Using Butterknife with BaseActivity/Child Activities and MaterialDrawer

Question

I'm facing issues implementing MaterialDrawer (library MikePenz) using Multiple Activities ( not using fragments) which is implemented with a BaseActivity. Also, using ButterKnife to bind the views.

Found related issues here in SO and tried it out one by one , but in my case it was not working since most of them using standard Navigation Drawer with Fragments or they are not related with ButterKnife.

Code :

MainActivity class

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @BindView(R.id.toolbar)
    Toolbar toolbar;

    private List<TestModel> destinations;
    private DestinationAdapter mAdapter;
    ProgressDialog progressDialog;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        ButterKnife.bind(this);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
        navManagement();
    }
}

activity_main layout

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/maincontainer"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="com.tvs.ui.MainActivity">

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:id="@+id/appbar"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        >

        <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
            app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay"
             />

    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

StoreActivity

public class StoresActivity extends MainActivity {

    @BindView(R.id.searchEditText)
    EditText mSearchEditText; // errorRequired view 'searchEditText' with ID 2131558557 for field 'mSearchEditText' was not found
    @BindView(R.id.storesRecyclerView)
    RecyclerView recyclerView; // here too

    private List<TestModel> stores;
    private StoreAdapter mAdapter;

    //endregion
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_stores);
        ButterKnife.bind(this);

        loadRecyclerView();
        testData();

    }
    }

activity_store layout

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/searchEditText"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        />

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/storesRecyclerView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        android:scrollbars="vertical">

    </android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

I understand that cause of error is that the ButterKnife.Bind in MainActivity is called when the Layout is inflated but the Views are not inflated in the inherited Activities . The Navigation drawer loads but on clicking item it fails as obvious reason. I cannot use a FrameLayout since I'm using MaterialDrawer library which doesn't ( or I'm not aware) have views to inflate.

I tried several methods extensively searching SO like SO1SO2 Git Git2 Link but was not successful .

Appreciate any help are deeply appreciated . Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Thanks @mikepenz for the response.

Posting it since it might help somebody

The issue was fixed by creating an abstract method in BaseActivity

@Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(getLayoutResourceId());

        ButterKnife.bind(this); 
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
        navManagement();

    }
    protected abstract int getLayoutResourceId();

Concrete Activity

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    //setContentView(R.layout.activity_stores); not required
    ButterKnife.bind(this); 

    loadRecyclerView();
    testData();

}

@Override
protected int getLayoutResourceId() {
    return R.layout.activity_stores;
}

Please note that I was not using ButterKnife.Bind in the Concrete Activity and used @Nullable fields. But currently Binding in both Base and Implementing Activities.