The following classes could not be instantiated: - android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar

Question

I am creating an app with the new Material Design used in Android Lollipop (5.0).

I am using the following guides:

• http://android-developers.blogspot.it/2014/10/appcompat-v21-material-design-for-pre.html
• http://antonioleiva.com/material-design-everywhere/

After I create my toolbar, I receive this error: "The following classes could not be instantiated: - android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar"

The app works well in the phone or emulator, but the layout designer of Android Studio doesn't show the layout correctly.

Here there are some images:

Error in my_awesome_toolbar.xml layout preview

Error in activity_my.xml layout preview

The xml code of the files:

my_awesome_toolbar.xml:

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

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/my_awesome_toolbar"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary" />

activity_my.xml:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
            xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:id="@+id/root"
            tools:context="com.myapp.test.MyActivity"
            android:orientation="horizontal">

    <include
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        layout="@layout/my_awesome_toolbar"
        />
    <!-- Rest of layout -->
</RelativeLayout>

MyActivity.java:

package com.myapp.test;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;


public class MyActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_my);

        Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
    }


    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.my, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}

xml code of the styles (values/styles.xml):

<resources>

    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/blue</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/dark_blue</item>
        <item name="actionOverflowButtonStyle">@style/AppTheme.OverflowButtonStyle</item>
    </style>

    <!-- Style Title -->
    <style name="Title">
        <item name="android:textColor">@color/white</item>
        <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
        <item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
    </style>

    <style name="AppTheme.OverflowButtonStyle" parent="Widget.AppCompat.ActionButton.Overflow">
        <item name="android:src">@drawable/overflow_icon</item>
    </style>
</resources>

At the moment I use Android Studio Beta 0.8.9

Answer 1

I changed the res/values/styles.xml file from this:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">

to this:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">

and that solved the problem.

Answer 2

For Android Studio (or IntelliJ IDEA),

If everything looks OK in your project and that you're still receiving the error in all your layouts, try to 'Invalidate caches & restart'.

Wait until Android Studio has finished to create all the caches & indexes.

Answer 3

I did what @gbero said, and I changed the Android version number that Studio uses from 22 to 17 and it works.

I am using the backwards compatibility to build for Android ver 22 but to target 17 (idk if that's correctly said, I am still trying to figure this app stuff out) so that triggered the backwards compatibility, which afaik is what the android.support.v7.* is. This is probably a bug with their rendering code. Not sure if clearing the cache as suggested above was needed as rendering didn't work just after invalidating the cache, it started working after I changed the version to render. If I change back to version 22, the rendering breaks, if I switch back to 17, it works again.

Answer 4

From: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29989542/4123403

1. Clean project
2. Rebuild project
3. Sync Gradle

This did the trick for me.