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Android Build an Interactive Story App (Retired) Intents and Multiple Activities Adding a Second Activity

Posted by Stephanie Fu
Stephanie Fu
1,939 Points

How can I add a Hierarchical Parent after the Activity is created?

Hi, I'm working on my own app, and just learned about Hierarchical Parents, and would like too add one to one of my activities. However, it has already been created, so I don't know how to get to that creation screen again. How can I add a hierarchical parent after an activity has been created?

2 Answers

Evan Demaris
Evan Demaris
64,262 Points
Evan Demaris
Evan Demaris
64,262 Points

Hi Stephanie,

From Android Studio, choose Tools > Android Device Monitor or click the Android Device Monitor icon. Click the Open Perspectives icon, and select Hierarchy View.

Stephanie Fu
Stephanie Fu
1,939 Points
Stephanie Fu
Stephanie Fu
1,939 Points

There is just a black screen in the Hierarchy View window - what should I do after getting to Hierarchy View?

Evan Demaris
Evan Demaris
64,262 Points

Sorry, I misunderstood; to change the parent of a given activity, you'd go to AndroidManifest.xml and add the activity as follows;

<activity android:name="CHILD_ACTIVITY" >
    <meta-data
       android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
       android:value="PARENT_ACTIVITY_PATH" />
</activity>

Substitute PARENT_ACTIVITY_PATH with the name of your parent activity, adding also your package name (e.g. com.example.NameOfParentActivity).

Not to confuse the parent activity with the launch activity;

    <activity
        android:name="com.example.StartActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /><!-- This -->
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="com.example.MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
    </activity>

Where the category.LAUNCHER is determining the launch activity.

Hope that's more helpful!

Sean Wilson
Sean Wilson
3,791 Points
Sean Wilson
Sean Wilson
3,791 Points

Evan Demaris, is 'android:parentActivityName=".ParentActivityName" ' also required, or optional?

Evan Demaris
Evan Demaris
64,262 Points

Hi Sean,

This is the example from Android on providing 'up' navigation; it looks to be mandatory for Android 4.1+.

<application ... >
    ...
    <!-- The main/home activity (it has no parent activity) -->
    <activity
        android:name="com.example.myfirstapp.MainActivity" ...>
        ...
    </activity>
    <!-- A child of the main activity -->
    <activity
        android:name="com.example.myfirstapp.DisplayMessageActivity"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_display_message"
        android:parentActivityName="com.example.myfirstapp.MainActivity" >
        <!-- Parent activity meta-data to support 4.0 and lower -->
        <meta-data
            android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
            android:value="com.example.myfirstapp.MainActivity" />
    </activity>
</application>