CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidtabsandroid-fragmentsandroid-tabs
goodnoodle
goodnoodle

Reputation: 235

Converting Existing App to use Tabs

I have an existing app that is using a Dashboard style pattern where there's a main menu, and clicking icons on the main menu drive start different activities... In order to navigate to a different function, you need to go back to the Dashboard menu and select another icon.

I want to change my application to a tabbed format similar to the one below with Icons: enter image description here

What type of View is being used below? Is this a FragmentActivity? Also, what is the best approach to go about conversion? I have a bunch of layouts with listviews in linear/relative layouts... Will I be able to reuse any existing code? I want also to be able to use the solution with Android 2.1 and up if possible.

Thanks!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1161

Answers (2)

Aaron Fujimoto
Aaron Fujimoto

Reputation: 321

In the image you provided, it looks to be a TabHost that is used (which can be within a normal Activity or a Fragment Activity) and will be available for Android 2.1 and beyond when using the Android Support library. Based upon your description, you most likely have an Activity per each of your items that you will probably want to convert into a different Fragment. This may take a little time, but a Fragment is very similar to a normal activity in many ways, so once you start getting used to it, converting over the old Activities should be a breeze.

If you plan on using these tabs and you follow the Android design UI guidelines, you may want to use the TabHost in conjunction with a ViewPager. There is a great tutorial for this online that also allows for backward compatibility (down to at least 2.1) found here: http://thepseudocoder.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/android-tabs-viewpager-swipe-able-tabs-ftw/

Support library for fragments/viewpager: http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/support-library.html

More info about a TabHost and using Tabs with fragments can be found here:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/TabHost.html

http://thepseudocoder.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/android-tabs-the-fragment-way/

Upvotes: 2

mehmetminanc
mehmetminanc

Reputation: 1379

You can use TabLayout and a TabActivity to achieve layout in picture. Bad news is these are deprecated as of Android 3.0. Google advises to use fragments instead of these.

Upvotes: 0

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