Navigation map interaction best practices

  • Prioritize using SupportNavigationFragment over NavigationView for simplified lifecycle management and error reduction.

  • When using NavigationView directly, ensure strict adherence to the Android lifecycle order when invoking its lifecycle methods to prevent issues like memory leaks and UI errors.

  • Invoke NavigationView lifecycle events exclusively from either the activity or the fragment to maintain order and avoid duplicate calls.

This page explains best practices for interacting with the Navigation map in your app.

Use SupportNavigationFragment instead of NavigationView, whenever possible

SupportNavigationFragment is a wrapper for the convenience of handling the NavigationView lifecycle callbacks, so you don't need to manage these callbacks themselves. This method is less error-prone and the preferred way to use Navigation in your app. When using SupportNavigationFragment, be sure not to invoke NavigationView lifecycle events.

If using NavigationView, use strict ordering when invoking lifecycle methods

NavigationView hosts the Navigation map and closely follows the lifecycle events as Android activities and fragments, taking specific actions when these lifecycle events are invoked. NavigationView executes multiple initializations on NavigationView#onCreate and NavigationView#onStart, and cleanups on NavigationView#onStop and NavigationView#onDestroy, as well as when other lifecycle events are processed.

NavigationView lifecycle methods have the same meaning as they do for Android activities or fragments. For example, onCreate() of NavigationView roughly translates to and should be invoked by lifecycle callbacks from the Android activity or fragment. Since the NavigationView lifecycle callbacks are based on and invoked in the same order as the Android lifecycle callbacks, strong ordering of these NavigationView methods is required. Otherwise, you may experience memory leaks, UI errors, location not being updated, and other issues.

For more information about the Android activity lifecycle, see the Activity-lifecycle concepts section in the Android developer documentation.

The following table shows when other lifecycle methods should be invoked, after specified lifecycle methods:

Lifecycle method Invoked where in the activity lifecycle Invoked after which lifecycle method
onConfigurationChanged() Invoked when the UI is in the foreground and the configuration changes. Always after onStart()
onTrimMemory() Invoked when an activity is in the background. Always after onPause()
onSaveInstance() Invoked before an activity is destroyed. Always after onStop()

Don't call these lifecycle methods multiple times without calling the corresponding closing method first. In addition, keep in mind that if some of these Android lifecycle callbacks are managed by the app itself, and the NavigationView is added to the fragment after creation or start, the app should call the specific methods themselves in proper order in order to correctly initialize the Navigation SDK.

For additional guidance on using these methods, see the Navigation SDK demo app.

If using NavigationView, invoke lifecycle events from the activity or fragment, not both

To keep the strict ordering of the lifecycle methods, invoke these events from either the activity or fragment lifecycle callbacks, which receive these events in order. This approach ensures that apps don't need to coordinate between fragments and activities and cause duplicate calls.