFragment != null) {
            // Detach the fragment, because another one is being attached
            ft.detach(mFragment);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

I've resolved using onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState in the Activity to maintain the selected tab and modifying onTabSelected as follows.

The last modify avoids that Android rebuild the Fragment it doesn't destoy. However I don't understand why the Activity is destroyed by the rotation event while the current Fragment no. (Have you some idea about this?)

public void onTabSelected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {
        // previous Fragment management
        Fragment prevFragment;
        FragmentManager fm = mActivity.getFragmentManager();
        prevFragment = fm.findFragmentByTag(mTag); 
        if (prevFragment != null) { 
            mFragment = prevFragment; 
        } // \previous Fragment management

        // Check if the fragment is already initialized
        if (mFragment == null) {
            // If not, instantiate and add it to the activity
            mFragment = Fragment.instantiate(mActivity, mClass.getName());
            ft.add(android.R.id.content, mFragment, mTag);
        } else {
            // If it exists, simply attach it in order to show it
            ft.attach(mFragment);
        }
    }

Answer 2

Since I use a android.support.v4.view.ViewPager overriding onTabSelected would not help. But still you hint pointed me in the right direction.

The android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager saves all fragments in the onSaveInstanceState of the android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity. Ignoring setRetainInstance — Depending on your design this might lead to duplicate fragments.

The simplest solution is to delete the saved fragment in the orCreate of the activity:

   @Override
   public void onCreate (final android.os.Bundle savedInstanceState)
   {
      if (savedInstanceState != null)
      {
         savedInstanceState.remove ("android:support:fragments");
      } // if

      super.onCreate (savedInstanceState);
…
      return;
   } // onCreate