How do I add a Fragment to an Activity with a programmatically created content view

Question

I want to add a Fragment to an Activity that implements its layout programmatically. I looked over the Fragment documentation but there aren't many examples describing what I need. Here is the type of code I tried to write:

public class DebugExampleTwo extends Activity {

    private ExampleTwoFragment mFragment;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        FrameLayout frame = new FrameLayout(this);
        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            mFragment = new ExampleTwoFragment();
            FragmentTransaction ft = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
            ft.add(frame.getId(), mFragment).commit();
        }

        setContentView(frame);
    }
}

...

public class ExampleTwoFragment extends Fragment {

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, 
                             ViewGroup container, 
                             Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        Button button = new Button(getActivity());
        button.setText("Hello There");
        return button;
    }
}

This code compiles but crashes at start, probably because my FragmentTransaction.add() is incorrect. What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

It turns out there's more than one problem with that code. A fragment cannot be declared that way, inside the same java file as the activity but not as a public inner class. The framework expects the fragment's constructor (with no parameters) to be public and visible. Moving the fragment into the Activity as an inner class, or creating a new java file for the fragment fixes that.

The second issue is that when you're adding a fragment this way, you must pass a reference to the fragment's containing view, and that view must have a custom id. Using the default id will crash the app. Here's the updated code:

public class DebugExampleTwo extends Activity {

    private static final int CONTENT_VIEW_ID = 10101010;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        FrameLayout frame = new FrameLayout(this);
        frame.setId(CONTENT_VIEW_ID);
        setContentView(frame, new LayoutParams(
            LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT));

        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            Fragment newFragment = new DebugExampleTwoFragment();
            FragmentTransaction ft = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
            ft.add(CONTENT_VIEW_ID, newFragment).commit();
        }
    }

    public static class DebugExampleTwoFragment extends Fragment {
        @Override
        public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            EditText v = new EditText(getActivity());
            v.setText("Hello Fragment!");
            return v;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Here is what I came up with after reading Tony Wong's comment:

public class DebugExampleTwo extends BaseActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        addFragment(android.R.id.content,
                    new DebugExampleTwoFragment(),
                    DebugExampleTwoFragment.FRAGMENT_TAG);
    }

}

...

public abstract class BaseActivity extends Activity {

    protected void addFragment(@IdRes int containerViewId,
                               @NonNull Fragment fragment,
                               @NonNull String fragmentTag) {
        getSupportFragmentManager()
                .beginTransaction()
                .add(containerViewId, fragment, fragmentTag)
                .disallowAddToBackStack()
                .commit();
    }

    protected void replaceFragment(@IdRes int containerViewId,
                                   @NonNull Fragment fragment,
                                   @NonNull String fragmentTag,
                                   @Nullable String backStackStateName) {
        getSupportFragmentManager()
                .beginTransaction()
                .replace(containerViewId, fragment, fragmentTag)
                .addToBackStack(backStackStateName)
                .commit();
    }

}

...

public class DebugExampleTwoFragment extends Fragment {

    public static final String FRAGMENT_TAG = 
        BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID + ".DEBUG_EXAMPLE_TWO_FRAGMENT_TAG";

    // ...

}

Kotlin

If you are using Kotlin make sure to take a look at what the Kotlin extensions by Google provide or just write your own.

Answer 3

    public class Example1 extends FragmentActivity {

        @Override
        protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
          DemoFragment fragmentDemo = (DemoFragment) 
          getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.frame_container);
          //above part is to determine which fragment is in your frame_container
          setFragment(fragmentDemo);
                       (OR)
          setFragment(new TestFragment1());
        }

        // This could be moved into an abstract BaseActivity 
        // class for being re-used by several instances
        protected void setFragment(Fragment fragment) {
            FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
            FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = 
                fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
            fragmentTransaction.replace(android.R.id.content, fragment);
            fragmentTransaction.commit();
        }
    }

To add a fragment into a Activity or FramentActivity it requires a Container. That container should be a "Framelayout", which can be included in xml or else you can use the default container for that like "android.R.id.content" to remove or replace a fragment in Activity.

main.xml

<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >
 <!-- Framelayout to display Fragments -->
   <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/frame_container"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imagenext"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_margin="16dp"
        android:src="@drawable/next" />
</RelativeLayout>

Answer 4

After read all Answers I came up with elegant way:

public class MyActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

 Fragment fragment ;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
    fragment = fm.findFragmentByTag("myFragmentTag");
    if (fragment == null) {
        FragmentTransaction ft = fm.beginTransaction();
        fragment =new MyFragment();
        ft.add(android.R.id.content,fragment,"myFragmentTag");
        ft.commit();
    }

}

basically you don't need to add a frameLayout as container of your fragment instead you can add straight the fragment into the android root View container

IMPORTANT: don't use replace fragment as most of the approach shown here, unless you don't mind to lose fragment variable instance state during onrecreation process.