New Activity in Android “enter from the side”

Question

What's the best way to go to a new activity but make it look like the activity slides to the left and the new activity enters the screen? I am using intents to call the new activity, is that the way to do it if I want the application to be lightweight?

To explain a bit better: on my Android phone I can swipe the view with the home meny to the right and then enters a friend stream from the left and takes place on the screen. I want to do it in my app with buttonclicks, it's the "sliding" i am after. THanks!

Answer 1

In android OS 2.1 or later I think you can use the OverridePendingTransition() method to provide the kind of transition between activities animations you are looking for.

Firstly, define a couple of animation resources in /res/anim/. Here is one that is named right_slide_out.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_decelerate_interpolator">
    <translate
        android:fromXDelta="0"
        android:toXDelta="100%p"
        android:duration="500"
    />
</set>

An another called right_slide_in.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_decelerate_interpolator">
    <translate
        android:fromXDelta="100%p"
        android:toXDelta="0"
        android:duration="700"
    />
</set>

Then, when you are starting the new activity, use the OverridePendingTransition method as in:

startActivity(intent);
overridePendingTransition  (R.anim.right_slide_in, R.anim.right_slide_out);

That should handle the transition animations for starting the activity.

For the reverse, when that activity finishes and youre coming back to the original one, it's a bit more foggy.

If you have some UI control that ends that activity and calls Activity.finish(), then you can just add the overridePendingTransition() right after that.

To handle the case where the user ends the activity by pressing the back button, use something like the following:

@Override
public void onBackPressed() 
{

    this.finish();
    overridePendingTransition  (R.anim.right_slide_in, R.anim.right_slide_out);
}

Answer 2

You could use a left_slide_out.xml (just change the toXDelta in Josh's right_slide_out.xml to read -100%p), to make the old activity disappear to the left (and also have the same duration on both of the animations).

Answer 3

Yes, using intents is the standard way to start another activity, and usually does the sliding thing you mention. e.g. startActivity( new Intent( this, myNextActivity.class ) ); will do it.

Answer 4

Jems is correct. By default, you will get a sliding animation when launching a new intent.

If you are looking for a more custom animation, you can use overridePendingTransition. Keep in mind it was added in API Level 5. See this API demo for sample usage.

Answer 5

There is a bit of a confusion as to what the enter and exit animations are. For those who are still pondering over it, here is a template..

overridePendingTransition(
    enterAnimationForCalledActivity, 
    exitAnimationForCallingActivity
);

This should probably clear the air a bit.