CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidxmlandroid-layoutandroid-resourcesaapt
azizbekian
azizbekian

Reputation: 62189

Override layout xml from android framework

Problem

I want to override a layout file from android namespace, e.g. R.layout.popup_menu_item_layout (which is referenced from code as com.android.internal.R.layout.popup_menu_item_layout). By saying override, I assume declaring an xml file in the project which would be prioritized over the layout that framework owns.

Note, this is just an example layout, so the question concerns to each layout that's present in sdk/platforms/android-XX/data/res/layout directory.

What I've tried

tools:override

There's an undocumented tools:override tag available, which overrides specific resources. See this answer for an example, which overrides values from Design Support Library, not from Android framework.

Applying tools:override="true" to the root tag of the layout won't take effect.

XML layout references - refs.xml

As described in this post, declaring a refs.xml file in /values/ directory with following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <item type="layout" name="activity_main">@layout/activity_second</item>
</resources>

will refer to activity_second.xml once activity_main.xml is used. There's an answer that suggests using this technique in order to substitute Snackbar's layout.

This also won't take effect.

Question

Is there any legitimate way to override/substitute a layout file from android package?

Upvotes: 34

Views: 10613

Answers (4)

Xiao King
Xiao King

Reputation: 389

don't know your issue have fixed or not but simple solution for this is create new layout that is same layout name of framework (in this case is popup_menu_item_layout). Then go to android google source to copy xml content popup_menu_item_layout

So you can custom anything u want. But remember don't change any id of views.

Upvotes: 0

Antoine Draune
Antoine Draune

Reputation: 323

You are trying to customise your sdk on the application itself, at runtime.

That's just not how it works.

If you use an SDK on your project(on any technologies), and you need to modify some behavior, you will tweak this SDK and after that, compile your project with this news customized version.
Trying to modify it at runtime is not a good idea.
You will face multiple issues (retro compatibility, security trigger, TREBLE incompatibility , dependency issue, etc)

You have 4 possibilities to do what you want:

  1. Make your own android rom where you will apply your modification
  2. Copy the resources you need to modify on a fake xmlObject with the tag, after the onPostCreate of your application, you will be able to modify the when inflation. You can generalize this behavior and it will simulate an sdk overlay.
  3. Make your own sdk :)
  4. Multi-level reflection, but, no way you succeed with a stable version

Of course, none of this solutions is applicable for a public app.

Upvotes: 0

Scott Cooper
Scott Cooper

Reputation: 3089

I know this is an old question but I also wanted to override a library layout with my own, here's how I did it.

The layout in question was called design_bottom_navigation_item

In refs.xml I added the following:

<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
    <item name="design_bottom_navigation_item" type="layout" tools:override="true">@layout/bottom_navigation_item</item>
</resources>

There are 4 parts to this which I'll explain.

  • Name: This is the name of the layout you want to override
  • Type: The type of resource you are trying to override, in this case a layout.
  • tools:override: This is how you tell Android Studio to override the library layout with your own.
  • Value: This is where you specify what resource you want to use instead.

You can do this with any resource type this way.

Upvotes: 21

gvaish
gvaish

Reputation: 9404

What is that you're trying to do?

If the idea to only replace how the menu-item will look like, you can try the following:

  1. Create a custom MyMenuAdapter extends MenuAdapter
  2. Override the getView method to return the view from your adapter.

Upvotes: 0

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