How to properly remove retained instance Fragment

Question

Currently, I would like to retain an expensive data structure, during configuration changes. I choose not to use Bundle to handle it, as the expensive data structure is not parcelable.

Hence, I use a non-UI Fragment (Called it RetainInstanceFragment), with its setRetainInstance(true) to hold the data structure.

public class RetainInstanceFragment extends Fragment {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Creating expensive data structure
        expensiveDataStructure = CreateExpensiveDataStructure();

        // Tell the framework to try to keep this fragment around
        // during a configuration change.
        setRetainInstance(true);
    }

    public ExpensiveDataStructure expensiveDataStructure = null;
}

An UI Fragment (Called it UIFragment) will get the expensive data structure from RetainInstanceFragment. Whenever there is configuration changes on UIFragment, UIFragment will always try to get the "cached" RetainInstanceFragment from FragmentManager, before it decides to create a new RetainInstanceFragment.

Example code is as follow.

public class UIFragment extends SherlockListFragment
    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);

        FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();

        // Check to see if we have retained the worker fragment.
        retainInstanceFragment = (RetainInstanceFragment)fm.findFragmentByTag("data");

        // If not retained (or first time running), we need to create it.
        if (retainInstanceFragment == null) {
            retainInstanceFragment = new RetainInstanceFragment();
            fm.beginTransaction().add(watchlistArrayFragment, "data").commit();
        } else {
            // We can re-use retainInstanceFragment.expensiveDataStructure even
            // after configuration change.
        }
    }
}

However, there's a problem. Whenever I destroy my old UIFragment, and replace it with new UIFragment, I expect old RetainInstanceFragment will be destroyed as well. Here is how I destroy and create new UIFragment

public class MyFragmentActivity extends SlidingFragmentActivity    
    // Being triggered when there is different menu item in sliding menu being
    // selected.
    public void selectActiveContent(Country country) {
        Fragment fragment = new UIFragment(country);
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content, fragment).commitAllowingStateLoss();
    }

But old RetainInstanceFragment is never destroyed.

My guess is, perhaps I forget to perform clean up in UIFragment. Hence, I add the following code

UIFragment

@Override
public void onDetach() {
    super.onDetach();
    // To differentiate whether this is a configuration changes, or we are
    // removing away this fragment?
    if (this.isRemoving()) {
        FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
        fm.beginTransaction().remove(retainInstanceFragment).commit();
    }
}

However, it doesn't work all the time. I perform several sliding menu clicks.

1. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment and new RetainInstanceFragment
2. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment, but re-use previous RetainInstanceFragment. (Wrong behavior)
3. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment, and new RetainInstanceFragment.
4. selectActiveContent() -> Create new UIFragment, but re-use previous RetainInstanceFragment. (Wrong behavior)

Any idea how I can properly remove retained instance Fragment?

Answer 1

As suggested by @Luksprog, the following method works. However, it still do not explain why the previous cleanup done through onDetach doesn't work. If anyone can explain why this solution works and previous doesn't, I would be very thankful. :)

UIFragment

@Override
public void onDetach() {
    super.onDetach();
}

public void cleanupRetainInstanceFragment() {
    FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
    fm.beginTransaction().remove(this.retainInstanceFragment).commit();
}

MyFragmentActivity

public class MyFragmentActivity extends SlidingFragmentActivity    
    // Being triggered when there is different menu item in sliding menu being
    // selected.
    public void selectActiveContent(Country country) {

        // *******************************************
        // Solution suggested by @Luksprog. It works!
        // But I have no idea why it works and previous doesn't work...
        // *******************************************
        Fragment oldFragment = getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.content);
        if (oldFragment instanceof UIFragment) {
            ((UIFragment)oldFragment).cleanupRetainInstanceFragment();
        }

        Fragment fragment = new UIFragment(country);
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content, fragment).commitAllowingStateLoss();
    }

---

(Edited) Useful comment by @Luksprog

The fragment transactions are not made right away. My assumption was that doing that transaction in the onDetach() callback will not remove the retain fragment instance before the UI fragment's replace transaction finished and so your new UI fragment will still see the retain fragment instance still available, so it will not create a new one. Your previous method is not in the spirit of the fragments framework where fragments are unaware of other fragments and the activity manages all of them as it knows more about the overall application state.

Answer 2

I think you can just remove the fragment from fragment transaction.

            if (mWorkFragment != null) {
              fm.beginTransaction().remove(mWorkFragment).commitAllowingStateLoss();
            }