Does anyone know where/when this method of a Parcelable is called?
@Override
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
It has to be overriden. But should I consider doing something useful with it?
There is a constant defined in Parcelable called CONTENTS_FILE_DESCRIPTOR which is meant to be used in describeContents() to create bitmask return value.
Description for CONTENTS_FILE_DESCRIPTOR in the API ref is:
Bit masks for use with describeContents(): each bit represents a kind of object considered to have potential special significance when marshalled.
Which really means: If you need to put FileDescriptor object into Parcelable you should/must specify CONTENTS_FILE_DESCRIPTOR as return value of describeContents(), i.e. by "special object" (in describeContents()'s description) they really mean: FileDescriptor.
This whole Parcelable functionality looks unfinished (read: has bad design). There is one other strange thing in the docs:
Classes implementing the Parcelable interface must also have a static field called CREATOR, which is an object implementing the Parcelable.Creator interface
Implementing multiple inheritance by rules defined in human readable form? :-)
It seems like C++ programmer designed Parceable and at some point he realized: Oh, damn, there is no multiple inheritance in Java... :-)