Android Tabs + Sliding, how do I implement ActionBarSherlock?

Question

I\'m using Google\'s new tools to start an application that has the ability to switch between three tabs.

Answer 1

I would recommend taking a look at ViewPagerIndicator it works with ActionBarSherlock and the compatibility library, I currently have an app using this for swiping tabs on 2.2 and up.

Answer 2

I cannot add comments so this is my comment to ViewPagerIndicator. I used to it but when I started to use loaders to load data and fragmentadapter sometimes there were weird issues when new data came, orientation changed... But to use tabs with actionbarsherlock ViewPagerIndicator is not necessary.

Answer 3

I have implemented very complicated application using actionbar sherlock. It works fine on 2.2 to ICS devices I have tested. I also used tabs and everything works fine. I changed it later to navigation list because there should be 6 tabs. Try demos included with actionbar to start with. This errors are probably some classpath problems. You need to add sherlock as lib project and support library must be included in both sherlock lib project and your project. Also check if both support libraries must have same versions.

Answer 4

I tried this wizard once and I think I threw away the generated code completely when I implemented this exact pattern with ActionBarSherlock, so I suggest you start with a normal "Blank" activity from scratch. Here is a small step-by-step guide. Not all steps are completely described, but you should find enough documentation with the keywords to get started.

1) Add ActionBarSherlock to your project (obviously)

2) Create a new activity that extends SherlockFragmentActivity and set a proper abs theme

You should have a blank activity with an action bar at this point.

3) Change the layout and include a ViewPager that fills the viewport

4) Write your fragments (or placeholders for now) and the adapter for the ViewPager, wire these together

There are a lot of tutorials out there that explain everything neccessary here, e.g. this blog post.

This should give you an activity with an action bar and a swipable layout. You can swipe between your fragments now.

5) Add action bar tabs and attach a blank tab listener to them

Example:

actionBar = getSupportActionBar();

sampleTab = actionBar.newTab()
    .setText(R.string.title)
    .setTag(TABTAG_SAMPLE)
    .setTabListener(tabListener);

actionBar.addTab(sampleTab);

Make sure that you give each of your tabs an individual tag (a string const is fine). This will be used to identify which tab is clicked in a second. Also make sure that you keep the created tab instances in a class variable. You will need them later on. Repeat the above snippet for each tab. You can use a normal TabListener, but I recomment using the SimpleTabListener since you only need to override one method later.

Now you should have an activity with the action bar, swipeable fragments and (non-functional) tabs.

6) Fill the tab listener and connect it to the viewpager

private SimpleTabListener tabListener = new SimpleTabListener() {

    @Override
    public void onTabSelected(Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft) {
        final String tag = (String) tab.getTag();

        if (TABTAG_SAMPLE.equals(tag)) {
            viewPager.setCurrentItem(INDEX_SAMPLE);
        } else if (TABTAG_SECONDTAB.equals(tag)) {
            viewPager.setCurrentItem(INDEX_SECONDFRAGMENT);
        }
    }
};

This should be straightforward. You listen for a tab select event, check which tab is selected via the saved tag and call the viewpagers setCurrentItem() method with the index of the fragment that is associated with a certain tab.

Now you should be able to select a fragment via a tab as well as swipe around. You will note that swiping to a certain fragment wont sync the tabs accordingly, they wont get selected properly yet.

7) Attach an OnPageChangeListener to your ViewPager and select tabs accordingly

Again, you can use a SimpleOnPageChangeListener here as well instead of the interface. Short example:

private SimpleOnPageChangeListener onPageChangeListener 
        = new SimpleOnPageChangeListener() {

    @Override
    public void onPageSelected(int position) {
        switch (position) {
        case INDEX_SAMPLE:
            actionBar.selectTab(sampleTab);
            break;

        case INDEX_SECONDFRAGMENT:
            actionBar.selectTab(secondTab);
            break;
        }
    };
};

This should also be self-explanatory. You watch for a swipe action that changes the displayed fragment, check it's index and select the appropriate tab. You see here why you had to keep the tab instances from step 5 around, you need them to select a tab.

Everything should work now.

Answer 5

The exact same process worked for me. I removed all the imports and then pressed ctrl+shift+o and selected the compatibility classes. It worked absoulutely fine. see the post here.