Add a guided step

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Your application might have multi-step tasks for users. For example, your app might need to guide users through purchasing additional content, setting up a complex configuration setting, or simply confirming a decision. All these tasks require walking users through one or more ordered steps or decisions.

The androidx.leanback library provides classes to implement multi-step user tasks. This page discusses how to use the GuidedStepSupportFragment class to guide a user through a series of decisions to accomplish a task. GuidedStepSupportFragment uses TV UI best practices to make multi-step tasks easy to understand and navigate on TV devices.

Provide details for a step

A GuidedStepSupportFragment represents a single step in a series of steps. Visually, it provides a guidance view with a list of possible actions or decisions for the step.

Figure 1. An example guided step.

For each step in your multi-step task, extend GuidedStepSupportFragment and provide context information about the step and actions the user can take. Override onCreateGuidance() and return a new GuidanceStylist.Guidance that contains context information, such as the step title, description, and icon, as shown in the following example:

override fun onCreateGuidance(savedInstanceState: Bundle?): GuidanceStylist.Guidance {
    return GuidanceStylist.Guidance(
            getString(R.string.guidedstep_first_title),
            getString(R.string.guidedstep_first_description),
            getString(R.string.guidedstep_first_breadcrumb),
            activity.getDrawable(R.drawable.guidedstep_main_icon_1)
    )
}

@Override
public GuidanceStylist.Guidance onCreateGuidance(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    String title = getString(R.string.guidedstep_first_title);
    String breadcrumb = getString(R.string.guidedstep_first_breadcrumb);
    String description = getString(R.string.guidedstep_first_description);
    Drawable icon = getActivity().getDrawable(R.drawable.guidedstep_main_icon_1);
    return new GuidanceStylist.Guidance(title, description, breadcrumb, icon);
}

Add your GuidedStepSupportFragment subclass to your desired activity by calling GuidedStepSupportFragment.add() in your activity’s onCreate() method.

If your activity contains only GuidedStepSupportFragment objects, use GuidedStepSupportFragment.addAsRoot() instead of add() to add the first GuidedStepSupportFragment. Using addAsRoot() helps ensure that if the user presses the Back button on the TV remote when viewing the first GuidedStepSupportFragment, both the GuidedStepSupportFragment and the parent activity close.

Note: Add GuidedStepSupportFragment objects programmatically, not in your layout XML files.

Create and handle user actions

Add user actions by overriding onCreateActions(). In your override, add a new GuidedAction for each action item and provide the action string, description, and ID. Use GuidedAction.Builder to add new actions.

override fun onCreateActions(actions: MutableList<GuidedAction>, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreateActions(actions, savedInstanceState)

    // Add "Continue" user action for this step
    actions.add(GuidedAction.Builder()
            .id(CONTINUE)
            .title(getString(R.string.guidedstep_continue))
            .description(getString(R.string.guidedstep_letsdoit))
            .hasNext(true)
            .build())
    ...

@Override
public void onCreateActions(List<GuidedAction> actions, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    // Add "Continue" user action for this step
    actions.add(new GuidedAction.Builder()
           .id(CONTINUE)
           .title(getString(R.string.guidedstep_continue))
           .description(getString(R.string.guidedstep_letsdoit))
           .hasNext(true)
           .build());
...

Actions aren't limited to single-line selections. Here are additional types of actions you can create:

• Add an information label action to provide additional information about user choices by setting infoOnly(true). When infoOnly is true, users can't select the action.
• Add an editable text action by setting editable(true). When editable is true, the user can enter text in a selected action using the remote or a connected keyboard. Override onGuidedActionEditedAndProceed() to get the modified text the user entered. You can also override onGuidedActionEditCanceled() to know when the user cancels input.
• Add a set of actions that behave like checkable radio buttons by using checkSetId() with a common ID value to group actions into a set. All actions in the same list with the same check-set ID are considered linked. When the user selects one of the actions within that set, that action becomes checked and all other actions become unchecked.
• Add a date-picker action by using GuidedDatePickerAction.Builder instead of GuidedAction.Builder in onCreateActions(). Override onGuidedActionEditedAndProceed() to get the modified date value the user entered.
• Add an action that uses subactions to let the user pick from an extended list of choices. Subactions are described in the Add subactions section.
• Add a button action that appears to the right of the actions list and is easily accessible. Button actions are described in the Add button actions section.

You can also add a visual indicator that selecting an action leads to a new step by setting hasNext(true).

For all the different attributes that you can set, see GuidedAction.

To respond to actions, override onGuidedActionClicked() and process the passed-in GuidedAction. Identify the selected action by examining GuidedAction.getId().

Add subactions

Some actions could require you to give the user an additional set of choices. A GuidedAction can specify a list of subactions that display as a menu of child actions.

Figure 2. Guided step subactions.

The subaction list can contain regular actions or radio button actions, but not date-picker or editable text actions. Also, a subaction can't have its own set of subactions, because the system doesn't support more than one level of subactions.

To add subactions, first create and populate a list of GuidedAction objects that act as subactions, as shown in the following example:

subActions.add(GuidedAction.Builder()
        .id(SUBACTION1)
        .title(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subaction1_title))
        .description(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subaction1_desc))
        .build())
...

