android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout cannot get it to work

Question

I have an android project which utilizes GridLayout in most of its menus and screens. The problem however is that GridLayout is supported from API 14 and onwards.

Since I want to make the application available to older version of android as well, I tried to use Android's own Support Library GridLayout which adds support up to API 7. This was exactly what I was looking for, however I cannot for the life of me get it to work. I have tried all of these explanations and ideas:

1. Android's official instructions
2. Solution 1
3. Solution 2
4. Solution 3
5. Solution 4
6. Solution 5

and more...

No matter what I do, how I do it or what IDE I use (whether Eclipse ADT or Android Studio), it always gives me an error in the Layout XML along the lines of:

The following classes could be instantiated:  - android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout

With either one of these exceptions showing in the error log:

1. android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: Could not resolve value 0x7F080000
2. java.lang.classnotfoundexception: android.support.v7.gridlayout.R$dimen

Edit: For reference this is what I'm using to create the support gridlayout (taken directly from the android sample programs):

<android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/blue"
    android:padding="10dip"
    app:columnCount="4"
    >
    <TextView
        android:text="@string/string_test"
    />
    <EditText
        app:layout_gravity="fill_horizontal"
        app:layout_column="0"
        app:layout_columnSpan="4"
    />
    <Button
        android:text="@string/button_test"
        app:layout_column="2"
    />
</android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout>

What could I possibly be doing wrong that none of the above solutions work? Is there something I'm missing, maybe there's a problem with my original code?

Any help is appreciated

Splenitis

@nsvir - added my XML code, though nothing special about it, I used the sample code given by android – Splenitis

Answer 1

Try using Gradle, and in your build.gradle file add the following section at the end:

dependencies {
  implementation 'com.android.support:gridlayout-v7:28.0.0'
  implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0'
}

Then execute assembleDebug gradle task.

Hornpipe

This should be the accepted answer. Importing v24 appcompat and later in ADT (Eclipse) will not work. Build tools are not storing ADT-compatible libraries anymore, and extracting from .aar is too much work - consider moving to Android Studio and Gradle-based build system. – Earpiece

With Android Studio 3.0 on wards, instead of compile use implementation – Ayrshire

Answer 2

With Android Studio:

• Go in the build.gradle and add:

  compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:18.0.+'
  

  in your dependencies.

• Sync your project by clicking the icon on the left of AVD manager. It will implement the library

• And try again

With Eclipse try this: Gridview v7 support for older api android.support.v7.widget.Gridlayout failed to instaniate

Tamikotamil

The code I'm using is running without gradle (while trying to create one via eclipse it shows an error and doesn't do anything), I saw this solution but since I'm not using gradle it's not viable – Splenitis

Did you restart your IDE ? – Tamikotamil

Yes, multiple times. Tried creating numerous new projects just to test but nothing works – Splenitis

Well I tried on Android Studio and Eclipse by importing appcompat and/or gridlayout and It doesn't work for me neither.. Sorry – Tamikotamil

Thanks anyway, appreciate your help. – Splenitis

Answer 3

For current stable Release 1.0.0 : To add a dependency on GridLayout, you must add the Google Maven repository to your project. Add the dependencies for the artifacts you need in the build.gradle file for your app or module:

dependencies {
    implementation "androidx.gridlayout:gridlayout:1.0.0"
}

Energize

this is buggy, causing me lot of issues :\.gradle\caches\transforms-2\files-2.1\834d222cdf56ff4579f6f997b4d0229f\gridlayout-1.0.0\res\values\values.xml:3:5-73:25: AAPT: error: resource previously defined here. – Halve

Answer 4

Refer from http://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/features.html#v7-gridlayout, you should import gridlayout as a eclipse project, then add it as an library project into your project, make sure the build path has included the jar.

Biscay

Answer 5

In my case I fixed it setting:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" android:targetSdkVersion="18" />

in the gridlayout_v7 project manifest file.

Heartily