android - Overlapping hidden fragments after application gets killed and restored

Question

I'm switching between fragments by hiding the last fragment and adding a new one (See code below) - adding it to the back-stack as well. This way, users can quickly switch between the fragments without reloading the fragment data.

This works well until the app is killed (Scenario: users uses several other apps and my app is getting persisted and killed).

When a user opens the app, it is being restored and all the fragments are shown - overlapping one another.

Question: How can the restored fragments be restored with their hidden state? Perhaps I'm missing some flag? somewhere? Perhaps there is a better solution for fast switching between fragments (without reloading the data)?

Sample code of adding fragments - invoked several times with different fragments upon clicking somewhere:

FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
fragmentTransaction.hide(lastFragment);
fragmentTransaction.add(newFragment);
fragmentTransaction.addToBackStack(null);
fragmentTransaction.commit();
lastFragment = newFragment;

Answer 1

Hope somebody finds a better solution. I'll wait for one before I accept my solution:

In general, I use generated tags to find the unhidden fragments and hide them.

In details, I generate a unique tag for each fragment (StackEntry) and stack the tags as the fragments themselves get stacked. I persist the stack in the bundel and load it when the app gets restored in order to continure using it. Then I use the list of tags to find all of the unhidden fragments and hide them - except for the last one.

Heres sample code:

public class FragmentActivity extends Activity {

    private static final String FRAGMENT_STACK_KEY = "FRAGMENT_STACK_KEY";

    private Stack<StackEntry> fragmentsStack = new Stack<StackEntry>();

    public FragmentActivity() {
    }

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

        setContentView(R.layout.content_frame);

        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            // Init for the first time - not restore
            // ...
        } else {
            Serializable serializable = savedInstanceState.getSerializable(FRAGMENT_STACK_KEY);
            if (serializable != null) {
                // Workaround Android bug.
                // See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13982192/when-using-an-android-bundle-why-does-a-serialised-stack-deserialise-as-an-arra
                // And: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3847
                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
                List<StackEntry> arrayList = (List<StackEntry>) serializable;
                fragmentsStack = new Stack<StackEntry>();
                fragmentsStack.addAll(arrayList);
            }

            // Hide all the restored fragments instead of the last one
            if (fragmentsStack.size() > 1) {
                FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
                for (int i = 0; i < fragmentsStack.size()-1; i++) {
                    String fragTag = fragmentsStack.get(i).getFragTag();
                    Fragment fragment = getFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(fragTag);
                    fragmentTransaction.hide(fragment);
                }
                fragmentTransaction.commit();
            }
        }
        getFragmentManager().addOnBackStackChangedListener(new OnBackStackChangedListener() {
            @Override
            public void onBackStackChanged() {
                Fragment lastFragment = getLastFragment();
                if (lastFragment.isHidden()) {
                    FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
                    fragmentTransaction.show(lastFragment);
                    fragmentTransaction.commit();
                }
            }
        });
    }

    private Fragment getLastFragment() {
        if (fragmentsStack.isEmpty()) return null;
        String fragTag = fragmentsStack.peek().getFragTag();
        Fragment fragment = getFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(fragTag);
        return fragment;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
        super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
        outState.putSerializable(FRAGMENT_STACK_KEY, fragmentsStack);
    }

    @Override
    public void onBackPressed() {
        if (!fragmentsStack.isEmpty()) {
            fragmentsStack.pop();
        }
    }

    public void switchContent(Fragment fragment) {
        FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = getFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
        Fragment lastFragment = getLastFragment();
        if (lastFragment != null) {
            fragmentTransaction.hide(lastFragment);
        }
        String fragTag;
        if (fragment.isAdded()) {
            fragmentTransaction.show(fragment);
            fragTag = fragment.getTag();
        } else {
            fragTag = Long.toString(System.currentTimeMillis());
            fragmentTransaction.add(R.id.content_frame, fragment, fragTag);
        }
        if (!isFirstFragment()) {
            // Add to backstack only the first content fragment and not the state before (that has nothing)
            fragmentTransaction.addToBackStack(null);
        }
        fragmentTransaction.commit();

        fragmentsStack.push(new StackEntry(fragTag));
    }

    public boolean isFirstFragment() {
        return fragmentsStack.size() == 0;
    }

    private static class StackEntry implements Serializable {
        private static final long serialVersionUID = -6162805540320628024L;

        private String fragTag = null;
        public StackEntry(String fragTag) {
            super();
            this.fragTag = fragTag;
        }
        public String getFragTag() {
            return fragTag;
        }
    }


    public static class Intent extends android.content.Intent {
        public Intent(Context packageContext) {
            super(packageContext, FragmentActivity.class);
        }
    }
}