Same Navigation Drawer in different Activities

So this answer is a few years late but someone may appreciate it. Android has given us a new widget that makes using one navigation drawer with several activities easier.

android.support.design.widget.NavigationView is modular and has its own layout in the menu folder. The way that you use it is to wrap xml layouts the following way:

1. Root Layout is a android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout that contains two children: an <include ... /> for the layout that is being wrapped (see 2) and a android.support.design.widget.NavigationView.

   <android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout
       xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
       tools:openDrawer="start">
   
   <include
       layout="@layout/app_bar_main"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent" />
   
   <android.support.design.widget.NavigationView
       android:id="@+id/nav_view"
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:layout_gravity="start"
       android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
       app:headerLayout="@layout/nav_header_main"
       app:menu="@menu/activity_main_drawer" />
   

nav_header_main is just a LinearLayout with orientation = vertical for the header of your Navigation Drawar.

activity_main_drawer is a menu xml in your res/menu directory. It can contain items and groups of your choice. If you use the AndroidStudio Gallery the wizard will make a basic one for you and you can see what your options are.

2. App bar layout is usually now a android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout and this will include two children: a android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout (which contains a android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar) and an <include ... > for your actual content (see 3).

   <android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout
       xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       tools:context="yourpackage.MainActivity">
   
    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">
   
       <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
           android:id="@+id/toolbar"
           android:layout_width="match_parent"
           android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
           android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
           app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" />
   
   </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>
   
   <include layout="@layout/content_main" />
   

3. Content layout can be whatever layout you want. This is the layout that contains the main content of the activity (not including the navigation drawer or app bar).

Now, the cool thing about all of this is that you can wrap each activity in these two layouts but have your NavigationView (see step 1) always point to activity_main_drawer (or whatever). This means that you will have the same(*) Navigation Drawer on all activities.

• They won't be the same instance of NavigationView but, to be fair, that wasn't possible even with the BaseActivity solution outlined above.

If you want a navigation drawer, you should use fragments. I followed this tutorial last week and it works great:

http://developer.android.com/training/implementing-navigation/nav-drawer.html

You can also download sample code from this tutorial, to see how you can do this.

---

Without fragments:

This is your BaseActivity Code:

public class BaseActivity extends Activity
{
    public DrawerLayout drawerLayout;
    public ListView drawerList;
    public String[] layers;
    private ActionBarDrawerToggle drawerToggle;
    private Map map;

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        // R.id.drawer_layout should be in every activity with exactly the same id.
        drawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);

        drawerToggle = new ActionBarDrawerToggle((Activity) this, drawerLayout, R.drawable.ic_drawer, 0, 0) 
        {
            public void onDrawerClosed(View view) 
            {
                getActionBar().setTitle(R.string.app_name);
            }

            public void onDrawerOpened(View drawerView) 
            {
                getActionBar().setTitle(R.string.menu);
            }
        };
        drawerLayout.setDrawerListener(drawerToggle);

        getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
        getActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);

        layers = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.layers_array);
        drawerList = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.left_drawer);
        View header = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.drawer_list_header, null);
        drawerList.addHeaderView(header, null, false);
        drawerList.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.drawer_list_item, android.R.id.text1,
                layers));
        View footerView = ((LayoutInflater) this.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE)).inflate(
                R.layout.drawer_list_footer, null, false);
        drawerList.addFooterView(footerView);

        drawerList.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> arg0, View arg1, int pos, long arg3) {
                map.drawerClickEvent(pos);
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

        if (drawerToggle.onOptionsItemSelected(item)) {
            return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);

    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onPostCreate(savedInstanceState);
        drawerToggle.syncState();
    }

    @Override
    public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
        super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
        drawerToggle.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
    }
}

All the other Activities that needs to have a navigation drawer should extend this Activity instead of Activity itself, example:

public class AnyActivity extends BaseActivity
{
    //Because this activity extends BaseActivity it automatically has the navigation drawer
    //You can just write your normal Activity code and you don't need to add anything for the navigation drawer
}

XML

<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <!-- The main content view -->
    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/content_frame"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" >
        <!-- Put what you want as your normal screen in here, you can also choose for a linear layout or any other layout, whatever you prefer -->
    </FrameLayout>
    <!-- The navigation drawer -->
    <ListView android:id="@+id/left_drawer"
        android:layout_width="240dp"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_gravity="start"
        android:choiceMode="singleChoice"
        android:divider="@android:color/transparent"
        android:dividerHeight="0dp"
        android:background="#111"/>
</android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>

---

Edit:

I experienced some difficulties myself, so here is a solution if you get NullPointerExceptions. In BaseActivity change the onCreate function to protected void onCreateDrawer(). The rest can stay the same. In the Activities which extend BaseActivity put the code in this order:

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity);
    super.onCreateDrawer();

This helped me fix my problem, hope it helps!

This is how you can create a navigation drawer with multiple activities, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

---

Edit 2:

As said by @GregDan your BaseActivity can also override setContentView() and call onCreateDrawer there:

@Override 
public void setContentView(@LayoutRes int layoutResID) 
{ 
    super.setContentView(layoutResID); 
    onCreateDrawer() ;
}

I've found the best implementation. It's in the Google I/O 2014 app.

They use the same approach as Kevin's. If you can abstract yourself from all unneeded stuff in I/O app, you could extract everything you need and it is assured by Google that it's a correct usage of navigation drawer pattern. Each activity optionally has a DrawerLayout as its main layout. The interesting part is how the navigation to other screens is done. It is implemented in BaseActivity like this:

private void goToNavDrawerItem(int item) {
        Intent intent;
        switch (item) {
            case NAVDRAWER_ITEM_MY_SCHEDULE:
                intent = new Intent(this, MyScheduleActivity.class);
                startActivity(intent);
                finish();
                break;

This differs from the common way of replacing current fragment by a fragment transaction. But the user doesn't spot a visual difference.