Initializing custom view in Android Studio: Expected resource of type xml

Issue

I have a custom view called IconView, which has the following constructor for initialization:

public class IconView extends RelativeLayout implements Checkable {

    ...

    public IconView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, boolean useDefaultImage) {
        super(context, attrs);
        inflateLayout(context);

    ...

In order to initialize AttributeSet instance from XMLfor constructing the view, I use getResources().getXml(R.layout.icon_view), false);. This compiles successfully and runs correctly. However, Android studio highlights the code and displays me this error:

The detailed description of the error is here:

Expected resource of type xml less... (Ctrl+F1) Reports two types of problems:

• Supplying the wrong type of resource identifier. For example, when calling Resources.getString(int id), you should be passing R.string.something, not R.drawable.something.

• Passing the wrong constant to a method which expects one of a specific set of constants. For example, when calling View#setLayoutDirection, the parameter must be android.view.View.LAYOUT_DIRECTION_LTR or android.view.View.LAYOUT_DIRECTION_RTL.

The question:

Although the code works, I do not know, how to rewrite it, so that the error would disappear in Android Studio. The error is visually annoying, so how could I get rid of it?

Solution

Resources#getXml(int id) is used to get the resource of type xml, which lays inside the xml resource folder. You, on the other hand, passing R.layout.icon_view here, the layout resource.
Use getResources().getLayout(R.layout.icon_view) here and the error will disappear.

P.S.: the documentation on Resources#getLayout() says the following:

This function is really a simple wrapper for calling getXml(int) with a layout resource.

So it looks like this is some kind of lint-related issue. Either way, getLayout() does not result in this error.

Answered By - aga