Android: TabHost without TabActivity

Question

I want to create tabs without expanding TabActivity. (The reason is that TabActivity cannot handle the custom title bar as it seems). I have

public class startTab extends Activity { @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.mylayout); Resources res = getResources(); LocalActivityManager mlam = new LocalActivityManager(this, false); TabHost tabHost = (TabHost) findViewById(R.id.tabhost); tabHost.setup(mlam); TabHost.TabSpec spec; Intent intent; intent = new Intent().setClass(this, Show1.class); spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("Items").setIndicator("Items", res.getDrawable(R.drawable.items32_ldpi)).setContent(intent); tabHost.addTab(spec); intent = new Intent().setClass(this, Show2.class); spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("Users").setIndicator("Users",res.getDrawable(R.drawable.user32_ldpi)).setContent(intent); tabHost.addTab(spec); } 

}

The error I get is

  07-02 07:11:12.715: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(411): Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Activities can't be added until the containing group has been created. 

xml for presentation

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:id="@+id/tabhost" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" > <LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:paddingTop="5dip"> <TabWidget android:id="@android:id/tabs" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"></TabWidget> <FrameLayout android:id="@android:id/tabcontent" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:paddingTop="5dip"> </FrameLayout> </LinearLayout> </TabHost> 

I read somewhere that I should use the LocalActivityManager, I assume that something is missing there. Any idea?

Thank!

Answer 1

Before calling tabHost.setup (mLocalActivityManager); you need to add this line.

 mlam.dispatchCreate(savedInstanceState); tabHost.setup(mlam ); 

Similarly, you need to add for onResume,

 mlam.dispatchResume(); 

OnPause (),

  mlam.dispatchPause(isFinishing()); 

Answer 2

Please use Views as the content of your tabs. Not only will this lead to less code, less heap space consumed, less stack space consumption and lower CPU usage, it will also help you overcome this problem. Here are two examples that demonstrate this technique.

Answer 3

 public class ScoreboardActivity extends Activity { LocalActivityManager mlam; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_scoreboard); mlam = new LocalActivityManager(this, false); mlam.dispatchCreate(savedInstanceState); TabHost th = (TabHost) findViewById(android.R.id.tabhost); th.setup(mlam); th.addTab(th.newTabSpec("Numpad").setIndicator("Numpad").setContent(R.id.tab1)); th.addTab(th.newTabSpec("CardCount").setIndicator("CardCount").setContent(R.id.tab2)); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_scoreboard, menu); return true; } @Override protected void onResume(){ super.onResume(); mlam.dispatchResume(); } @Override protected void onPause(){ super.onPause(); mlam.dispatchPause(isFinishing()); } } 

Answer 4

Despite design considerations, the following does not work at all, and the API seems to indicate that setContent(Intent i) valid. This works when the action continues with TabActivity , however, extending the Activity and adding setup() call results to exception at android.widget.TabHost$IntentContentStrategy.getContentView(TabHost.java:649)

Funny, LogCat suggests forgetting to call setup()

 mTabHost = (TabHost) findViewById(android.R.id.tabhost); mTabHost.setup(); Intent tab1Intent = new Intent(this, ActivityOne.class); Button tab1View = new Button(this); tab1View.setText("Activity 1"); mTabHost.addTab(mTabHost.newTabSpec("tab_1").setIndicator(tab1View).setContent(tab1Intent));