Activity restart on rotation Android

Question

In my Android application, when I rotate the device (slide out the keyboard) then my Activity is restarted (onCreate is called). Now, this is probably how it's supposed to be, but I do a lot of initial setting up in the onCreate method, so I need either:

1. Put all the initial setting up in another function so it's not all lost on device rotation or
2. Make it so onCreate is not called again and the layout just adjusts or
3. Limit the app to just portrait so that onCreate is not called.

Answer 1

Fix the screen orientation (landscape or portrait) in AndroidManifest.xml

android:screenOrientation="portrait" or android:screenOrientation="landscape"

for this your onResume() method is not called.

Answer 2

You can lock to the current orientation of screen using this code...

int currentOrientation =context.getResources().getConfiguration().orientation;
        if (currentOrientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT) {
            ((Activity) context).setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
        } else {
            ((Activity) context). setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
        }

Answer 3

People are saying that you should use

android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation"

But the best and most professional way to handle rotation in Android is to use the Loader class. It's not a famous class(I don't know why), but it is way better than the AsyncTask. For more information, you can read the Android tutorials found in Udacity's Android courses.

Of course, as another way, you could store the values or the views with onSaveInstanceState and read them with onRestoreInstanceState. It's up to you really.

Answer 4

After a while of trial and error, I found a solution which fits my needs in the most situations. Here is the Code:

Manifest configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.pepperonas.myapplication">

    <application
        android:name=".App"
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

MainActivity:

import android.content.res.Configuration;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentTransaction;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements View.OnClickListener {

    private static final String TAG = "MainActivity";

    private Fragment mFragment;

    private int mSelected = -1;


    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        Log.d(TAG, "onCreate  " + "");

        // null check not realy needed - but just in case...
        if (savedInstanceState == null) {

            initUi();

            // get an instance of FragmentTransaction from your Activity
            FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
            FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();

            /*IMPORTANT: Do the INITIAL(!) transaction only once!
            * If we call this everytime the layout changes orientation,
            * we will end with a messy, half-working UI.
            * */
            mFragment = FragmentOne.newInstance(mSelected = 0);
            fragmentTransaction.add(R.id.frame, mFragment);
            fragmentTransaction.commit();
        }
    }


    @Override
    public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
        super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
        Log.d(TAG, "onConfigurationChanged  " +
                   (newConfig.orientation
                    == Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE
                    ? "landscape" : "portrait"));

        initUi();

        Log.i(TAG, "onConfigurationChanged - last selected: " + mSelected);
        makeFragmentTransaction(mSelected);
    }


    /**
     * Called from {@link #onCreate} and {@link #onConfigurationChanged}
     */
    private void initUi() {
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        Log.d(TAG, "onCreate  instanceState == null / reinitializing..." + "");
        Button btnFragmentOne = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn_fragment_one);
        Button btnFragmentTwo = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn_fragment_two);
        btnFragmentOne.setOnClickListener(this);
        btnFragmentTwo.setOnClickListener(this);
    }


    /**
     * Not invoked (just for testing)...
     */
    @Override
    protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
        super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
        Log.d(TAG, "onSaveInstanceState  " + "YOU WON'T SEE ME!!!");
    }


    /**
     * Not invoked (just for testing)...
     */
    @Override
    protected void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
        Log.d(TAG, "onSaveInstanceState  " + "YOU WON'T SEE ME, AS WELL!!!");
    }


    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        Log.d(TAG, "onResume  " + "");
    }


    @Override
    protected void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        Log.d(TAG, "onPause  " + "");
    }


    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        Log.d(TAG, "onDestroy  " + "");
    }


    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {

        switch (v.getId()) {
            case R.id.btn_fragment_one:
                Log.d(TAG, "onClick btn_fragment_one " + "");
                makeFragmentTransaction(0);
                break;

            case R.id.btn_fragment_two:
                Log.d(TAG, "onClick btn_fragment_two " + "");
                makeFragmentTransaction(1);
                break;

            default:
                Log.d(TAG, "onClick  null - wtf?!" + "");
        }
    }


    /**
     * We replace the current Fragment with the selected one.
     * Note: It's called from {@link #onConfigurationChanged} as well.
     */
    private void makeFragmentTransaction(int selection) {

        switch (selection) {
            case 0:
                mFragment = FragmentOne.newInstance(mSelected = 0);
                break;
            case 1:
                mFragment = FragmentTwo.newInstance(mSelected = 1);
                break;
        }

        // Create new transaction
        FragmentTransaction transaction = getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction();

        // Replace whatever is in the fragment_container view with this fragment,
        // and add the transaction to the back stack
        transaction.replace(R.id.frame, mFragment);

        /*This would add the Fragment to the backstack...
        * But right now we comment it out.*/
        //        transaction.addToBackStack(null);

        // Commit the transaction
        transaction.commit();
    }

}

And sample Fragment:

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;

/**
 * @author Martin Pfeffer (pepperonas)
 */
public class FragmentOne extends Fragment {

    private static final String TAG = "FragmentOne";


    public static Fragment newInstance(int i) {
        Fragment fragment = new FragmentOne();
        Bundle args = new Bundle();
        args.putInt("the_id", i);
        fragment.setArguments(args);
        return fragment;
    }


    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        Log.d(TAG, "onCreateView  " + "");
        return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_one, container, false);
    }

}

Can be found on github.

Answer 5

What you describe is the default behavior. You have to detect and handle these events yourself by adding:

android:configChanges

to your manifest and then the changes that you want to handle. So for orientation, you would use:

android:configChanges="orientation"

and for the keyboard being opened or closed you would use:

android:configChanges="keyboardHidden"

If you want to handle both you can just separate them with the pipe command like:

android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation"

This will trigger the onConfigurationChanged method in whatever Activity you call. If you override the method you can pass in the new values.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Use orientation listener to perform different tasks on different orientation.

@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration myConfig) 
{
    super.onConfigurationChanged(myConfig);
    int orient = getResources().getConfiguration().orientation; 
    switch(orient) 
    {
       case Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE:
          setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
                    break;
       case Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT:
          setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
                    break;
       default:
          setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNSPECIFIED);
    }
}