AndEngine - Admob black screen

Question

I have an AndEngine game wich subclasses from

public class BaseActivity extends SimpleBaseGameActivity {

}

The game works fine, now when I try to add Admob view to it, I learned from posters on SO to override the onSetContentView() method.

Which I do like this:

@Override
protected void onSetContentView() {

    //Creating the parent frame layout:
    final FrameLayout frameLayout = new FrameLayout(this);

    //Creating its layout params, making it fill the screen.
    final FrameLayout.LayoutParams frameLayoutLayoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(FrameLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, FrameLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);

    //Creating the banner view.
    AdView adView = new AdView(this, AdSize.BANNER, AdMobPubId);

    // Initiate a generic request to load it with an ad
    adView.loadAd(new AdRequest());

    // set the layout properties
    final FrameLayout.LayoutParams adViewLayoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, Gravity.TOP | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);


    // Creating AndEngine's view - Reference made
    this.mRenderSurfaceView = new RenderSurfaceView(this);
    mRenderSurfaceView.setRenderer(mEngine, null);


    //createSurfaceViewLayoutParams is an AndEngine method for creating the params for its view.
    final android.widget.FrameLayout.LayoutParams surfaceViewLayoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(super.createSurfaceViewLayoutParams());

    //Adding the views to the frame layout.
    frameLayout.addView(this.mRenderSurfaceView, surfaceViewLayoutParams);
    frameLayout.addView(adView, adViewLayoutParams);

    //Setting content view
    this.setContentView(frameLayout, frameLayoutLayoutParams);
}

The ad gets loaded, but the screen is black. My game is gone. The screen still registers touches (as I see in the debugger)

How come the engine is not shown in the lower view?!?!

EDIT: Finally got it working

used this code and suddenly it worked, not sure why it didn't before

@Override
    protected void onSetContentView() {
        this.mRenderSurfaceView = new RenderSurfaceView(this);
        this.mRenderSurfaceView.setRenderer(this.mEngine, this);
        final android.widget.FrameLayout.LayoutParams surfaceViewLayoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(super.createSurfaceViewLayoutParams());

        //Creating the banner view.
        AdView adView = new AdView(this, AdSize.BANNER, AdMobPubId);
        adView.loadAd(new AdRequest());
        final FrameLayout.LayoutParams adViewLayoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, Gravity.RIGHT | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);


        final FrameLayout frameLayout = new FrameLayout(this);
        final FrameLayout.LayoutParams frameLayoutLayoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(FrameLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, FrameLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);

        frameLayout.addView(this.mRenderSurfaceView,surfaceViewLayoutParams);
        frameLayout.addView(adView,adViewLayoutParams);
        this.setContentView(frameLayout, frameLayoutLayoutParams);

    }

Answer 1

It doesn't work because you change the layout after it has been inflated. You can't add views after you already called setContentView and inflated the layout.

All you have to do is to create the AdView earlier and add it to the layout before AndEngine calls setContentView. You can see an example of doing so here.

I'm using FrameLayout in this example, it's taken from my game where FrameLayout works the best. Your onSetContentView method will be simpler - all you have to do is to instatiate the RenderSurfaceView object and the AdView object, then add them to a new LinearLayout and call setContentView.

Answer 2

I don't think you can do this

LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.game_rendersurfaceview);

because R.id.game_rendersurfaceview is declared as org.anddev.andengine.opengl.view.RenderSurfaceView

those are not apples/apples.

Personally, I would just add another field to the main LinearLayout in your XML to hold the adView.

---

I can't be real specific since it's been a few years since I used ads. You should be able to find an example of declaring an adView in XML. Will be something like this

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

        <org.anddev.andengine.opengl.view.RenderSurfaceView android:id="@+id/game_rendersurfaceview"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_gravity="center" />

    <adView decalaration here
android:id="@+id/game_adview" />
    </LinearLayout>

Be sure and give it an id and then use that id in your code

adView layout = (adView)findViewById(R.id.game_adview);