Android FragmentTabHost Tabs on Bottom with Icons selection issue

Question

I am struggling with a simple UI for two days now. I just want a tabbed layout with tabs on bottom (can't use Tabs ActionBarSherlock due to that reason). Also I want my tabs to be represented by icon and a text. Pretty simple? I know that it is not recommended to use bottom tabs in android, but that's the requirement of the app. Can't do much about it.

I managed to edit this example according to my needs. Now I have tabs on bottom working with FragmentTabHost. After this I tried to add icons to tabs. If I were using regular TabHost I could have done

mTabs.addTab(mTabs.newTabSpec("chapter").setIndicator("Chapter",getResources().
  getDrawable(R.drawable.chapter1)), ContentFragment.class, null);

But I learnt from this post: FragmentTabHost with drawable icon that apparently it doesn't work with the new FragmentTabHost. So, following this post: Icon in Tab is not showing up, I implemented a custom view for holding tab's icon and text. And it worked fine.

The problem here (as asked by comments in one of the posts as well) is that the selection isn't there anymore. I can't see which tab is selected.

Here's the complete code:

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {

private FragmentTabHost mTabHost;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.bottom_tabs);

    mTabHost = (FragmentTabHost) findViewById(android.R.id.tabhost);
    mTabHost.setup(this, getSupportFragmentManager(), R.id.realtabcontent);

    //testing with custom view implementation to add icon
    TabSpec spec = mTabHost.newTabSpec("tab" + 1);
    View tabIndicator = LayoutInflater.from(this).inflate(R.layout.tab1_icon, null, false);
    TextView title = (TextView) tabIndicator.findViewById(R.id.title);
    title.setText("Label 1");
    ImageView icon = (ImageView) tabIndicator.findViewById(R.id.icon);
    Drawable myIcon = getResources().getDrawable( R.drawable.icon1 );
    icon.setImageDrawable(myIcon);
    icon.setScaleType(ImageView.ScaleType.FIT_CENTER);

    spec.setIndicator(tabIndicator);

    mTabHost.addTab(spec,
            Fragment1.class, null);

    mTabHost.addTab(mTabHost.newTabSpec("contacts")
            .setIndicator("Contacts"), Fragment2.class, null);
    mTabHost.addTab(mTabHost.newTabSpec("custom").setIndicator("Custom"),
            Fragment3.class, null);

}

}

Fragment1.java

public class Fragment1 extends Fragment {
@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
        Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    View v = LayoutInflater.from(getActivity()).inflate(R.layout.tab1_view, null);
    return v;
}

bottom_tabs.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/realtabcontent"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="0dip"
    android:layout_weight="1" />

<android.support.v4.app.FragmentTabHost
    android:id="@android:id/tabhost"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@android:id/tabcontent"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="0" />
</android.support.v4.app.FragmentTabHost>

tab1_view.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#FF0000"
android:orientation="vertical"
tools:context=".DeviceFragment" >

<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Tab 1!" />

tab1_icon.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="55dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:padding="5dp"
android:weightSum="55" >

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/icon"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:layout_weight="30"
    android:adjustViewBounds="false"
    android:src="@drawable/icon1" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/title"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:layout_weight="25"
    android:gravity="center_horizontal" />

Answer 1

Try to use: https://stackoverflow.com/a/23150258/2765497

If you want support api lower 11 ,simple change TabHost to FragmentTabHost (from support lib or Sherlock)

Answer 2

try to use actionbars to show at the bottom instead.

Example code

 @Override
        public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

            // Create an actionbar menu
            menu.add("Set as Wallpaper")
                    // Add a new Menu Button
                    .setOnMenuItemClickListener(this.SetWallpaperClickListener)
                    .setShowAsAction(MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_IF_ROOM);

            return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
        }

        // Capture actionbar menu item click
        OnMenuItemClickListener SetWallpaperClickListener = new OnMenuItemClickListener() {

            public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {

                // Retrieve a WallpaperManager
                WallpaperManager myWallpaperManager = WallpaperManager
                        .getInstance(MainActivity.this);

                try {
                    // Change the current system wallpaper
                    myWallpaperManager.setResource(R.drawable.wallpaper);

                    // Show a toast message on successful change
                    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this,
                            "Wallpaper successfully changed", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
                            .show();

                } catch (IOException e) {
                    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                }

                return false;
            }
        };

AndroidManifest.xml

 <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow" >

Source : http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/actionbar.html