Question

I’m on the situation where I have to share variables between activities… but I have one doubt. Which is better: Parcelable object or set it on a custom Application object.

When something is just going to be used in next activity I just pass it as a Parcelable object, and when it is going to be used in more than one activity, I put it on Application context.

What do you think? Is it right? Which is better in performance?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think your approach is completely valid.

If it is something like a user object that is accessed in every Activity store it in a custom Application object, but be sure to have a way to recreate the object if the application object gets destroyed while the app is in background.

If it is something like a path or a choice the user made that determines how the next activity works send it with the Intent.

There are also some classes that are not easy to put in an Intent. I have an ImageCache that is attached to the application class that allows to keep images like a user profil image in memory between activity changes without the need to decode the bitmap multiple times. If they are designed in a way that they don’t fill up all available memory those are also a good fit for a custom app class.