Pro Android 4

What Is a Fragment?

This first section will explain what a fragment is and what it does. But first, let’s set the stage to see why we need fragments. As you learned earlier, an Android application on small-screen devices uses activities to show data and functionality to a user, and each activity has a fairly simple, well-defined purpose. For example, an activity might show the user a list of contacts from their address book. Another activity might allow the user to type an e-mail. The Android application is the series of these activities grouped together to achieve a larger purpose, such as managing an e-mail account via the reading and sending of messages. This is fine for a small-screen device, but when the user’s screen is very large (10 inches ...