android - Calling Google Play Game Services from a fragment

Question

I have implemented some Google Play Game Services features in my Android app as a separate Activity and I am now trying to rewrite my code as an (Action Bar Sherlock) fragment. I am using the supplied GameHelper code in my fragment.

An auto sign in works correctly. A user initiated sign in fails because the StartResolutionForResult call in GameHelper returns to the Activity's onActivityResult rather than to the fragment. I have verified all this by using Log.D . My understanding of this is limited - what should I do to fix this ? I have tried passing a different context but the StartResolutionForResult seems to only accept an Activity as its context.

Answer 1

The Google Play game services API should be tied to an Activity's lifecycle, not a Fragment's lifecycle. If your game logic is in a Fragment, you can implement onActivityResult on the Activity and call your Fragment from there. Take a look at our Type A Number Challenge sample, which, apart from being a highly exciting and addictive game</sarcasm>, demonstrates how to deal with Fragments. Each screen in Type A Number is a fragment, and they communicate with the Activity as needed.

In this particular case, all the interaction with the games API is made by the Activity. However, you could just as well make the Activity hand the GamesClient object to the Fragment so that it could implement its own logic.

In all cases, remember not to keep a persistent reference to GamesClient in the Fragment for longer than you need. It's probably best to query it from the Activity (via an interface, for instance) whenever you need it. This is to prevent it from leaking during the Activity's lifecycle.