CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-view
User7723337
User7723337

Reputation: 12018

Dump the tree of Views present at any given moment [Android]

I am trying to archive same thing as done in "hierarchyviewer" tool, which dumps the tree of Views present at any given moment on the device or emulator screen.

But i want it to be an Application running on a Android device. This app will keep running in background like a Serve and will dump the currently displayed Views in a text file.

Is it possible? is there any code examples are available?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 535

Answers (2)

Sergi Juanola
Sergi Juanola

Reputation: 6647

As far as I know, you couldn't access other apps if they do not explicity share that info with you by the use of Intents (or if you own these other apps).

So, based on this limitation, my bets are you can't access another app's View Tree by regular means. And if you chould, I think you shouldn't, as this is somehow "secret" to other apps, and you'd be registering information without permission. In fact, what hierarchyview uses is, for sure, some sort of trick that directly uses internal private libraries of Android. Like taking a screenshot, that you can't do with the "default" implementation, but using these kind of testing tools.

That being said, check this answer, where it shows how to get the current app in foreground. From here, getting the View tree should be impossible, but as long as you could call getWindow() on that app's current activity, this could be done.

Upvotes: 1

CommonsWare
CommonsWare

Reputation: 1006914

Is it possible?

No.

The closest you can come is to implement an AccessibilityService. This would more closely mirror the uiautomatorviewer functionality, giving you a subset of what you see in Hierarchy View. This also requires a double-opt-in by the user: the user must install your app and activate it in Settings in the accessibility area.

Upvotes: 3

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