It’s three in the morning, you are banging at setting up a sweet list. Things are pretty and there is a nice flow with a loading screen within your Activity. You have your post loading layout with the proper code:
<ListView android:id="@id/android:list"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:drawSelectorOnTop="false"/>
You run your application and get hit with an exception which reads something like this:
java.lang.RuntimeException: Your content must have a ListView whose id attribute is 'android.R.id.list'
“What the heck?!”, you think, “@id/android:list is right there!” You browse Google and wade through examples. The documentation makes vague references to something regarding android:empty which is not what you are looking for (well it code be something else you are looking for).
The conclusion is to add a little ListView with that id to make sure it satisfies the requirement that the ListActivity has a ListView of that id in it before you load your final ListView which you will be populating with data:
<ListView android:id="@id/android:list"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:drawSelectorOnTop="false"
android:visibility="gone" />
And now you should have conquered that dreaded exception. What it comes down to is that an Activity extending from ListActivity must have that special id defined within the layout setContentView() or don’t set the view until you are ready. However, most users probably want to see something rather than staring at a black screen waiting for your ListView Activity to load. :)
