Question

Is it possible to update the TabWidget icons/indicators? If so, how, when you are creating TabContent through intents?

Edits below with answer thanks to @Bart

Generic code:

MainActivity:

public class TestActivity extends TabActivity {

public int i;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    //TabHost mTabHost = (TabHost) findViewById(android.R.id.tabhost);

    TabHost mTabHost = getTabHost();

    mTabHost.addTab(mTabHost.newTabSpec("tab1").setContent(
            new Intent(this, OneActivity.class)).setIndicator("One"));
    mTabHost.addTab(mTabHost.newTabSpec("tab2").setContent(
            new Intent(this, TwoActivity.class)).setIndicator("Two"));

    changeTitle(0, 20);
}

public void changeTitle(int cnt, int i){
    View v = getTabWidget().getChildAt(cnt);
    TextView tv = (TextView) v.findViewById(android.R.id.title);
    tv.setText("One ("+i+")");
}

}

OneActivity (ChildActivity):

public class OneActivity extends Activity {
TextView tv;
Button btn;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.one);

    tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.tv);
    btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn);

    btn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {

            int i = Integer.parseInt((String) tv.getText());
            i++;
            tv.setText(""+i);

             TestActivity parent = OneActivity.this.getParent();
             parent.changeTitle(0,i);

        }
    });
}

}

I’d like to show the number in the Tab’s title

Answer 1

It is possible but it is a bit of tricky:

ViewGroup vg = (ViewGroup) getTabHost().getTabWidget().getChildAt(0);
TextView tv = (TextView) vg.getChildAt(1);

You should pay attention to indices while calling getChildAt(). The best way is always to debug and check.

Since 1.6 TabWidget has a method getChildTabViewAt thanks to which you could skip the first line and write:

ViewGroup vg = (ViewGroup) getTabHost().getTabWidget().getChildTabViewAt(0);

---

I attach also source code of Android SDK to show how TabWidget icons are built:

View tabIndicator = inflater.inflate(R.layout.tab_indicator, 
mTabWidget, // tab widget is the parent
false); // no inflate params

final TextView tv = (TextView) tabIndicator.findViewById(R.id.title);
tv.setText(mLabel);
final ImageView iconView = (ImageView) tabIndicator.findViewById(R.id.icon); 
iconView.setImageDrawable(mIcon);

As you can see, it contains a TextView and ImageView.