Bug Running Android Tutorial HelloTabWidget under SDK 1.5: "setCurrentTag(getIntent())"

Question

does not compile. Indeed: even in 1.5, this api, getIntent(), is already listed as deprecated.

The error message I get complains that getIntent() does not return a String, but setCurrentTab() expects a string.

If I guess and change the line to read:

"tabHost.setCurrentTab(1); // was setCurrentTab(getIntent())",

then it compiles, builds, but does not run. I get the "stopped unexpectedly" error message from the emulator. I cannot even get Log.d to output, so it seems that it stops 'unexpectedly' very early.

So the first and main question is: what is the correct fix to "tabHost.setCurrentTab(getIntent())" in the final line of OnCreate() in http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-tabwidget.html?

The second and simpler question is: did I guess right in replacing 'mTabHost' with tabHost in the one place where that occurs?

Answer 1

At the Informal Android Meetup, I was able to confirm that my first guess was in the ballpark: the line as printed in the tutorial really is wrong, it should be replaced with something like, "tabHost.setCurrentTab(0); // was setCurrentTab(getIntent())".

There was one other major omission I had to fix before I could get the HelloTabWidget Tutorial to run: Albums|Artists|SongsActivity all had to be added to the manifest, manifest.xml. Somehow, the tutorial instructions managed to omit mention of this requirement.

Answer 2

Here's the problems and fixes for that particular tutorial:

Step 2: When creating your activities, if you do not create them through the manifest then you'll need to add them to the manifest manually.

Add these lines to AndroidManifest.xml:

  <activity android:name=".AlbumsActivity"
                  android:label="@string/app_name"
                  android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
        </activity>
  <activity android:name=".ArtistsActivity"
                  android:label="@string/app_name"
                  android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
        </activity>
          <activity android:name=".SongsActivity"
                  android:label="@string/app_name"
                  android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
        </activity>

Step 3: You are only instructed to create the ic_tab_artists.xml file. You'll need to create one for ic_tab_songs.xml and ic_tab_albums.xml as well. You can just duplicate the ic_tab_artists.xml (or change the HelloTabView.java tab specs to use the artists.xml file for each tab).

Step 4: The third to last line under /res/layout/main has a typo (a ; instead of a :)

      android:padding="5dp" />
    </LinearLayout>
</TabHost>

Step 6: There is a typo that uses calls mTabHost instead of tabHost. Change it.

As already cited the getIntent() function on the last line isn't appropriate. I just call the tab based on it's id. eg:

 tabHost.setCurrentTabByTag("albums");

Answer 3

@Ted, thank you very much for your help!

Actually, I found out that the line:

tabHost.setCurrentTabByTag("albums");

can be omitted because you set up the label in the spec using the setIndicator() method.

spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("albums").setIndicator("Albums",
                   res.getDrawable(R.drawable.ic_tab_albums)).setContent(intent);