Runtime overlays android with appcompat

Question

I want to make runtime overlays for an application that uses appcompat but I can't get it to work.

I followed this Example

First: I created and android application that i want to overlay. I'm trying to overlay the string in textview "Hello World" to be "Hello World overlay!"

The App code snaps

Main activity:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
    }
}

Main activity layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout
 xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
 xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="match_parent"
 tools:context=".MainActivity">

 <TextView
 android:layout_width="wrap_content"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
 android:text="@string/hello_world"
 />

</FrameLayout>

Manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
 package="com.example.app">

 <application
     android:allowBackup="true"
     android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
     android:label="@string/app_name"
     android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
     android:theme="@style/MyTheme"
     android:supportsRtl="true">
     <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
       <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
         <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
       </intent-filter>
     </activity>
 </application>

</manifest>

App theme:

    <style name="MyTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    </style>

String resources

    <string name="hello_world">Hello World!</string>

Till this point the code is working fine :)

Then I create the overlay project that include the overlay resource.

The Overlay project code snaps:

Manifest:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.example.overlay">

    <overlay
        android:priority="1"
        android:targetPackage="com.example.app"/>
    <application android:hasCode="false"/>

</manifest>

The string resources that i want to overlay them in runtime

    <string name="hello_world">Hello World Overlay!</string>

I built and installed the apk.And i can find it as overlay when i'm using adb shell cmd overlay list

Once I enabled the overlay using adb shell cmd overlay enable --user 0 com.example.overlay I got this crash.

    java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.example.app/com.example.app.MainActivity}: java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.
        at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3270)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3409)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivityInner(ActivityThread.java:5279)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:5187)
        at android.app.servertransaction.ActivityRelaunchItem.execute(ActivityRelaunchItem.java:69)
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135)
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95)
        at android.app.ClientTransactionHandler.executeTransaction(ClientTransactionHandler.java:57)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivityLocally(ActivityThread.java:5238)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.access$3400(ActivityThread.java:219)
        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2026)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:107)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:214)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7356)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:492)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:930)
     Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatDelegateImpl.createSubDecor(AppCompatDelegateImpl.java:696)
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatDelegateImpl.ensureSubDecor(AppCompatDelegateImpl.java:659)
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatDelegateImpl.setContentView(AppCompatDelegateImpl.java:552)
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity.setContentView(AppCompatActivity.java:161)
        at com.example.app.MainActivity.onCreate(MainActivity.kt:9)
        at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:7802)
        at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:7791)
        at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1299)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3245)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3409) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivityInner(ActivityThread.java:5279) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:5187) 
        at android.app.servertransaction.ActivityRelaunchItem.execute(ActivityRelaunchItem.java:69) 
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135) 
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95) 
        at android.app.ClientTransactionHandler.executeTransaction(ClientTransactionHandler.java:57) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivityLocally(ActivityThread.java:5238) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread.access$3400(ActivityThread.java:219) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2026) 
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:107) 
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:214) 
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7356) 
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) 
        at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:492) 
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:930) 

However, I'm using appcompat theme on the application and the overlay.

Any ideas how can I make it work?

NOTE: I tried to run it on Android 9 and Android 10

Update 1: when i extend from Activity instead of AppCompatActivity it's working fine without any problems

Answer 1

You can use my library in there I tried to do that in a very reusable way so that you can do an overlay with less code. Here is documentation on how to use it in Java and Kotlin. First, initialize it from an activity from where you want to show the watermark-

AppWaterMarkBuilder.doConfigure()
                .setAppCompatActivity(MainActivity.this)
                .setWatermarkProperty(R.layout.layout_water_mark)
                .showWatermarkAfterConfig();

Then you can hide and show it from anywhere in your app -

  /* For hiding the watermark*/
  AppWaterMarkBuilder.hideWatermark() 

  /* For showing the watermark*/
  AppWaterMarkBuilder.showWatermark() 

The gif -

Answer 2

In your RRO module you should remove the dependency on AppCompat and the one one MaterialComponents.