Eclipse giving an error of android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout failed to instantiate

Question

I have tried to incorporate the GridLayout from the support library, but it is not working. My target build is for API version 10. The XML code I am using is shown below:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      xmlns:grid="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"      
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="match_parent"
      android.support.v7.widget.columnCount="6" >
 <Button
     android:id="@+id/button1"
     android.support.v7.widget.layout_column="1" 
     android.support.v7.widget.layout_columnSpan="2"
     android.support.v7.widget.layout_gravity="left"
     android.support.v7.widget.layout_row="1"
     android:text="Button" />

 </android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout>

When Eclipse tries to compile this, the error given is: android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout failed to instantiate. The stack trace is:

    java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android/support/v7/gridlayout/R$dimen
at android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout.<init>(GridLayout.java:255)
at android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout.<init>(GridLayout.java:274)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.ProjectCallback.instantiateClass(ProjectCallback.java:402)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.ProjectCallback.loadView(ProjectCallback.java:166)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.android.BridgeInflater.loadCustomView(BridgeInflater.java:205)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.android.BridgeInflater.createViewFromTag(BridgeInflater.java:133)
at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:386)
at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:296)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.RenderSessionImpl.inflate(RenderSessionImpl.java:279)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.Bridge.createSession(Bridge.java:318)
at com.android.ide.common.rendering.LayoutLibrary.createSession(LayoutLibrary.java:325)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.RenderService.createRenderSession(RenderService.java:372)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.GraphicalEditorPart.renderWithBridge(GraphicalEditorPart.java:1361)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.GraphicalEditorPart.recomputeLayout(GraphicalEditorPart.java:1115)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.GraphicalEditorPart.activated(GraphicalEditorPart.java:941)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.LayoutEditorDelegate.delegatePageChange(LayoutEditorDelegate.java:585)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.common.CommonXmlEditor.pageChange(CommonXmlEditor.java:360)
at org.eclipse.ui.part.MultiPageEditorPart$2.widgetSelected(MultiPageEditorPart.java:290)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(TypedListener.java:240)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1053)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1077)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1062)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.notifyListeners(Widget.java:774)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder.setSelection(CTabFolder.java:2746)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder.onMouse(CTabFolder.java:1433)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder$1.handleEvent(CTabFolder.java:257)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1053)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Display.java:4165)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3754)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Workbench.java:2701)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:2665)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$4(Workbench.java:2499)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$7.run(Workbench.java:679)
at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:668)
at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:123)
at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:344)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:179)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:622)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:577)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1410)

Based on the fact that nobody is facing this problem, I suspect that I have not setup the v7 library correctly. The steps I have followed:

1. Create a library project at the "gridlayout" directory
2. Added this project to my Main project
3. Added the jar from the gridlayout lib directory to the lib directory of my main project

Any help will be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Update your Compatibility Library to revision 8, then follow the instruction in README.txt file in "extras\android\compatibility\v7\gridlayout" folder.

Hope this help you.

Notes: You must use grid:columnCount="6" instead of android.support.v7.widget.columnCount="6" because you declare the prefix "grid" in xmlns:grid="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto".

Answer 2

1. update eclipse, adt (even to version 20 preview 2) , sdk manager and the support library .

2. try to restart eclipse and see if that helps.

3. try to create a totally new project (with low sdk being used for the min and target sdk , but not for the one specified on the project.properties file ) and drag the gridLayout in the visual editor. this will automatically add the needed library.

4. if nothing helps , try this example : http://code.google.com/p/android-playground/source/checkout