Override layout xml from android framework

Question

Problem

I want to override a layout file from android namespace, e.g. R.layout.popup_menu_item_layout (which is referenced from code as com.android.internal.R.layout.popup_menu_item_layout). By saying override, I assume declaring an xml file in the project which would be prioritized over the layout that framework owns.

^{Note, this is just an example layout, so the question concerns to each layout that's present in sdk/platforms/android-XX/data/res/layout directory.}

What I've tried

tools:override

There's an undocumented tools:override tag available, which overrides specific resources. See this answer for an example, which overrides values from Design Support Library, not from Android framework.

Applying tools:override="true" to the root tag of the layout won't take effect.

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XML layout references - refs.xml

As described in this post, declaring a refs.xml file in /values/ directory with following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources>     <item type="layout" name="activity_main">@layout/activity_second</item> </resources> 

will refer to activity_second.xml once activity_main.xml is used. There's an answer that suggests using this technique in order to substitute Snackbar's layout.

This also won't take effect.

Question

Is there any legitimate way to override/substitute a layout file from android package?

Answer 1

I know this is an old question but I also wanted to override a library layout with my own, here's how I did it.

The layout in question was called design_bottom_navigation_item

In refs.xml I added the following:

<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">     <item name="design_bottom_navigation_item" type="layout" tools:override="true">@layout/bottom_navigation_item</item> </resources> 

There are 4 parts to this which I'll explain.

• Name: This is the name of the layout you want to override
• Type: The type of resource you are trying to override, in this case a layout.
• tools:override: This is how you tell Android Studio to override the library layout with your own.
• Value: This is where you specify what resource you want to use instead.

You can do this with any resource type this way.