Connect UI components to NavController using NavigationUI

The Navigation component includes a NavigationUI class. This class contains static methods that manage navigation with the top app bar, the navigation drawer, and bottom navigation.

Top app bar

The top app bar provides a consistent place along the top of your app for displaying information and actions from the current screen.

screen displaying a top app bar
Figure 1. A screen displaying a top app bar.

NavigationUI contains methods that automatically update content in your top app bar as users navigate through your app. For example, NavigationUI uses the destination labels from your navigation graph to keep the title of the top app bar up-to-date.

<navigation>
    <fragment ...
              android:label="Page title">
      ...
    </fragment>
</navigation>

When using NavigationUI with the top app bar implementations discussed below, the label you attach to destinations can be automatically populated from the arguments provided to the destination by using the format of {argName} in your label.

NavigationUI provides support for the following top app bar types:

For more information on app bars, see Set up the app bar.

AppBarConfiguration

NavigationUI uses an AppBarConfiguration object to manage the behavior of the Navigation button in the upper-left corner of your app's display area. The Navigation button’s behavior changes depending on whether the user is at a top-level destination.

A top-level destination is the root, or highest level destination, in a set of hierarchically-related destinations. Top-level destinations do not display an Up button in the top app bar because there is no higher level destination. By default, the start destination of your app is the only top-level destination.

When the user is at a top-level destination, the Navigation button becomes a drawer icon if the destination uses a DrawerLayout. If the destination doesn't use a DrawerLayout, the Navigation button is hidden. When the user is on any other destination, the Navigation button appears as an Up button . To configure the Navigation button using only the start destination as the top-level destination, create an AppBarConfiguration object, and pass in the corresponding navigation graph, as shown below:

Kotlin

val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(navController.graph)

Java

AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration =
        new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(navController.getGraph()).build();

In some cases, you might need to define multiple top-level destinations instead of using the default start destination. Using a BottomNavigationView is a common use case for this, where you may have sibling screens that are not hierarchically related to each other and may each have their own set of related destinations. For cases like these, you can instead pass a set of destination IDs to the constructor, as shown below:

Kotlin

val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(setOf(R.id.main, R.id.profile))

Java

AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration =
        new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(R.id.main, R.id.profile).build();

Create a Toolbar

To create a Toolbar with NavigationUI, first define the bar in your main activity, as shown:

<LinearLayout>
    <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar" />
    <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
        android:id="@+id/nav_host_fragment"
        ... />
    ...
</LinearLayout>

Next, call setupWithNavController() from your main activity's onCreate() method, as shown in the following example:

Kotlin

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    ...

    val navController = findNavController(R.id.nav_host_fragment)
    val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(navController.graph)
    findViewById<Toolbar>(R.id.toolbar)
        .setupWithNavController(navController, appBarConfiguration)
}

Java

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    ...

    NavController navController = Navigation.findNavController(this, R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration =
            new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(navController.getGraph()).build();
    Toolbar toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
    NavigationUI.setupWithNavController(
            toolbar, navController, appBarConfiguration);
}

To configure the Navigation button to appear as an Up button for all destinations, pass an empty set of destination IDs for your top-level destinations when building your AppBarConfiguration. This can be useful if, for example, you have a second activity that should display an Up button in the Toolbar on all destinations. This allows the user to navigate back to the parent activity when there are no other destinations on the back stack. You can use setFallbackOnNavigateUpListener() to control the fallback behavior for when navigateUp() would otherwise do nothing, as shown in the following example:

Kotlin

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    ...

    val navHostFragment =
        supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment) as NavHostFragment
    val navController = navHostFragment.navController
    val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(
        topLevelDestinationIds = setOf(),
        fallbackOnNavigateUpListener = ::onSupportNavigateUp
    )
    findViewById<Toolbar>(R.id.toolbar)
        .setupWithNavController(navController, appBarConfiguration)
}

Java

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    ...

