Same-named attributes in attrs.xml for custom view

Question

I'm writing a few custom views which share some same-named attributes. In their respective <declare-styleable> section in attrs.xml I'd like to use the same names for attributes:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <declare-styleable name="MyView1">
        <attr name="myattr1" format="string" />
        <attr name="myattr2" format="dimension" />
        ...
    </declare-styleable>

    <declare-styleable name="MyView2">
        <attr name="myattr1" format="string" />
        <attr name="myattr2" format="dimension" />
        ...
    </declare-styleable>
</resources>

I'm getting an error saying that myattr1 and myattr2 are already defined. I found that I should omit the format attribute for myattr1 and myattr2 in MyView2, but if I do that, I obtain the following error in the console:

[2010-12-13 23:53:11 - MyProject] ERROR: In <declare-styleable> MyView2, unable to find attribute 

Is there a way I could accomplish this, maybe some sort of namespacing (just guessing)?

Answer 1

Solution: Simply extract common attributes from both views and add them directly as children of the <resources> node:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <attr name="myattr1" format="string" />
    <attr name="myattr2" format="dimension" />

    <declare-styleable name="MyView1">
        <attr name="myattr1" />
        <attr name="myattr2" />
        ...
    </declare-styleable>

    <declare-styleable name="MyView2">
        <attr name="myattr1" />
        <attr name="myattr2" />
        ...
    </declare-styleable>
</resources>

Answer 2

As Priya Singhal answered, Android Studio requires the common attribute names to be defined within their own style name. They can't be at the root any more.

However, there are a couple other things to note (which is why I am also adding an answer):

• The common styles don't need to be named the same thing as a view. (Thanks to this answer for pointing that out.)
• You don't need to use inheritance with a parent.

Example

Here is what I did in a recent project that has two custom views that both share the same attributes. As long as the custom views still have the names for the attributes and don't include a format, I can still access them as normal from code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <!-- common attributes to all custom text based views -->

    <declare-styleable name="TextAttributes">
        <attr name="text" format="string"/>
        <attr name="textSize" format="dimension"/>
        <attr name="textColor" format="color"/>
        <attr name="gravity">
            <flag name="top" value="48" />
            <flag name="center" value="17" />
            <flag name="bottom" value="80" />
        </attr>
    </declare-styleable>

    <!-- custom text views -->

    <declare-styleable name="View1">
        <attr name="text"/>
        <attr name="textSize"/>
        <attr name="textColor"/>
        <attr name="gravity"/>
    </declare-styleable>

    <declare-styleable name="View2">
        <attr name="text"/>
        <attr name="textSize"/>
        <attr name="textColor"/>
        <attr name="gravity"/>
    </declare-styleable>

</resources>

Streamlined example

In fact, I don't even need to put the attributes under a custom name. As long as I define them (give them a format) for at least one custom view, I can use them anywhere (without the format). So this also works (and looks cleaner):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <declare-styleable name="View1">
        <attr name="text" format="string"/>
        <attr name="textSize" format="dimension"/>
        <attr name="textColor" format="color"/>
        <attr name="gravity">
            <flag name="top" value="48" />
            <flag name="center" value="17" />
            <flag name="bottom" value="80" />
        </attr>
    </declare-styleable>

    <declare-styleable name="View2">
        <attr name="text"/>
        <attr name="textSize"/>
        <attr name="textColor"/>
        <attr name="gravity"/>
    </declare-styleable>

</resources>

For a large project, though, this could get messy and defining them at the top in a single location might be better (as recommended here).

Answer 3

I am posting this answer as the above-posted solution didn't work out for me in Android Studio. I need to share my custom attributes among my custom views so I tried the above solution in Android Studio but had no luck. So I experiment and go a way to do it. Hope it might help someone looking for the same problem.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <resources>
    <!-- parent styleable -->
     <declare-styleable name="MyView">
         <attr name="myattr1" format="string" />
         <attr name="myattr2" format="dimension" />
     </declare-styleable>

     <!-- inheriting parent styleable -->
     <!-- also note "myBackgroundColor" belongs to child styleable"MyView1"-->
    <declare-styleable name="MyView1" parent="MyView">
        <attr name="myattr1" />
        <attr name="myattr2" />
        <attr name="myBackgroundColor" format="color"/>
    </declare-styleable>


    <!-- inheriting parent styleable -->
    <!-- same way here "myfonnt" belongs to child styelable "MyView2" -->
    <declare-styleable name="MyView2" parent="MyView">
        <attr name="myattr1" />
        <attr name="myattr2" />
        <attr name="myfont" format="string"/>
        ...
    </declare-styleable>
</resources>

This works for me completely. We need to make a Parent styleable and then we need to inherit that parent styleable. For example, as I have done above : Parent styleable name MyView and inherited this to my other styleable like MyView1 and MyView2 respectively.

Answer 4

Just in case someone still stuck with this problem after tried available solution. I stuck with add subtitle attribute with string format.

My solution is remove the format.

before:

<attr name="subtitle" format="string"/>

after:

<attr name="subtitle"/>

Answer 5

Thanks Lewis I had the same problem , and your inheritance solution gave me the hint for doing it like below and it works fine.I just declared common attributes at the above and rewrite it in the body of style declaration again without formatting. I hope it helps someone

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- common attributes -->
     <attr name="myattr1" format="string" />
     <attr name="myattr2" format="dimension" />

 <!-- also note "myBackgroundColor" belongs to child styleable"MyView1"-->
<declare-styleable name="MyView1" >
    <attr name="myattr1" />
    <attr name="myattr2" />
    <attr name="myBackgroundColor" format="color"/>
</declare-styleable>

<!-- same way here "myfonnt" belongs to child styelable "MyView2" -->
<declare-styleable name="MyView2" parent="MyView">
    <attr name="myattr1" />
    <attr name="myattr2" />
    <attr name="myfont" format="string"/>
    ...
</declare-styleable>