Navigation Component: Cannot find NavController

Question

I am using Navigation Component for navigating in my app. It works fine inside fragments but it fails to find the nav host in the activity that holds the actual navigation host.

I am trying to open a new fragment when the user clicks on FAB, which I included in Main activity's XML. When I call findNavController() it fails to find the controller. The nav host controller is in the XML layout. I can't understand why it fails to find it.

MainActivity

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity(), OnActivityComponentRequest {
    override fun getTabLayout(): TabLayout {
        return this.tabLayout
    }

    override fun getFap(): FloatingActionButton {
        return this.floatingActionButton
    }

    private lateinit var tabLayout: TabLayout
    private lateinit var floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar)
        this.tabLayout = tabs
        this.floatingActionButton = fab

        fab.setOnClickListener {

         it.findNavController().navigate(R.id.addNewWorkoutFragment)

        }
    }
}

Activity main XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout
        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:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context=".domain.MainActivity"
        android:animateLayoutChanges="true">

    <com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">

        <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
                android:id="@+id/toolbar"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
                android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
                app:layout_scrollFlags="scroll|enterAlways"
                app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay"/>

        <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout
                android:id="@+id/tabs"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                    android:text="Test 1"
                    android:layout_height="match_parent"
                    android:layout_width="match_parent"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                    android:text="Test 2"
                    android:layout_height="match_parent"
                    android:layout_width="match_parent"/>
        </com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout>

    </com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout>

      <fragment
        android:id="@+id/nav_host_fragment"
        android:name="androidx.navigation.fragment.NavHostFragment"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        app:defaultNavHost="true"
        app:navGraph="@navigation/main_navigation" />


    <com.google.android.material.bottomappbar.BottomAppBar
            android:id="@+id/bar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="bottom"/>


    <com.google.android.material.floatingactionbutton.FloatingActionButton
            android:id="@+id/fab"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            app:layout_anchorGravity="right|top"
            app:layout_anchor="@+id/bar"
            android:src="@drawable/ic_add_black_24dp"/>

</androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

Answer 1

Try setting up onClickListener of Fab button in onStart of the Activity as in onCreate Activity is just inflating the View and haven't set the NavHostController. So if you setup onClickListener in onStart of activity is will work as expected.

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
    setSupportActionBar(toolbar)
    this.tabLayout = tabs
    this.floatingActionButton = fab
  }

override fun onStart() {
    super.onStart()
    floatingActionButton.setOnClickListener {
      it.findNavController().navigate(R.id.addNewWorkoutFragment)
    }
  }