TabHost outside a TabActivity

Fri, 09/16/2011 - 05:03 | by tamas

SDK Version:

I found no really easy to understand example on tabhosts, when you don't want to use a TabActivity, so here is one.

When using tabhosts, the main difference between a TabActivity and a simple Activity, is that you have to do some more setting up first.

public class TabTestActivity extends Activity {
        LocalActivityManager mLocalActivityManager;
 
        @Override
        public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
                super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
                setContentView(R.layout.main);
                
                TabHost tabHost = (TabHost) findViewById(R.id.tabhostscreen_tabhost);
                mLocalActivityManager = new LocalActivityManager(this, false);
 
                tabHost.setup(mLocalActivityManager);
                mLocalActivityManager.dispatchCreate(savedInstanceState); //after the tab's setup is called, you have to call this or it wont work
 
                TabHost.TabSpec spec;
                Intent intent;
                //set up your tabs here. It's easy to just do seperate activities for each tab, and link them in here.
                intent = new Intent().setClass(this, SomeActivity.class);
                spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("tagname1").setIndicator("tab indicator 1", getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.icon)).setContent(intent);
                tabHost.addTab(spec);
 
                intent = new Intent().setClass(this, SomeOtherActivity.class);
                spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("tagname2").setIndicator("tab indicator 2").setContent(intent);
                tabHost.addTab(spec);
        }
 
        @Override
        protected void onPause() {
                super.onPause();
                mLocalActivityManager.dispatchPause(isFinishing()); //you have to manually dispatch the pause msg
        }
 
        @Override
        protected void onResume() {
                super.onResume();
                mLocalActivityManager.dispatchResume(); //you have to manually dispatch the resume msg
        }
}

The layout I used for this tutorial, has tabs on the bottom, but you could reorganise it pretty easily, just swap the FrameLayout with the TabWidget.

The layout file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:orientation="vertical" android:background="#ffffff"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:weightSum="1">
        <TabHost android:id="@+id/tabhostscreen_tabhost"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
                <RelativeLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/tabhostscreen_relativeLayout1"
                        android:layout_weight="1">
                        <FrameLayout android:id="@android:id/tabcontent&quot;
                                android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_above="@android:id/tabs"
                                android:layout_alignParentTop="true" android:layout_height="fill_parent"></FrameLayout>
                        <TabWidget android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                                android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@android:id/tabs"
                                android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"></TabWidget>
                </RelativeLayout>
        </TabHost>
</LinearLayout>