    NavHostFragment navHostFragment = (NavHostFragment) supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    NavController navController = navHostFragment.getNavController();
    AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration = new AppBarConfiguration.Builder()
        .setFallbackOnNavigateUpListener(::onSupportNavigateUp)
        .build();
    Toolbar toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
    NavigationUI.setupWithNavController(
            toolbar, navController, appBarConfiguration);
}

Include CollapsingToolbarLayout

To include a CollapsingToolbarLayout with your Toolbar, first define the Toolbar and surrounding layout in your activity, as shown below:

<LinearLayout>
    <com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="@dimen/tall_toolbar_height">

        <com.google.android.material.appbar.CollapsingToolbarLayout
            android:id="@+id/collapsing_toolbar_layout"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            app:contentScrim="?attr/colorPrimary"
            app:expandedTitleGravity="top"
            app:layout_scrollFlags="scroll|exitUntilCollapsed|snap">

            <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
                android:id="@+id/toolbar"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
                app:layout_collapseMode="pin"/>
        </com.google.android.material.appbar.CollapsingToolbarLayout>
    </com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout>

    <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
        android:id="@+id/nav_host_fragment"
        ... />
    ...
</LinearLayout>

Next, call setupWithNavController() from your main activity's onCreate method, as shown below:

Kotlin

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    ...

    val layout = findViewById<CollapsingToolbarLayout>(R.id.collapsing_toolbar_layout)
    val toolbar = findViewById<Toolbar>(R.id.toolbar)
    val navHostFragment =
        supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment) as NavHostFragment
    val navController = navHostFragment.navController
    val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(navController.graph)
    layout.setupWithNavController(toolbar, navController, appBarConfiguration)
}

Java

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    ...

    CollapsingToolbarLayout layout = findViewById(R.id.collapsing_toolbar_layout);
    Toolbar toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
    NavHostFragment navHostFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    NavController navController = navHostFragment.getNavController();
    AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration =
            new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(navController.getGraph()).build();
    NavigationUI.setupWithNavController(layout, toolbar, navController, appBarConfiguration);
}

Action bar

To add navigation support to the default action bar, call setupActionBarWithNavController() from your main activity's onCreate() method, as shown below. Note that you need to declare your AppBarConfiguration outside of onCreate(), since you also use it when overriding onSupportNavigateUp():

Kotlin

private lateinit var appBarConfiguration: AppBarConfiguration

...

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    ...

    val navHostFragment =
        supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment) as NavHostFragment
    val navController = navHostFragment.navController
    appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(navController.graph)
    setupActionBarWithNavController(navController, appBarConfiguration)
}

Java

AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration;

...

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    ...

    NavHostFragment navHostFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    NavController navController = navHostFragment.getNavController();
    appBarConfiguration = new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(navController.getGraph()).build();
    NavigationUI.setupActionBarWithNavController(this, navController, appBarConfiguration);
}

Next, override onSupportNavigateUp() to handle Up navigation:

Kotlin

override fun onSupportNavigateUp(): Boolean {
    val navController = findNavController(R.id.nav_host_fragment)
    return navController.navigateUp(appBarConfiguration)
            || super.onSupportNavigateUp()
}

Java

@Override
public boolean onSupportNavigateUp() {
    NavController navController = Navigation.findNavController(this, R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    return NavigationUI.navigateUp(navController, appBarConfiguration)
            || super.onSupportNavigateUp();
}

Support app bar variations

Adding the top app bar to your activity works well when the app bar’s layout is similar for each destination in your app. If, however, your top app bar changes substantially across destinations, then consider removing the top app bar from your activity and defining it in each destination fragment, instead.

As an example, one of your destinations may use a standard Toolbar, while another uses an AppBarLayout to create a more complex app bar with tabs, as shown in figure 2.

two top app bar variations; a standard toolbar on the left, and an appbarlayout with a toolbar and tabs on the right
Figure 2. Two app bar variations. On the left, a standard Toolbar. On the right, an AppBarLayout with a Toolbar and tabs.

To implement this example within your destination fragments using NavigationUI, first define the app bar in each of your fragment layouts, beginning with the destination fragment that uses a standard toolbar:

<LinearLayout>
    <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        ... />
    ...
</LinearLayout>

Next, define the destination fragment that uses an app bar with tabs:

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

        <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            ... />

        <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout
            ... />

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

The navigation configuration logic is the same for both of these fragments, except that you should call setupWithNavController() from within each fragment's onViewCreated() method, instead of initializing them from the activity:

Kotlin

override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    val navController = findNavController()
    val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(navController.graph)

    view.findViewById<Toolbar>(R.id.toolbar)
            .setupWithNavController(navController, appBarConfiguration)
}

Java

@Override
public void onViewCreated(@NonNull View view,
                          @Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    NavController navController = Navigation.findNavController(view);
    AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration =
            new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(navController.getGraph()).build();
    Toolbar toolbar = view.findViewById(R.id.toolbar);

    NavigationUI.setupWithNavController(
            toolbar, navController, appBarConfiguration);
}

Tie destinations to menu items

NavigationUI also provides helpers for tying destinations to menu-driven UI components. NavigationUI contains a helper method, onNavDestinationSelected(), which takes a MenuItem along with the NavController that hosts the associated destination. If the id of the MenuItem matches the id of the destination, the NavController can then navigate to that destination.

