reuse parent layout in Android

Question

My app consists of multiple activities, they all have a common layout in the sense that they are drawer layout, have a tool bar, but they have different main content. Specifically, their complete layouts are as follows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/relative_layout"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">

        <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/action_bar"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            />

        .......main content, this is different for each activity..........

    </RelativeLayout>
</android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>

Since the shared components are defined at "parent level", I'm not sure how to structure these layouts so that the generic layout is only defined once. Is it possible to achieve that? Thanks.

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:24

Two options:

1. ViewStub

Define the main layout with a ViewStub where you will have different sub-layouts.

A ViewStub is an invisible, zero-sized View that can be used to lazily inflate layout resources at runtime. When a ViewStub is made visible, or when inflate() is invoked, the layout resource is inflated. The ViewStub then replaces itself in its parent with the inflated View or Views.

In each Activity you set the same layout and then inflate the specific sub-layout onto the ViewStub.

2. Fragments

If you want to avoid having massive quantities of code on a single Activity you might want to think about using Fragments.

Some other topics to guide you:

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '16 at 23:02

Yes it is possible by using Fragment. For this structure first you need to define a FrameLayout in your activity_main.xml . This framelayout will be replaced by the contents of the fragments over the time.

<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/container_toolbar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        <include
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            layout="@layout/toolbar" />
    </LinearLayout>

    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/container_body"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1" >
    </FrameLayout>

  </LinearLayout>

  <fragment
    android:id="@+id/fragment_navigation_drawer"
    android:name="com.safallwa.zahan.oreader.FragmentDrawer"
    android:layout_width="@dimen/nav_drawer_width"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="start"
    app:layout="@layout/fragment_navigation_drawer"
    tools:layout="@layout/fragment_navigation_drawer" />
</android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>

Then you can create your layouts as you want and classes as those extends Fragment . Set these new layouts as contentView of Fragment classes. Now these fragments can replace that FrameLayout of activity_main. Suppose we have a Framgent class name First_Fragment.Java then we can show that fragment by replacing activity_main framelayout by below code

        FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
        FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
        fragmentTransaction.replace(R.id.container_body, fragment);//container_body is the id of the framelayout
        fragmentTransaction.commit();

For full featured example with navigation drawer also we can follow below link

http://www.codedisect.com/?p=134

reuse parent layout in Android

2 Answers2

1. ViewStub

2. Fragments