How do I pass an object from one activity to another on Android?

Question

I need to be able to use one object in multiple activities within my app, and it needs to be the same object. What is the best way to do this?

I have tried making the object "public static" so it can be accessed by other activities, but for some reason this just isn't cutting it. Is there another way of doing this?

Answer 1

When you are creating an object of intent, you can take advantage of following two methods for passing objects between two activities.

putParcelable

putSerializable

You can have your class implement either Parcelable or Serializable. Then you can pass around your custom classes across activities. I have found this very useful.

Here is a small snippet of code I am using

CustomListing currentListing = new CustomListing();
Intent i = new Intent();
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putParcelable(Constants.CUSTOM_LISTING, currentListing);
i.putExtras(b);
i.setClass(this, SearchDetailsActivity.class);
startActivity(i);

And in newly started activity code will be something like this...

Bundle b = this.getIntent().getExtras();
if (b != null)
    mCurrentListing = b.getParcelable(Constants.CUSTOM_LISTING);