android custom layout parameters ClassCastException and what about the View?

Question

Okay, here is what I am doing... I have two custom layouts:

HandedLayout extends ViewGroup

and

HandedPathLayout extends HandedLayout

So in the root layout, I have a custom LayoutParameters to accept a layout property, called handed. Here is the Layout Parameters class in

    public static class LayoutParams extends ViewGroup.LayoutParams {
    public int handed;
    public LayoutParams(Context c, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(c, attrs);
        TypedArray a =
                c.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs, R.styleable.HandedLayout_LayoutParams);
        handed = a.getInt(R.styleable.HandedLayout_LayoutParams_layout_handed,
                HandedLayout.RIGHT_HANDED);
        a.recycle();
    }
    public LayoutParams(int width, int height) {
        super(width, height);
    }
}

And as I understand it (shakily, it seems), I also need to override 3 classes in HandedLayout. Here they are:

@Override
    public HandedLayout.LayoutParams generateLayoutParams(AttributeSet attrs) {
        return new HandedLayout.LayoutParams(getContext(), attrs);

    }

    @Override
    protected boolean checkLayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams p) {
        return p instanceof LayoutParams;
    }

    @Override
    protected HandedLayout.LayoutParams generateDefaultLayoutParams() {
        return new HandedLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
    }

So in the inner custom layout (HandedPathLayout), I need lots of layout parameters, so I do the exact same thing! Here is the LayoutParameters class inside of HandedPathLayout:

public static class LayoutParams extends HandedLayout.LayoutParams {

    public int[] endSides;
    public int[] endPositions;
    public int[] anchorSides;
    public int[] anchorPositions;
    public int controlPointDistance;

    public LayoutParams(int width, int height) {
        super(width, height);
    }

    public LayoutParams(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);

        endSides = new int[2];
        endPositions = new int[2];
        anchorSides = new int[2];
        anchorPositions = new int[2];

        TypedArray a = context.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs, R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams);;
        try {
            //this is the second place that the default handedness is set, watch out!
            //handed = a.getInteger(R.styleable.HandedLayout_LayoutParams_layout_handed, HandedLayout.RIGHT_HANDED);
            endSides[0] = a.getInteger(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_from_side, HandedLayout.BOTTOM_SIDE);
            endSides[1] = a.getInteger(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_to_side, HandedLayout.PINKIE_SIDE);
            endPositions[0] = a.getDimensionPixelSize(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_from_position, 0);
            endPositions[1] = a.getDimensionPixelSize(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_to_position, 0);
            anchorSides[0] = a.getInteger(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_anchor_up_side, HandedLayout.TOP_SIDE);
            anchorSides[1] = a.getInteger(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_anchor_down_side, HandedLayout.BOTTOM_SIDE);
            //todo: should these positions be set relative to handedness?  which direction is zero?
            anchorPositions[0] = a.getDimensionPixelSize(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_anchor_up_position, 0);
            anchorPositions[1] = a.getDimensionPixelSize(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_anchor_down_position, 0);
            controlPointDistance = a.getInteger(R.styleable.HandedPathLayout_LayoutParams_layout_control_point_position, HandedLayout.BOTTOM_SIDE);

        } finally {
            a.recycle();
        }

    }

}

And then again, in the HandedPathLayout class, the three functions to make sure we get the right kind of LayoutParams:

    @Override
protected boolean checkLayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams p) {
    return p instanceof HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams;
}

@Override
public HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams generateLayoutParams(AttributeSet attrs) {
    return new HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams(getContext(), attrs);
}

@Override
protected HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams generateDefaultLayoutParams() {
    return new HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
}

I've tried this with and without the fully qualified LayoutParams class names.

So, now that's all there and compiles okay, and then in onMeasure of the root ViewGroup, the HandedLayout, I loop through the children and attempt to get at their getLayoutParams() so I can figure out where to put them and how to measure them, and I get this ClassCastException!

05-29 18:16:35.061 9391-9391/com.codesolutions.onehandkeyboard E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main Process: com.codesolutions.onehandkeyboard, PID: 9391 java.lang.ClassCastException: com.codesolutions.pathlayout.HandedLayout$LayoutParams cannot be cast to com.codesolutions.pathlayout.HandedPathLayout$LayoutParams at com.codesolutions.pathlayout.HandedLayout.onMeasure(HandedLayout.java:90)

That exception is being thrown from this cast, which seems like it should get the right kind, in the debugger I've confirmed that the child is indeed a HandedPathLayout, and all indications are that the LayoutParams are of the correct type!

                HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams lp =
                    (HandedPathLayout.LayoutParams)child.getLayoutParams();

I just don't get why the LayoutParams are not of the correct type!

And another thing about this I don't get is about the custom View (extends TextView) that I want to put into my HandedPathLayout. It needs a custom layout_rows XML attribute, so do I need to make it it's own LayoutParams? Those are only for ViewGroups, right? But then it's the view that needs that attribute applied, and not the ViewGroup.

UPDATE:

So when I run the debugger and stop just before my cast that fails, in the onMeasure of HandedLayout... I find that, indeed, the LayoutParams objects are NEITHER of the types I expect! The getLayoutParams of the parent (the HandedLayout) returns a FrameLayout.LayoutParams (which makes no sense to me at all) and the child (which is a HandedPathLayout) has a HandedLayout.LayoutParams! WHY?! What am I not understanding here?

Thank you!