As an example, the XML snippets below define a menu item and a destination with a common id, details_page_fragment:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<navigation xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    ... >

    ...

    <fragment android:id="@+id/details_page_fragment"
         android:label="@string/details"
         android:name="com.example.android.myapp.DetailsFragment" />
</navigation>
 
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    ...

    <item
        android:id="@+id/details_page_fragment"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_details"
        android:title="@string/details" />
</menu>

If your menu was added via the Activity's onCreateOptionsMenu(), for example, you can associate the menu items with destinations by overriding the Activity's onOptionsItemSelected() to call onNavDestinationSelected(), as shown in the following example:

Kotlin

override fun onOptionsItemSelected(item: MenuItem): Boolean {
    val navController = findNavController(R.id.nav_host_fragment)
    return item.onNavDestinationSelected(navController) || super.onOptionsItemSelected(item)
}

Java

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    NavController navController = Navigation.findNavController(this, R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    return NavigationUI.onNavDestinationSelected(item, navController)
            || super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

Now, when a user clicks the details_page_fragment menu item, the app automatically navigates to the corresponding destination with the same id.

Add a navigation drawer

The navigation drawer is a UI panel that shows your app's main navigation menu. The drawer appears when the user touches the drawer icon in the app bar or when the user swipes a finger from the left edge of the screen.

an open drawer displaying a navigation menu
Figure 3. An open drawer displaying a navigation menu.

The drawer icon is displayed on all top-level destinations that use a DrawerLayout.

To add a navigation drawer, first declare a DrawerLayout as the root view. Inside the DrawerLayout, add a layout for the main UI content and another view that contains the contents of the navigation drawer.

For example, the following layout uses a DrawerLayout with two child views: a NavHostFragment to contain the main content and a NavigationView for the contents of the navigation drawer.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Use DrawerLayout as root container for activity -->
<androidx.drawerlayout.widget.DrawerLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true">

    <!-- Layout to contain contents of main body of screen (drawer will slide over this) -->
    <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
        android:name="androidx.navigation.fragment.NavHostFragment"
        android:id="@+id/nav_host_fragment"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        app:defaultNavHost="true"
        app:navGraph="@navigation/nav_graph" />

    <!-- Container for contents of drawer - use NavigationView to make configuration easier -->
    <com.google.android.material.navigation.NavigationView
        android:id="@+id/nav_view"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_gravity="start"
        android:fitsSystemWindows="true" />

</androidx.drawerlayout.widget.DrawerLayout>

Next, connect the DrawerLayout to your navigation graph by passing it to AppBarConfiguration, as shown in the following example:

Kotlin

val appBarConfiguration = AppBarConfiguration(navController.graph, drawerLayout)

Java

AppBarConfiguration appBarConfiguration =
        new AppBarConfiguration.Builder(navController.getGraph())
            .setDrawerLayout(drawerLayout)
            .build();

Next, in your main activity class, call setupWithNavController() from your main activity's onCreate() method, as shown below:

Kotlin

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    ...

    val navHostFragment =
        supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment) as NavHostFragment
    val navController = navHostFragment.navController
    findViewById<NavigationView>(R.id.nav_view)
        .setupWithNavController(navController)
}

Java

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    ...

    NavHostFragment navHostFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    NavController navController = navHostFragment.getNavController();
    NavigationView navView = findViewById(R.id.nav_view);
    NavigationUI.setupWithNavController(navView, navController);
}

Starting in Navigation 2.4.0-alpha01, the state of each menu item is saved and restored when you use setupWithNavController.

Bottom navigation

NavigationUI can also handle bottom navigation. When a user selects a menu item, the NavController calls onNavDestinationSelected() and automatically updates the selected item in the bottom navigation bar.

bottom navigation bar
Figure 4. A bottom navigation bar.

To create a bottom navigation bar in your app, first define the bar in your main activity, as shown below:

<LinearLayout>
    ...
    <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
        android:id="@+id/nav_host_fragment"
        ... />
    <com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView
        android:id="@+id/bottom_nav"
        app:menu="@menu/menu_bottom_nav" />
</LinearLayout>

Next, in your main activity class, call setupWithNavController() from your main activity's onCreate() method, as shown below:

Kotlin

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    ...

    val navHostFragment =
        supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment) as NavHostFragment
    val navController = navHostFragment.navController
    findViewById<BottomNavigationView>(R.id.bottom_nav)
        .setupWithNavController(navController)
}

Java

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    ...

