android google maps v2 MapView inside a fragment

@Matthew_Reid

The google maps v2 library for android provides some much needed features for your app such as MapFragments. There is also a new support library to provide these features to older versions of android.

The problem comes when you want to include a mapview in your own custom fragment (i.e you don”t want the map to be the full size of the view).

The solution is pretty hard to find and not all of it is documented. You must call all the lifecycle methods (onCreate, onResume) as well as the static maps Initializer method.

Custom Fragment Class

public class CustomMapFragment extends Fragment {
    
    private MapView mMapView;
    private GoogleMap googleMap;
    
    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, 
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        // inflat and return the layout
        View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.map_fragment, container, false);
        mMapView = (MapView) v.findViewById(R.id.mapView);
        mMapView.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        mMapView.onResume();//needed to get the map to display immediately
        
        try {
            MapsInitializer.initialize(this);
        } catch (GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        
        googleMap = mMapView.getMap();
        
        //Perform any camera updates here
        
        return v;
    }
    
    @Override
    public void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        mMapView.onResume();
    }
    
    @Override
    public void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        mMapView.onPause();
    }
    
    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        mMapView.onDestroy();
    }
    
    @Override
    public void onLowMemory() {
        super.onLowMemory();
        mMapView.onLowMemory();
    }
}

Layout file