As per my research, there is a significant difference in the concept of backstack and how they exist:
Activity
Fragment
Are there any additional differences?
Those are two completely different things:
An Activity is an application component that provides a screen, with which users can interact in order to do something. More details:
http://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities.html
Whereas a Fragment represents a behavior or a portion of user interface in an Activity.
http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html
As per the android developer documentation, difference between fragment & activity in their life cycle.
Doc link http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html#Lifecycle
The most significant difference in lifecycle between an activity and a fragment is how one is stored in its respective back stack. An activity is placed into a back stack of activities that's managed by the system when it's stopped, by default (so that the user can navigate back to it with the Back button, as discussed in Tasks and Back Stack). However, a fragment is placed into a back stack managed by the host activity only when you explicitly request that the instance be saved by calling addToBackStack() during a transaction that removes the fragment.
Otherwise, managing the fragment lifecycle is very similar to managing the activity lifecycle. So, the same practices for managing the activity lifecycle also apply to fragments. What you also need to understand, though, is how the life of the activity affects the life of the fragment.
& for multi pane layouts you have to use fragment
that you can't achieve with activity
.
Activity is the UI of an application through which user can interact and
Fragment is the part of the Activity,it is an sub-Activity inside activity
which has its own Life Cycle which runs parallel to the Activities Life Cycle.
Activity LifeCycle Fragment LifeCycle
onCreate() onAttach()
| |
onStart()______onRestart() onCreate()
| | |
onResume() | onCreateView()
| | |
onPause() | onActivityCreated()
| | |
onStop()__________| onStart()
| |
onDestroy() onResume()
|
onPause()
|
onStop()
|
onDestroyView()
|
onDestroy()
|
onDetach()
Main Differences between Activity
and Fragment
:
Activity is an application component which gives user interface where user can interact. Fragment is a part of an activity, which contribute its own UI to that activity.
For tablet or if mobile is in landscape then using fragment we can show two list like one list for show the state name and other list will show the state description in single activity; but using activity, we can't do the same thing.
Activity is not dependent on fragment, but fragment is dependent on activity. It can't exist independently.
Without using fragment in activity, we can't create multi-pane UI; but by using multiple fragments in a single activity, we can create multi-pane UI.
If we create a project using only activities, it's difficult to manage; but if we use fragments, the project structure will be good and we can handle it easily.
An activity may contain 0 or more fragments. A fragment can be reused in multiple activities, so it acts like a reusable component in activities.
Activity has own life cycle, but fragment has their own life cycle.
For activity, we need to mention it in the manifest; for fragment, it's not required.
Activity
1. Activities are one of the fundamental building blocks of apps on the Android platform. They serve as the entry point for a user's interaction with an app
and are also central to how a user navigates within an app or between apps
2. Lifecycle methods are hosted by OS.
3. Lifecycle of activity
Fragments
1. A Fragment represents a behavior or a portion of user interface in an Activity. You can combine multiple fragments in a single activity to build a multi-pane UI and reuse a fragment in multiple activities. You can think of a fragment as a modular section of an activity, which has its own lifecycle, receives its own input events, and which you can add or remove while the activity is running.
2. Lifecycle methods are hosted by are hosted by
hosting activity.
3. Lifecycle of a fragment