Thanks to the above answers I was able to do exactly what I wanted, here's exactly what I did for anyone looking for this in the future:
My activity_main.xml looks like this:
<!--When the DrawerLayout is the root layout, the first child-->
<!--of that layout is the contents of the main screen, and the-->
<!--second child is the contents of the menu-->
<!--First child layout-->
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<include
layout="@layout/toolbar_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="@+id/content_frame"/>
</LinearLayout>
<!--Second child layout-->
<android.support.design.widget.NavigationView
android:id="@+id/navigation_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="start"
app:headerLayout="@layout/navigation_drawer_header"
app:menu="@menu/drawer_menu">
</android.support.design.widget.NavigationView>
This is the standard DrawerLayout which pulls together all the bits and pieces for the NavigationDrawer menu. The important addition to this is the FrameLayout... bit to which I gave the ID content_frame. This is where all the other layouts used by other activities will be pushed/added/inflated.
My BaseActivity.java looks like this:
package com.example.test;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.design.widget.NavigationView;
import android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarDrawerToggle;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.view.MenuItem;
public class BaseActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
DrawerLayout drawerLayout;
ActionBarDrawerToggle actionBarDrawerToggle;
Toolbar toolbar;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
NavigationView navigationView = (NavigationView) findViewById(R.id.navigation_view);
toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
drawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
actionBarDrawerToggle = new ActionBarDrawerToggle(this, drawerLayout, toolbar, R.string.drawer_open, R.string.drawer_closed);
drawerLayout.setDrawerListener(actionBarDrawerToggle);
navigationView.setNavigationItemSelectedListener(new NavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener() {
@Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.menu_home:
Intent anIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), TheClassYouWantToLoad.class);
startActivity(loadPlayer);
drawerLayout.closeDrawers();
break;
}
return false;
}
});
}
@Override
protected void onPostCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onPostCreate(savedInstanceState);
actionBarDrawerToggle.syncState();
}
}
Now, within the onNavigationItemSelected method, there is a switch statement that handles what happens when each menu item is selected. This is the important bit:
Intent anIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), TheClassYouWantToLoad.class);
startActivity(anIntent);
drawerLayout.closeDrawers();
You need to replace "TheClassYouWantToLoad" with your own class.
Now within this new class (which presumably requires some new UI elements to be loaded), you need the following:
public class TheClassYouWantToLoad extends BaseActivity {
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
FrameLayout contentFrameLayout = (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.content_frame); //Remember this is the FrameLayout area within your activity_main.xml
getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.the_layout_you_want_to_load, contentFrameLayout);
}
}
and replace "the_layout_you_want_to_load" with the name of the Layout you want to load.
