Android Navigation Drawer Example Tutorial

In this tutorial we’ll implement a Navigation Drawer in our android application. Android navigation drawer is a sliding menu and it’s an important UI component. You will see navigation drawer in most of the android applications, it’s like navigation menu bars in the websites.

Android Navigation Drawer

Android Navigation Drawer is a sliding left menu that is used to display the important links in the application. Navigation drawer makes it easy to navigate to and fro between those links. It’s not visible by default and it needs to opened either by sliding from left or clicking its icon in the ActionBar.

In broader terms, Navigation Drawer is an overlay panel, which is a replacement of an activity screen which was specifically dedicated to show all the options and links in the application.

In this android navigation drawer tutorial we’ll implement the navigation drawer using the Drawer Layout API present in Android Support Library. We’ll show 3 fragment views that can be opened from the drawer items.

Android Navigation Drawer Project Structure

Android Navigation Drawer Example

To implement the Navigation Drawer we first need to add android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout as the root of the activity layout as shown below.

activity_main.xml

<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout 
    xmlns:android="https://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >


    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/container_toolbar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <include
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            layout="@layout/toolbar" />
    </LinearLayout>


    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/content_frame"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />

    </LinearLayout>

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/left_drawer"
        android:layout_width="240dp"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_gravity="start"
        android:background="#FFFFFF"
        android:choiceMode="singleChoice"
        android:divider="@android:color/darker_gray"
        android:dividerHeight="1dp" />

</android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>

The menu options in the navigation drawer are stored in the form of a ListView. Each option opens in the FrameLayout.

We’ve used a ToolBar in place of an ActionBar here. ToolBar has been introduced since Android 5.0 as a generalisation of ActionBar. It gives us more control and flexibility to modify and its easier to interleave with other views in the hierarchy.

The layout ToolBar is defined in the xml layout given below.

toolbar.xml

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar xmlns:android="https://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:local="https://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/toolbar"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
    android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
    local:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"
    local:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" />

We need to use the Theme Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar in the styles.xml when using Toolbars.

The layout for the ListView rows in the Navigation Drawer is given below.

list_view_item_row.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="https://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="?android:attr/activatedBackgroundIndicator"
    android:minHeight="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeightSmall"
    android:padding="10dp" >

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imageViewIcon"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:paddingRight="10dp" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textViewName"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/imageViewIcon"
        android:paddingRight="10dp"
        android:text="Item Name"
        android:textColor="@android:color/black"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceListItemSmall"
        />

</RelativeLayout>

The navigation drawer items are put in a string array in the strings.xml file as shown below.

strings.xml

<string-array name="navigation_drawer_items_array">
        <item>Connect</item>
        <item>Fixtures</item>
        <item>Table</item>
    </string-array>

The DataModel.java class is used to define the objects for the drawer list items.

DataModel.java

package com.journaldev.navigationdrawer;

public class DataModel {

    public int icon;
    public String name;

    // Constructor.
    public DataModel(int icon, String name) {

        this.icon = icon;
        this.name = name;
    }
}

The drawer items are stored in the form of a ListView. Hence we need to use an Adapter Class to provide that data to the activity class.

DrawerItemCustomAdapter.java

package com.journaldev.navigationdrawer;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class DrawerItemCustomAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<DataModel> {

    Context mContext;
    int layoutResourceId;
    DataModel data[] = null;

    public DrawerItemCustomAdapter(Context mContext, int layoutResourceId, DataModel[] data) {

        super(mContext, layoutResourceId, data);
        this.layoutResourceId = layoutResourceId;
        this.mContext = mContext;
        this.data = data;
    }

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        View listItem = convertView;

        LayoutInflater inflater = ((Activity) mContext).getLayoutInflater();
        listItem = inflater.inflate(layoutResourceId, parent, false);

        ImageView imageViewIcon = (ImageView) listItem.findViewById(R.id.imageViewIcon);
        TextView textViewName = (TextView) listItem.findViewById(R.id.textViewName);

        DataModel folder = data[position];


        imageViewIcon.setImageResource(folder.icon);
        textViewName.setText(folder.name);

        return listItem;
    }
}

The MainActivity.java source code is given below.

