Question

I am developing an android application using IntelliJ IDEA 11.1.2 and I need datepicker on my input form. However, when I insert it, IDEA gives “Missing class DatePicker” warning in the preview window and I launch application on the phone it crashes. If I remove datepicker element, application works properly.

I am using android 2.2 as a target platform and java 1.6 as java SDK.

Here’s source code of my form:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id = "@+id/l_main"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
<TextView
    android:text="Some text: "
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:textSize="@dimen/fnt_size"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/source"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
<TextView
    android:text="Some text: "
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:textSize="@dimen/fnt_size"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/destination"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
<TextView
    android:text="Some text: "
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:textSize="@dimen/fnt_size"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
<DatePicker
    android:id="@+id/date"
    android:endYear="2011"
    android:startYear="2011"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<Button
    android:id="@+id/submitBtn"
    android:text="Search"
    android:layout_width="@dimen/btn_size"
    android:textSize="@dimen/fnt_size"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>

How can I solve this problem?

Answer 1

UPDATE: I have filed bug report for this issue (Android <= 2.3).

So I was able to reproduce case that you have. Indeed IDEA signals that’s there’s some issue and app is crashing. Using Eclipse will not help (checked it) – Graphical Layout view in there will also signals that it cannot create DatePicker object.

ROOT CAUSE

It occurs that the problem in your case is that android:startYear and android:endYear do not include current year on the device (range 2011-2011 does not include 2012 – current year).

This is probably a bug in DatePicker implementation (prior to API 11) which tries to init the widget with current date regardless whether or not android:startYear and android:endYear define range that have current year within it.

SOLUTION

Because you are using API level 9, there are no android:minDate or android:maxDate properties (introduced in API 11). So to restrict date picking to any range of years (workaround for the above mentioned bug), you can implement your own OnDateChangedListener.

Example code with comments:

public class MyActivity extends Activity
{
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        DatePicker datePicker = (DatePicker) findViewById(R.id.date);

        final int MIN_YEAR = 2011;
        final int MAX_YEAR = 2011;

        datePicker.init(MIN_YEAR /* initial year */,
                        01 /* initial month of year */,
                        01 /* initial day of month */,
                new DatePicker.OnDateChangedListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onDateChanged(DatePicker datePicker,
                                              int year,
                                              int monthOfYear,
                                              int dayOfMonth) {

                        // Override changing year to anything different from outside the range <MIN_YEAR, MAX_YEAR>
                        if (year < MIN_YEAR) {
                            datePicker.updateDate(MIN_YEAR, monthOfYear, dayOfMonth);
                        } else if (year > MAX_YEAR) {
                            datePicker.updateDate(MAX_YEAR, monthOfYear, dayOfMonth);
                        }
                    }

                });
    }
}