How to display one activity inside another in Android?

android, android-activity, android-linearlayout

Solution

Use one layout for several activities

Layout instance is inflated for each activity using a `setContentView` method, usually in `onCreate`:

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.my_common_layout);
}

So there's no problem to use the same `XML` layout for different activities.

Display one activity inside another

You can use a `Fragment` API to complete the task. See full details in developer's guide.

Declare a layout like that and Android will create fragments for you:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <fragment android:name="com.example.MyFragment"
            android:id="@+id/my_fragment"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1" />

</LinearLayout>

Then create a `MyFragment` class and load it when appropriate.

Create fragments yourself. Do not define the `Fragment` in `XML` layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:id="@+id/my_parent_layout">

</LinearLayout>

After your parent `Activity` is created you can add a new `Fragment` in this way:

FragmentManager fragmentManager = getFragmentManager()
FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
MyFragment fragment = new MyFragment();
fragmentTransaction.add(R.id.my_parent_layout, fragment);
fragmentTransaction.commit();

Here `MyFragment` is defined like this:

public class MyFragment extends Fragment {
    ...
}

If you're targeting below Android 3.0, consider using support package for that.

Problem

Original source