Question

I have an Android application with 3 tabs at the top.

The first tab is “Scan” which is supposed to show the camera so you can scan barcodes.

I’m currently using intents with the zxing library. The problem is the camera preview takes the whole screen.

I want to keep the tabs at the top, even on the camera preview screen.

Is it possible to do that with this setup? Or do I have to include the source code of zxing and modify stuff in there?

Answer 1

This might be possible by using an ActivityGroup. It will allow you to host other Intents with your application.

This article here seems to state that it is possible and links to a project using this approach.

Code for future proof:

TabHost tabHost = getTabHost();

tabHost.addTab(tabHost.newTabSpec("tab1").setIndicator("Player").setContent(
        new Intent(this, PlayerActivity.class)));
tabHost.addTab(tabHost.newTabSpec("tab2").setIndicator("Archive").setContent(
        new Intent(this, ArchiveGroup.class)));
tabHost.addTab(tabHost.newTabSpec("tab3").setIndicator("Updates").setContent(
        new Intent(this, DownloadList.class)));

…

View view = getLocalActivityManager().startActivity("ArchiveActivity",
    new Intent(this, ArchiveActivity.class)
            .addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP)).getDecorView();
setContentView(view);

…

String album = (String) getListView().getItemAtPosition(position);
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), ArchiveAlbums.class);
intent.putExtra("album", album);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

View view = ArchiveGroup.group.getLocalActivityManager()
                .startActivity("ShowPodcasts", intent).getDecorView();
ArchiveGroup.group.setContentView(view);