Question

I understand an activity needs to be defined/described in the AndroidManifest xml file.

I do not understand why this does not work as many of the tutorials say it should.

If I start a new android project in eclipse running on ubuntu 11.10. Then add a new class derived off (extends) android.app.Activity – then click on AndroidManifest.xml file in the package explorer –
I can see the Application nodes box and the Add button. My problem is that when I press the Add button (to add a new element) a dialog pops up that is EMPTY. There is no selection for an elements and the OK button is greyed out.

Furthermore, I cannot type a name here either, only press cancel. Why is this box not populating with selections? I have tried reinstalling from scratch and double checked version dependencies and permissions and I cannot find anything questionable. For now – I will add the xml tag manually but, I would like to know why it is not working properly. Anyone have an Idea?

Answer 1

Make sure you extend Activity and import android.app.Activity like this:

import android.app.Activity;

public class MyActivity extends Activity {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }
}

Then try going to Project -> Clean menus on eclipse.

If that doesnt help try right clicking your project and click refresh.

And if it still doesnt show the activity on AndroidManifest, manually add the following line on the XML after making appropriate changes

<activity android:name="MyActivity"></activity>

Hope that helps. Good luck.