How to prevent custom views from losing state across screen orientation changes

Here is another variant that uses a mix of the two above methods. Combining the speed and correctness of Parcelable with the simplicity of a Bundle:

@Override
public Parcelable onSaveInstanceState() {
    Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
    // The vars you want to save - in this instance a string and a boolean
    String someString = "something";
    boolean someBoolean = true;
    State state = new State(super.onSaveInstanceState(), someString, someBoolean);
    bundle.putParcelable(State.STATE, state);
    return bundle;
}

@Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Parcelable state) {
    if (state instanceof Bundle) {
        Bundle bundle = (Bundle) state;
        State customViewState = (State) bundle.getParcelable(State.STATE);
        // The vars you saved - do whatever you want with them
        String someString = customViewState.getText();
        boolean someBoolean = customViewState.isSomethingShowing());
        super.onRestoreInstanceState(customViewState.getSuperState());
        return;
    }
    // Stops a bug with the wrong state being passed to the super
    super.onRestoreInstanceState(BaseSavedState.EMPTY_STATE); 
}

protected static class State extends BaseSavedState {
    protected static final String STATE = "YourCustomView.STATE";

    private final String someText;
    private final boolean somethingShowing;

    public State(Parcelable superState, String someText, boolean somethingShowing) {
        super(superState);
        this.someText = someText;
        this.somethingShowing = somethingShowing;
    }

    public String getText(){
        return this.someText;
    }

    public boolean isSomethingShowing(){
        return this.somethingShowing;
    }
}

You do this by implementing View#onSaveInstanceState and View#onRestoreInstanceState and extending the View.BaseSavedState class.

public class CustomView extends View {

  private int stateToSave;

  ...

  @Override
  public Parcelable onSaveInstanceState() {
    //begin boilerplate code that allows parent classes to save state
    Parcelable superState = super.onSaveInstanceState();

    SavedState ss = new SavedState(superState);
    //end

    ss.stateToSave = this.stateToSave;

    return ss;
  }

  @Override
  public void onRestoreInstanceState(Parcelable state) {
    //begin boilerplate code so parent classes can restore state
    if(!(state instanceof SavedState)) {
      super.onRestoreInstanceState(state);
      return;
    }

    SavedState ss = (SavedState)state;
    super.onRestoreInstanceState(ss.getSuperState());
    //end

    this.stateToSave = ss.stateToSave;
  }

  static class SavedState extends BaseSavedState {
    int stateToSave;

    SavedState(Parcelable superState) {
      super(superState);
    }

    private SavedState(Parcel in) {
      super(in);
      this.stateToSave = in.readInt();
    }

    @Override
    public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {
      super.writeToParcel(out, flags);
      out.writeInt(this.stateToSave);
    }

    //required field that makes Parcelables from a Parcel
    public static final Parcelable.Creator<SavedState> CREATOR =
        new Parcelable.Creator<SavedState>() {
          public SavedState createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
            return new SavedState(in);
          }
          public SavedState[] newArray(int size) {
            return new SavedState[size];
          }
    };
  }
}

The work is split between the View and the View's SavedState class. You should do all the work of reading and writing to and from the Parcel in the SavedState class. Then your View class can do the work of extracting the state members and doing the work necessary to get the class back to a valid state.

Notes: View#onSavedInstanceState and View#onRestoreInstanceState are called automatically for you if View#getId returns a value >= 0. This happens when you give it an id in xml or call setId manually. Otherwise you have to call View#onSaveInstanceState and write the Parcelable returned to the parcel you get in Activity#onSaveInstanceState to save the state and subsequently read it and pass it to View#onRestoreInstanceState from Activity#onRestoreInstanceState.

Another simple example of this is the CompoundButton

Easy with kotlin

@Parcelize
class MyState(val superSavedState: Parcelable?, val loading: Boolean) : View.BaseSavedState(superSavedState), Parcelable


class MyView : View {

    var loading: Boolean = false

    override fun onSaveInstanceState(): Parcelable? {
        val superState = super.onSaveInstanceState()
        return MyState(superState, loading)
    }

    override fun onRestoreInstanceState(state: Parcelable?) {
        val myState = state as? MyState
        super.onRestoreInstanceState(myState?.superSaveState ?: state)

        loading = myState?.loading ?: false
        //redraw
    }
}

I think this is a much simpler version. Bundle is a built-in type which implements Parcelable

public class CustomView extends View
{
  private int stuff; // stuff

  @Override
  public Parcelable onSaveInstanceState()
  {
    Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
    bundle.putParcelable("superState", super.onSaveInstanceState());
    bundle.putInt("stuff", this.stuff); // ... save stuff 
    return bundle;
  }

  @Override
  public void onRestoreInstanceState(Parcelable state)
  {
    if (state instanceof Bundle) // implicit null check
    {
      Bundle bundle = (Bundle) state;
      this.stuff = bundle.getInt("stuff"); // ... load stuff
      state = bundle.getParcelable("superState");
    }
    super.onRestoreInstanceState(state);
  }
}