Does Android XML Layout's 'include' Tag Really Work?

Question

I am unable to override attributes when using in my Android layout files. When I searched for bugs, I found Declined Issue 2863:

\"include tag is bro

Answer 1

I just found the issue. First, you can only override layout_* attributes, so the background won't work. That is documented behavior and simply an oversight on my part.

The real problem is found in LayoutInflater.java:

// We try to load the layout params set in the  tag. If
// they don't exist, we will rely on the layout params set in the
// included XML file.
// During a layoutparams generation, a runtime exception is thrown
// if either layout_width or layout_height is missing. We catch
// this exception and set localParams accordingly: true means we
// successfully loaded layout params from the  tag,
// false means we need to rely on the included layout params.
ViewGroup.LayoutParams params = null;
try {
   params = group.generateLayoutParams(attrs);
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
   params = group.generateLayoutParams(childAttrs);
} finally {
   if (params != null) {
     view.setLayoutParams(params);
   }
}

If the tag does not include both layout_width and layout_height, the RuntimeException occurs and is silently handled, without any log statement even.

The solution is to always include both layout_width and layout_height when using the tag, if you want to override any of the layout_* attributes.

My example should change to: