Up Navigation for Activities

suggest change

Up navigation is done in android by adding android:parentActivityName="" in Manifest.xml to the activity tag. Basically with this tag you tell the system about the parent activity of a activity.

How is it done?

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

<application
    android:name=".SkillSchoolApplication"
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:supportsRtl="true"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
    <activity
        android:name=".ui.activities.SplashActivity"
        android:theme="@style/SplashTheme">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity android:name=".ui.activities.MainActivity" />
    <activity android:name=".ui.activities.HomeActivity"
     android:parentActivityName=".ui.activities.MainActivity/> // HERE I JUST TOLD THE SYSTEM THAT MainActivity is the parent of HomeActivity
</application>

Now when i will click on the arrow inside the toolbar of HomeActivity it will take me back to the parent activity.

Java Code

Here i will write the appropriate java code required for this functionality.

public class HomeActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    @BindView(R.id.toolbar)
    Toolbar toolbar;    

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_home);
        ButterKnife.bind(this);
        //Since i am using custom tool bar i am setting refernce of that toolbar to Actionbar. If you are not using custom then you can simple leave this and move to next line
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar); 
        getSupportActionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true); // this will show the back arrow in the tool bar.
}
}

If you run this code you will see when you press back button it will take you back to MainActivity. For futher understanding of Up Navigation i would recommend reading docs

You can more customize this behaviour upon your needs by overriding

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
    // Respond to the action bar's Up/Home button
    case android.R.id.home:
        NavUtils.navigateUpFromSameTask(this); // Here you will write your logic for handling up navigation
        return true;
    }
    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

Simple Hack

This is simple hack which is mostly used to navigate to parent activity if parent is in backstack. By calling onBackPressed() if id is equal to android.R.id.home

@Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        int id = item.getItemId();
        switch (id) {
            case android.R.id.home:
                onBackPressed();
                return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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