Android: Custom view from xml layout

Question

i would like to create a custom View (subclass of the View class) and use a layout xml resource.

I want something like this:

public class CustomView extends LinearLayout {

    public CustomView(Context context) {
          super(context);
          LayoutInflater  mInflater = (LayoutInflater)context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
          mInflater.inflate(R.layout.tweet, this, true);
}

This actually creates a View with the right height and width (a ScrollView with a list of those has exactly the expected length and scrollbars) but they are empty (black) even though the xml layout contains a lot of TextViews.

This is my xml layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/tweet"
    android:layout_width="match_parent" 
    android:layout_height="match_parent" 
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:background="#ffffff">
    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_width="match_parent">
        <LinearLayout 
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
            android:layout_width="match_parent" 
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:background="#ffffff">
            <TextView 
                android:text="User" 
                android:id="@+id/tvusername" 
                android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textColor="#000000"
                android:textStyle="bold">
            </TextView>
            <View
                android:layout_width="5dip"
                android:layout_height="1dip">           
            </View>
            <TextView 
                android:text="userscreenname" 
                android:id="@+id/tvuserscreenname" 
                android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            </TextView>    
        </LinearLayout>
        <TextView
            android:text="0s"
            android:id="@+id/tvtime"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true">
        </TextView>
    </RelativeLayout>
    <TextView 
        android:text="Tweet Content" 
        android:id="@+id/tvcontent" 
        android:layout_width="match_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textColor="#000000">
    </TextView>
    <View 
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="1px"
        android:background="#ffffff">
    </View>
    <TextView 
        android:text="Retweet by" 
        android:id="@+id/tvrtby" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    </TextView>
</LinearLayout>

This is my main layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="#ffffff"
    >

<ScrollView 
    android:layout_height="match_parent" 
    android:layout_width="match_parent" 
    android:id="@+id/scrollView1" 
    android:orientation="vertical"
   android:layout_alignParentTop="true">
    <LinearLayout 
        android:layout_width="match_parent" 
        android:id="@+id/timeline" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:background="#ffffff">           
            <TextView  
            android:id="@+id/tvoutput"
            android:layout_width="match_parent" 
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
            android:text="@string/hello"
            />    
    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

This is how I add the custom view to my main view:

Not working (what I try to achieve):

TweetView ctweet = new TweetView(getApplicationContext(),tweet);
timeline.addView(ctweet);

My current solution (works, but uses no custom view):

            View vtweet = View.inflate(getApplicationContext(), R.layout.tweet,null);

            TextView tvusername = (TextView) vtweet.findViewById(R.id.tvusername);
            TextView tvuserscreenname = (TextView) vtweet.findViewById(R.id.tvuserscreenname);
            TextView tvcontent = (TextView) vtweet.findViewById(R.id.tvcontent);
            TextView tvtime = (TextView) vtweet.findViewById(R.id.tvtime);

            tvusername.setText(tweet.getUser().getName());
            tvuserscreenname.setText('@' + tweet.getUser().getScreenName());
            tvcontent.setText(tweet.getText()); 
            //tvtime.setText(ctweet.tvtime.getText()); 
            timeline.addView(vtweet);

Answer 1

you can use this in your xml just like any other view like <TextView

try <packageName.ClassName ie something like <com.example.CustomView

Answer 2

Probably you have to set the Layout Params of your TweetView object.

LinearLayout.LayoutParams fieldparams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 1.0f);
ctweet.setLayoutParams(fieldparams);