Question

I have this simple layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

            <SurfaceView
                android:id="@+id/surfaceView1"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="0dp" 
                android:layout_weight = "1" />

            <LinearLayout
                android:id="@+id/linearLayout1"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:gravity="center" >

                <Button
                    android:id="@+id/button1"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:text="button1" />
                <Button
                    android:id="@+id/button2"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:text="button2" />
            </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

This complies and the application runs perfectly.
I wanted to replace the generic SurfaceView with my own custom SurfaceView:

import android.content.Context;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;
import android.view.SurfaceView;

public class PuzzleView extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {

    public PuzzleView(Context context) {
        super(context);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }
    @Override
    public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width,
            int height) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub  
    }
    @Override
    public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub  
    }
    @Override
    public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }
}

And use that in the layout xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical" >

                <PuzzleView
                    android:id="@+id/surfaceView1"
                    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                    android:layout_height="0dp" 
                    android:layout_weight = "1" />
.
.
.

As soon as the activity is created I get an exception:

public class MyActivity extends Activity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.game);
    }

10-29 19:56:25.921: E/AndroidRuntime(287): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{ybz.pack1/ybz.pack1.MyActivity}: android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #7: Error inflating class PuzzleView

Is this not allowed. I can’t find any examples for doing this.

Edit:
Other then the solution given below, its also required to add all the constructors of SurfaceView to PuzzleView:

public PuzzleView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
    super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
}

public PuzzleView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
    super(context, attrs);
    // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
}

Answer 1

In your xml layout you also have to write the package(where you declare your class) like this:

<com.your.package.here.PuzzleView
                    android:id="@+id/surfaceView1"
                    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                    android:layout_height="0dp" 
                    android:layout_weight = "1" />