ViewStub must have a non-null ViewGroup viewParent

Question

I am using ViewStubs to load show data in my layout. Since I'm using ButterKnife to bind the layout components, I have custom classes that hold the individual viewstub layout's components, e.g one such viewstub is as follows.

 <ViewStub
      android:id="@+id/featuredContentStub"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:inflatedId="@+id/featuredContent"
      android:layout="@layout/featured_content" />

The class to handle the @layout/featured_content components is as follows:

public class FeaturedContentView {
        @BindView(R.id.art)
        ImageView art;
        @BindView(R.id.shade)
        View shade;
        @BindView(R.id.title)
        TextView featuredTitle;
        @BindView(R.id.performer)
        TextView performer;
        @BindView(R.id.featured_title)
        KerningTextView featuredText;
        @BindView(R.id.play_button)
        Button play;
        @BindView(R.id.shareText)
        TextView shareText;
        @BindView(R.id.addToFavorites)
        ImageView addToFavs;

        FeaturedContentView(View view) {
            ButterKnife.bind(this, view);
        }
    }

I inflate the layout like this:

if (viewstub != null) {
        View view = viewstub.inflate();
        featuredContentView = new FeaturedContentView(view);
}

The above method is called in two different places in my fragment. It inflates correctly the first time but fails the second time citing java.lang.IllegalStateException: ViewStub must have a non-null ViewGroup viewParent.

How can i handle this situation.

Answer 1

Android inflates ViewStub like this:

1. Initially add a ViewStub to View hierarchy same way as any other View
2. Replace that View with specified layout when you call inflate.

This means, that when your code is called second time, the original ViewStub object is long detached from View hierarchy and already replaced by the full View.

Personally, I think that ViewStub in it's current form is highly inconvenient, especially when working with ButerKnife. Fortunately the class itself is very simple, you can always create a custom class, which does the same and add any required methods to it (such as isInflated, addInflateCallback etc.). Android support library developers have dones the same, btw.