Saving state of the view

Question

Is there an easy way to save a whole viewgroup with its data together? For example if initially i have this view and during the app run some of the view's background image changes, some views become invisible, or its' text changes, etc. How can I save the state of the view, in case user quits app?

<RelativeLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/water_room_common"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    >

    <!-- storage layout -->
<View android:id="@+id/gap" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="0dip" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" />

    <RelativeLayout android:id="@+id/storage"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_above="@id/gap" android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="27dp" android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
        android:layout_toLeftOf="@id/bag" android:orientation="horizontal"
        >

        <ImageButton android:id="@+id/ImageButton02"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignTop="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:layout_marginRight="16dp" android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:background="@drawable/single_square" android:onClick="itemSelected" />

        <ImageButton android:id="@+id/ImageButton03"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignTop="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:layout_marginRight="16dp"
            android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/ImageButton02" android:background="@drawable/single_square"
            android:onClick="itemSelected"
            />

        <ImageButton android:id="@+id/ImageButton04"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignTop="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:layout_marginRight="16dp" android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/ImageButton03"
            android:adjustViewBounds="true" android:background="@drawable/single_square"
            android:onClick="itemSelected"
            />

        <ImageButton android:id="@+id/ImageButton05"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignTop="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:layout_marginRight="16dp" android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/ImageButton04"
            android:adjustViewBounds="true" android:background="@drawable/single_square"
            android:onClick="itemSelected"
            />

        <ImageButton android:id="@+id/ImageButton06"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignTop="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:layout_marginRight="16dp" android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/ImageButton05"
            android:adjustViewBounds="true" android:background="@drawable/single_square"
            android:onClick="itemSelected"
             />

        <ImageButton android:id="@+id/ImageButton01"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true" android:background="@drawable/single_square"
            android:onClick="itemSelected" 
             />
    </RelativeLayout>

    <ImageButton android:id="@+id/bag" android:layout_width="65dp"
        android:layout_height="65dp" android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/storage"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true" android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
        android:adjustViewBounds="true"
        android:onClick="bagClicked"/>
    <ImageButton android:id="@+id/left" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/storage"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true" android:background="@null"
        android:onClick="previousWall" android:src="@drawable/left" />
    <ImageButton android:id="@+id/right" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignRight="@id/bag"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true" android:background="@null"
        android:onClick="nextWall" android:src="@drawable/right" />

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

See this answer. You need to override onSaveInstanceState for transient changes or override onPause and onResume for permanent changes.

Read the API guide here

Update

This is a summary of this training Picture this scenario. You have a notepad app. On the homescreen, the user has a list of recently created notes (NoteList Activity) and the user can choose to create a new note or edit an existing note and changes will be stored in a database. When the user clicks on an item brings another activity (NoteEditActivity) to the foreground. If the user is in the process of editting a note and the NoteEditActivity loses focus for some reason (e.g a call comes in or the user just decides to switch to another app without clicking the "confirm button") the NoteEditActivity goes from being focused to being paused and then shortly after it is stopped. To prevent the user from loosing the current edit, you need to call onPause where you would want to save any changes to the database. Now if the app is in the stopped (onStop) and the user returns to the edit it will not go through onCreate but rather through onResume which is where you want to "resume" from where the user left.

This picture should further explain. Notice how onResume gets called every time the activity is about to be focused and not onCreate.

You can follow the training above for better understanding.