Resolving Activity Duplication Issues in Android: A Guide to Efficient Fragment Navigation

Описание: Discover why navigating between fragments in your Android app can lead to multiple `Activity` instances being created, and learn effective solutions to resolve this issue.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/68956940/ asked by the user 'FrankGG' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/16761237/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/69001661/ provided by the user 'FrankGG' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/16761237/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Navigation to Fragment from Activity and back to the Activity is causing the activity to be created multiple times

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Navigating Challenges in Android: Multiple Activity Instances Created

Navigating between fragments in Android can sometimes lead to unexpected issues, especially when it comes to managing the lifecycle of Activity instances. This guide addresses a common problem where navigating to a fragment from an activity and back again results in multiple instances of the activity being created, causing actions like button clicks to be triggered multiple times. We’ll explain the problem and provide a step-by-step guide to fixing this issue.

Understanding the Problem

Let's break down the scenario. Imagine your Android app features a bottom navigation bar with three tabs, each corresponding to a fragment. Within one of these fragments (let's call it Fragment 1), you also want to navigate to a different fragment (let's say Fragment 4). The major problem arises when you try to navigate back to Fragment 1 after visiting Fragment 4. Here’s what happens:

You press a button in Fragment 1, which successfully triggers a navigation to Fragment 4.

After visiting Fragment 4, you decide to go back to Fragment 1, either via the back button or the bottom navigation button.

On returning to Fragment 1, actions like button clicks seem to execute multiple times—first once, then twice, and potentially three times or more, depending on how many times you've navigated to Fragment 4. It appears as if the app created multiple instances of the main activity.

Code Snippet Overview

To understand this issue better, let’s look at critical parts of the code involved in the navigation process:

MainActivity.kt

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Fragment1.kt

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

The Sign of Multiple Instances

As detailed in the problem description:

When navigating between fragments, calls to the onStart() and onStop() methods in the MainActivity are being replicated.

This indicates that multiple instances of the Activity are not being properly managed, leading to unintentional duplication of functionality.

Solution: Single Instance Initialization

After exploring various potential fixes, one straightforward resolution is to ensure that you initialize any singleton or shared resources properly. In the original code, the logging setup for Timber was implemented in the onCreate() method of the MainActivity, which creates separate instances upon each configuration change.

To fix this:

Move the Timber initialization code from MainActivity to your Application class. This ensures that only one instance of Timber is created, preventing multiple instances from interfering with each other.

Code Adjustment to Implement

Here’s how to correctly set up Timber in your Application class:

MyApplication.kt

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

Navigating between fragments in your Android application doesn’t have to be a source of frustration. By understanding how the Activity lifecycle works and ensuring that your shared resources like logging libraries are initialized properly, you can prevent multiple instances from being created. In this case, moving the Timber initialization to the Application class was a simple yet effective solution.

Next time you encounter similar behavior in your app, consider reviewing how you handle lifecycle events and initialization. Properly managing these elements can lead to a smoother and more reliable user experience.