Question

I have been looking for options on how to place Navigation bar common to all activities. Still can’t figure out the best way to do it. The Navigation bar should have a title for screen and a back button. Or may be two in some activities.
What is the best practice I should follow?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can define the navigation bar in separate header.xml layout like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:id="@+id/header_layout"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:orientation="vertical">

  <!-- 1px border top -->
  <ImageView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="1px"
    android:background="@color/header_border_top" />

  <!-- header with text and buttons -->
  <RelativeLayout
    android:layout_height="43dp"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:background="@color/header_background">

    <!-- left side -->
    <LinearLayout
      android:id="@+id/header_home_button_layout"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="fill_parent"
      android:orientation="horizontal"
      android:layout_alignParentLeft="true">

      <!-- home button -->
      <ImageButton
        android:id="@+id/header_home_button"
        android:src="@drawable/header_btn_home"
        android:onClick="onHomeClick" />

    </LinearLayout>

    <!-- header text -->
    <TextView
      android:id="@+id/header_title"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:layout_centerInParent="true"
      android:text="@string/app_name"
      android:textSize="20dp"
      android:textStyle="bold"/>

    <!-- right side -->
    <LinearLayout
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="fill_parent"
      android:orientation="horizontal"
      android:layout_alignParentRight="true">

      <!-- back button -->
      <ImageButton
        android:id="@+id/header_back_button"
        android:src="@drawable/header_btn_back"
        android:onClick="onBackClick"
        android:visibility="gone" />

    </LinearLayout>

  </RelativeLayout>

  <!-- 1px border bottom -->
  <ImageView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="1px"
    android:background="@color/header_border_bottom" />

</LinearLayout>

Then include this header in the layout of all your activities:

<include
    layout="@layout/header" />

And make sure that all your classes extend parent class that has the methods onHomeClick and onBackClick…