MainActivity.java

package com.journaldev.navigationdrawer;

import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager;
import android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.ListView;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private String[] mNavigationDrawerItemTitles;
    private DrawerLayout mDrawerLayout;
    private ListView mDrawerList;
    Toolbar toolbar;
    private CharSequence mDrawerTitle;
    private CharSequence mTitle;
    android.support.v7.app.ActionBarDrawerToggle mDrawerToggle;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        mTitle = mDrawerTitle = getTitle();
        mNavigationDrawerItemTitles= getResources().getStringArray(R.array.navigation_drawer_items_array);
        mDrawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
        mDrawerList = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.left_drawer);

        setupToolbar();

        DataModel[] drawerItem = new DataModel[3];

        drawerItem[0] = new DataModel(R.drawable.connect, "Connect");
        drawerItem[1] = new DataModel(R.drawable.fixtures, "Fixtures");
        drawerItem[2] = new DataModel(R.drawable.table, "Table");
        getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false);
        getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);

        DrawerItemCustomAdapter adapter = new DrawerItemCustomAdapter(this, R.layout.list_view_item_row, drawerItem);
        mDrawerList.setAdapter(adapter);
        mDrawerList.setOnItemClickListener(new DrawerItemClickListener());
        mDrawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
        mDrawerLayout.setDrawerListener(mDrawerToggle);
        setupDrawerToggle();

    }

    private class DrawerItemClickListener implements ListView.OnItemClickListener {

        @Override
        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
            selectItem(position);
        }

    }

    private void selectItem(int position) {

        Fragment fragment = null;

        switch (position) {
            case 0:
                fragment = new ConnectFragment();
                break;
            case 1:
                fragment = new FixturesFragment();
                break;
            case 2:
                fragment = new TableFragment();
                break;

            default:
                break;
        }

        if (fragment != null) {
            FragmentManager fragmentManager = getSupportFragmentManager();
            fragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame, fragment).commit();

            mDrawerList.setItemChecked(position, true);
            mDrawerList.setSelection(position);
            setTitle(mNavigationDrawerItemTitles[position]);
            mDrawerLayout.closeDrawer(mDrawerList);

        } else {
            Log.e("MainActivity", "Error in creating fragment");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

        if (mDrawerToggle.onOptionsItemSelected(item)) {
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    @Override
    public void setTitle(CharSequence title) {
        mTitle = title;
        getSupportActionBar().setTitle(mTitle);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onPostCreate(savedInstanceState);
        mDrawerToggle.syncState();
    }

    void setupToolbar(){
        toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
        getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);
    }

    void setupDrawerToggle(){
        mDrawerToggle = new android.support.v7.app.ActionBarDrawerToggle(this,mDrawerLayout,toolbar,R.string.app_name, R.string.app_name);
        //This is necessary to change the icon of the Drawer Toggle upon state change.
        mDrawerToggle.syncState();
    }
}

In the above code getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false); is used to hide the default back button.

In this code we’ve used a DrawerItemClickListener Class that loads the respective fragment of the list item clicked using a FragmentManager. Also the the title of the ToolBar is changed to the list item clicked using setTitle(mNavigationDrawerItemTitles[position]);.

The fragment classes and their respective layouts are given below.

ConnectFragment.java

package com.journaldev.navigationdrawer;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;

public class ConnectFragment extends Fragment {

    public ConnectFragment() {
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_connect, container, false);

        return rootView;
    }

}

The layout of the above fragment is defined below.

fragment_connect.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="https://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="https://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">


    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/label"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_marginTop="100dp"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:textSize="45dp"
        android:text="Connect"
        android:textStyle="bold"/>

    <TextView
        android:layout_below="@id/label"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="12dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:text="Edit fragment_connect.xml to change the appearance"
        android:id="@+id/textView2" />

</RelativeLayout>

The other two items are defined in exactly the same way as above hence we’re skipping it here.

Navigation Drawer Android Example Output

Below is the output produced by our navigation drawer android example application.

This brings an end to android navigation drawer example tutorial. You can download the final Android Navigation Drawer Project from the below link.