Same code, different models, different screens...

Question

Hi all!!

When I changed my theme to Theme.Black.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen my app actually crashed during the loading process. As per the Teacher's Notes I changed a couple of lines of code, and I was back in business.

After finishing the Crystall Ball app, I installed it on all the android devices I could get my hands on (Samsung Galaxy S2, S4, S5, and Tab10.1), and I noticed something peculiar with the S2, and was wondering if someone could explain it to me... Check out the screenshot below:

Galaxy S5:

On the S5 the app looks as expected!

Galaxy S2:

On the S2 you can see a white bar (titlebar?) across the top of the screen. Why doesn't it appear on the S5? How can I remove the bar completely so it won't even appear on the S2?

Both phones are running the same app. and when I tried running the app after changing the theme to NoTitleBar, it crashed on ALL devices! o.O

I suppose my main question is, what can I do so the white bar won't appear on the S2?

Thanks,

Masum

Answer 1 · 2014-05-13T19:22:43Z

May 13, 2014 7:22pm

Oh, I thought it was showing up on newer APIs. Got it backwards. For the older stuff, I think if you change MainActivity to extend a regular Activity instead of ActionBarActivity it might work. Let me know, and if you still have trouble I'll dig deeper on my end.

Answer 2 · 2014-05-13T14:23:20Z

May 13, 2014 2:23pm

I am sorry about this. These issues are all related to how the tools now create new projects. This will all be addressed with a refresh of this project, which I'm just starting now.

What's happening here is that the new "appcompat" tools and styles are causing issues. The appcompat is for backwards compatibility for the Action Bar and other newer elements, but as you can see it causes some headaches!

Try this and let me know how it goes for you. Open up the file res > values-v11 > styles.xml and paste in the code below over what's currently in there. We're adding the line about windowActionBar:

<resources>

    <!--
        Base application theme for API 11+. This theme completely replaces
        AppBaseTheme from res/values/styles.xml on API 11+ devices.
    -->
    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <!-- API 11 theme customizations can go here. -->
        <item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item>
    </style>

</resources>

This is a style that only gets applied to API version 11 and up (that's why the -11 appears in the folder name). I think this might fix your issue.

Answer 3 · 2014-05-14T08:43:32Z

May 14, 2014 8:43am

Ben, you hit the nail on the head... what I'm trying to say is that it worked! :D Thank you for your continued assistance!

Answer 4 · 2014-05-19T22:39:12Z

May 19, 2014 10:39pm

This part is hanging me up. Think I need to get into some other coding things rather then jumping right into app development.

Answer 5 · 2014-07-27T07:35:45Z

July 27, 2014 7:35am

So I think I finally fixed it, There was a missing > on line one and that seemed to resolve the issue, Still having warnings about missing attributes on lines 2, 6 and 25.. I got them to go away earlier then they came back for some reason. The warning says for line one is "Unexpected text found in layout file: "android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:background="@an..."

Line 2 is "[Accessibility] Missing contentDescription attribute on image"

Line 25 is [I18N] Hardcoded string "Enlighten me!", should use @string resource

But this is what I have for that section

When I try to launch the app it still crashes because of an unexpected Error. I've been working on this for so long its starting to disappoint me and kinda kick me in the stomach making me feel like I'm not able to write java. I'm new to this and I'm not really sure what else to do at this point, that seems to be the only area I'm having an issue with, everything else looks good at this point from what I can tell, no warnings or Errors on any other pages. please help!!

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="match_parent"
 android:background="@android:color/black" >

<ImageView android:id="@+id/imageView1"
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="match_parent"
 android:scaleType="fitCenter"
 android:src="@drawable/ball01"/>

<TextView android:id="@+id/textView1"
 android:layout_width="wrap_content"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
 android:layout_centerInParent="true"
 android:layout_marginLeft="65dp"
 android:layout_marginTop="135dp"
 android:textSize="32sp"/>

<Button android:id="@+id/button1"
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
 android:layout_below="@+id/textView1"
 android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
 android:text="Enlighten me!"/>

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 6 · 2014-08-08T00:11:09Z

August 8, 2014 12:11am

i am having trouble figuring out what "4) Change MainActivity to extend Activity, not ActionBarActivity" even refers to? i think i got the first 3 steps right but i don't even know where to begin with this one.

Answer 7 · 2014-08-11T19:56:56Z

August 11, 2014 7:56pm

got it. thank you both.

Answer 8 · 2014-08-12T17:29:37Z

August 12, 2014 5:29pm

Hi, I'm running this on a Samsung Galaxy S2 (4.2.2) and cannot seem to get rid of the the titlebar/actionbar. Mine still shows as the example above even after using the fix Ben provided for the styles.xml files

It's unfortunate because i can only use my phone for debugging.

Answer 9 · 2014-08-12T17:38:55Z

August 12, 2014 5:38pm

Update: This is what worked for me. For some reason, its not picking this up from the parent style. Ensure the code is in "AppTheme" rather than just "AppBaseTheme"

<resources>

    <!--
        Base application theme, dependent on API level. This theme is replaced
        by AppBaseTheme from res/values-vXX/styles.xml on newer devices.
    -->
    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <!--
            Theme customizations available in newer API levels can go in
            res/values-vXX/styles.xml, while customizations related to
            backward-compatibility can go here.
        -->
        <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="android:windowFullscreen">true</item>

    </style>

    <!-- Application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
        <!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
        <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="android:windowFullscreen">true</item>
    </style>

</resources>

Answer 10 · 2014-08-14T18:00:32Z

August 14, 2014 6:00pm

Ben- I did what you said but got errors all over the place.

http://imgur.com/yQNzpzq

Answer 11 · 2014-08-18T01:28:26Z

August 18, 2014 1:28am

I found what worked for me is not changing anything in MainActivity.java file so that it reads as the following:

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

private CrystalBall mCrystalBall = new CrystalBall();

ALSO, I made sure to input the following two lines into the mentioned res/layout/styles.xml file:

style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme"

item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item

item name="android:windowFullscreen">true</item

Make sure to add all proper punctuation (ie: <, >, ;)

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Masum Bergmann

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Same code, different models, different screens...

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