List<GuidedAction> subActions = new ArrayList<GuidedAction>();
subActions.add(new GuidedAction.Builder()
       .id(SUBACTION1)
       .title(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subaction1_title))
       .description(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subaction1_desc))
       .build());
...

In onCreateActions(), create a top-level GuidedAction that displays the list of subactions when selected:

    ...
    actions.add(GuidedAction.Builder()
            .id(SUBACTIONS)
            .title(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subactions_title))
            .description(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subactions_desc))
            .subActions(subActions)
            .build())
    ...

@Override
public void onCreateActions(List<GuidedAction> actions, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
...
    actions.add(new GuidedAction.Builder()
           .id(SUBACTIONS)
           .title(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subactions_title))
           .description(getString(R.string.guidedstep_subactions_desc))
           .subActions(subActions)
           .build());
...
}

Finally, respond to subaction selections by overriding onSubGuidedActionClicked():

override fun onSubGuidedActionClicked(action: GuidedAction): Boolean {
    // Check for which action was clicked and handle as needed
    when(action.id) {
        SUBACTION1 -> {
            // Subaction 1 selected
        }
    }
    // Return true to collapse the subactions menu or
    // false to keep the menu expanded
    return true
}

@Override
public boolean onSubGuidedActionClicked(GuidedAction action) {
   // Check for which action was clicked and handle as needed
   if (action.getId() == SUBACTION1) {
       // Subaction 1 selected
   }
   // Return true to collapse the subactions menu or
   // false to keep the menu expanded
   return true;
}

Add button actions

If your guided step has a large list of actions, users might have to scroll through the list to access the most commonly used actions. Use button actions to separate commonly used actions from the action list. Button actions appear next to the action list and are easy to navigate to.

Figure 3. Guided step button actions.

Button actions are created and handled just like regular actions, but you create button actions in onCreateButtonActions() instead of onCreateActions(). Respond to button actions in onGuidedActionClicked().

Use button actions for simple actions, such as navigation actions between steps. Don't use the date-picker action or other editable actions as button actions. Also, button actions cannot have subactions.

Group guided steps into a guided sequence

A GuidedStepSupportFragment represents a single step. To create an ordered sequence of steps, group multiple GuidedStepSupportFragment objects together using GuidedStepSupportFragment.add() to add the next step in the sequence to the fragment stack.

override fun onGuidedActionClicked(action: GuidedAction) {
    val fm = fragmentManager
    when(action.id) {
        CONTINUE -> GuidedStepSupportFragment.add(fm, SecondStepFragment())
    }
}

@Override
public void onGuidedActionClicked(GuidedAction action) {
    FragmentManager fm = getFragmentManager();
    if (action.getId() == CONTINUE) {
       GuidedStepSupportFragment.add(fm, new SecondStepFragment());
    }
...

If the user presses the Back button on the TV remote, the device shows the previous GuidedStepSupportFragment on the fragment stack. If you provide your own GuidedAction that returns to the previous step, you can implement the Back behavior by calling getFragmentManager().popBackStack(). If you need to return the user to an even earlier step in the sequence, use popBackStackToGuidedStepSupportFragment() to return to a specific GuidedStepSupportFragment in the fragment stack.

When the user finishes the last step in the sequence, use finishGuidedStepSupportFragments() to remove all GuidedStepSupportFragment instances from the current stack and return to the original parent activity. If the first GuidedStepSupportFragment is added using addAsRoot(), calling finishGuidedStepSupportFragments() also closes the parent activity.

Customize step presentation

The GuidedStepSupportFragment class can use custom themes that control presentation aspects such as title text formatting or step transition animations. Custom themes must inherit from Theme_Leanback_GuidedStep and can provide overriding values for attributes defined in GuidanceStylist and GuidedActionsStylist.

To apply a custom theme to your GuidedStepSupportFragment, do one of the following:

• Apply the theme to the parent activity by setting the android:theme attribute to the activity element in the Android manifest. Setting this attribute applies the theme to all child views and is the most straightforward way to apply a custom theme if the parent activity contains only GuidedStepSupportFragment objects.
• If your activity already uses a custom theme and you don’t want to apply GuidedStepSupportFragment styles to other views in the activity, add the LeanbackGuidedStepTheme_guidedStepTheme attribute to your existing custom activity theme. This attribute points to the custom theme that only the GuidedStepSupportFragment objects in your activity use.
• If you use GuidedStepSupportFragment objects in different activities that are part of the same overall multi-step task and want to use a consistent visual theme across all steps, override GuidedStepSupportFragment.onProvideTheme() and return your custom theme.

For more information on how to add styles and themes, see Styles and Themes.

The GuidedStepSupportFragment class uses special stylist classes to access and apply theme attributes. The GuidanceStylist class uses theme information to control presentation of the left guidance view, while the GuidedActionsStylist class uses theme information to control presentation of the right actions view.

To customize the visual style of your steps beyond what theme customization provides, subclass GuidanceStylist or GuidedActionsStylist and return your subclass in GuidedStepSupportFragment.onCreateGuidanceStylist() or GuidedStepSupportFragment.onCreateActionsStylist(). For details on what you can customize in these subclasses, see the documentation on GuidanceStylist and GuidedActionsStylist.