    NavHostFragment navHostFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.nav_host_fragment);
    NavController navController = navHostFragment.getNavController();
    BottomNavigationView bottomNav = findViewById(R.id.bottom_nav);
    NavigationUI.setupWithNavController(bottomNav, navController);
}

Starting in Navigation 2.4.0-alpha01, the state of each menu item is saved and restored when you use setupWithNavController.

Listen for navigation events

Interacting with the NavController is the primary method for navigating between destinations. The NavController is responsible for replacing the contents of the NavHost with the new destination. In many cases, UI elements—such as a top app bar or other persistent navigation controls like a BottomNavigationBar—live outside of the NavHost and need to be updated as you navigate between destinations.

NavController offers an OnDestinationChangedListener interface that is called when the NavController's current destination or its arguments change. A new listener can be registered via the addOnDestinationChangedListener() method. Note that when calling addOnDestinationChangedListener(), if the current destination exists, it's immediately sent to your listener.

NavigationUI uses OnDestinationChangedListener to make these common UI components navigation-aware. Note, however, that you can also use OnDestinationChangedListener on its own to make any custom UI or business logic aware of navigation events.

As an example, you might have common UI elements that you intend to show in some areas of your app while hiding them in others. Using your own OnDestinationChangedListener, you can selectively show or hide these UI elements based on the target destination, as shown in the following example:

Kotlin

navController.addOnDestinationChangedListener { _, destination, _ ->
   if(destination.id == R.id.full_screen_destination) {
       toolbar.visibility = View.GONE
       bottomNavigationView.visibility = View.GONE
   } else {
       toolbar.visibility = View.VISIBLE
       bottomNavigationView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
   }
}

Java

navController.addOnDestinationChangedListener(new NavController.OnDestinationChangedListener() {
   @Override
   public void onDestinationChanged(@NonNull NavController controller,
           @NonNull NavDestination destination, @Nullable Bundle arguments) {
       if(destination.getId() == R.id.full_screen_destination) {
           toolbar.setVisibility(View.GONE);
           bottomNavigationView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
       } else {
           toolbar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
           bottomNavigationView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
       }
   }
});

Argument-based listeners

As an alternative, you can also use arguments with default values within the navigation graph, which can be used by the appropriate UI controller to update its state. For example, rather than base the logic in the OnDestinationChangedListener on the destination ID as per the previous example, we can create an argument in the NavGraph:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<navigation xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/navigation\_graph"
    app:startDestination="@id/fragmentOne">
    <fragment
        android:id="@+id/fragmentOne"
        android:name="com.example.android.navigation.FragmentOne"
        android:label="FragmentOne">
        <action
            android:id="@+id/action\_fragmentOne\_to\_fragmentTwo"
            app:destination="@id/fragmentTwo" />
    </fragment>
    <fragment
        android:id="@+id/fragmentTwo"
        android:name="com.example.android.navigation.FragmentTwo"
        android:label="FragmentTwo">
        <argument
            android:name="ShowAppBar"
            android:defaultValue="true" />
    </fragment>
</navigation>

This argument isn't used when navigating to the destination, but rather as a way to attach additional information to the destination by using the defaultValue. In this case, the value indicates whether the app bar should be shown when on this destination.

We can now add an OnDestinationChangedListener in the Activity:

Kotlin

navController.addOnDestinationChangedListener { _, _, arguments ->
    appBar.isVisible = arguments?.getBoolean("ShowAppBar", false) == true
}

Java

navController.addOnDestinationChangedListener(
        new NavController.OnDestinationChangedListener() {
            @Override
            public void onDestinationChanged(
                    @NonNull NavController controller,
                    @NonNull NavDestination destination,
                    @Nullable Bundle arguments
            ) {
                boolean showAppBar = false;
                if (arguments != null) {
                    showAppBar = arguments.getBoolean("ShowAppBar", false);
                }
                if(showAppBar) {
                    appBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                } else {
                    appBar.setVisibility(View.GONE);
                }
            }
        }
);

The NavController invokes this callback whenever the navigation destination changes. The Activity can now update the state or visibility of the UI components that it owns based upon the arguments received in the callback.

One advantage of this approach is that the Activity sees only the arguments in the navigation graph and doesn't know individual Fragment roles and responsibilities. Similarly, the individual fragments do not know about the containing Activity and the UI components that it owns.

Additional resources

To learn more about navigation, see the following additional resources.

Samples

Codelabs

Blog posts

Videos