How to start a non existent Activity mentioned in Manifest?

Question

I am attempting to develop a \"Dynamic\" Android application.

Dynamic in the sense that I have an activity listed in the manifest that is \"built\" at runtime.

Answer 1

I have managed to call a dynamically instantiated Activity and set the required layout content using ByteBuddy.

Heres how

final DynamicType.Unloaded dynamicType = new ByteBuddy(ClassFileVersion.JAVA_V8)
        .subclass(AppCompatActivity.class)
        .name(CLASS_NAME)
        .method(named("onCreate").and(takesArguments(1)))
        .intercept(MethodDelegation.to(TargetActivity.class).andThen(SuperMethodCall.INSTANCE))
        .make();

final Class dynamicTypeClass = dynamicType.load(getClassLoader(), new AndroidClassLoadingStrategy.Injecting(this.getDir("dexgen", Context.MODE_PRIVATE))).getLoaded();

final Intent intent = new Intent(this, dynamicTypeClass);
startActivity(intent);

The method delegation class

public class TargetActivity {

    public static void intercept(Bundle savedInstanceState, @This AppCompatActivity thiz) {
        thiz.setContentView(R.layout.activity_fourth);
    }
}

Even though this gives the desired result it still has issues as the super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) call is made after I have called setContent (I think).

Using the excellent ByteBuddy library is a much better approach IMHO than working with DEX manipulation.