Using Butterknife with BaseActivity/Child Activities and MaterialDrawer

Question

I'm facing issues implementing MaterialDrawer (library MikePenz) using Multiple Activities ( not using fragments) which is implemented with a BaseActivity. Also, using ButterKnife to bind the views.

Found related issues here in SO and tried it out one by one , but in my case it was not working since most of them using standard Navigation Drawer with Fragments or they are not related with ButterKnife.

Code :

MainActivity class

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @BindView(R.id.toolbar)
    Toolbar toolbar;

    private List<TestModel> destinations;
    private DestinationAdapter mAdapter;
    ProgressDialog progressDialog;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        ButterKnife.bind(this);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
        navManagement();
    }
}

activity_main layout

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 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/maincontainer"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="com.tvs.ui.MainActivity">

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:id="@+id/appbar"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        >

        <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
            app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay"
             />

    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

StoreActivity

public class StoresActivity extends MainActivity {

    @BindView(R.id.searchEditText)
    EditText mSearchEditText; // errorRequired view 'searchEditText' with ID 2131558557 for field 'mSearchEditText' was not found
    @BindView(R.id.storesRecyclerView)
    RecyclerView recyclerView; // here too

    private List<TestModel> stores;
    private StoreAdapter mAdapter;

    //endregion
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_stores);
        ButterKnife.bind(this);

        loadRecyclerView();
        testData();

    }
    }

activity_store layout

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/searchEditText"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        />

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/storesRecyclerView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        android:scrollbars="vertical">

    </android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

I understand that cause of error is that the ButterKnife.Bind in MainActivity is called when the Layout is inflated but the Views are not inflated in the inherited Activities . The Navigation drawer loads but on clicking item it fails as obvious reason. I cannot use a FrameLayout since I'm using MaterialDrawer library which doesn't ( or I'm not aware) have views to inflate.

I tried several methods extensively searching SO like SO1SO2 Git Git2 Link but was not successful .

Appreciate any help are deeply appreciated . Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Thanks @mikepenz for the response.

Posting it since it might help somebody

The issue was fixed by creating an abstract method in BaseActivity

@Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(getLayoutResourceId());

        ButterKnife.bind(this); 
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
        navManagement();

    }
    protected abstract int getLayoutResourceId();

Concrete Activity

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    //setContentView(R.layout.activity_stores); not required
    ButterKnife.bind(this); 

    loadRecyclerView();
    testData();

}

@Override
protected int getLayoutResourceId() {
    return R.layout.activity_stores;
}

Please note that I was not using ButterKnife.Bind in the Concrete Activity and used @Nullable fields. But currently Binding in both Base and Implementing Activities.

Answer 2

The MaterialDrawer will inflate views to your layout. By default it will add a DrawerLayout into the root of your activity, and add the other content (which is your main layout) as child to it again.

This decision was made to make it super simple to implement a Drawer into your application without needing to alter anything special.

Butterknife will bind the view's at the time you call the bind method. All views of the MaterialDrawer, are bound at the time of you calling .build(), but as the views of the MaterialDrawer are bound internally you shouldn't have to worry about these.

Answer 3

To complete @user2695433 's answer, you can go a little futher : handle all butterknife init and close in the BaseActivity so you can't forget to release ressources ! Very useful if some new dev come in your team and dont know how butterknife work. Here it is :

--------In BaseActivity-------

protected Unbinder binder;
protected abstract int getLayoutResourceId();
...

  @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(getLayoutResourceId());
        binder = ButterKnife.bind(this);
    }

@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    binder.unbind(); //release ressource
}

----- In ConcreteActivity------------

@BindView(R.id.title)
    TextView title; // butterknife stuff

@Override
    protected int getLayoutResourceId() { //define which Id
        return R.layout.activity_main;
    }
 @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  }