Layout not visible in Full Screen Activity in Xamarin Android - xamarin.android

Question

I intend to create a splash screen in my Xamarin Android project.
I have the following layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center" android:background="#11aaff">
<ImageView
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/splash" />
</LinearLayout>
The following code:
[Activity(Label = "My Xamarin App", MainLauncher = true, NoHistory = true, Theme = "#android:style/Theme.Light.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen",
ConfigurationChanges = ConfigChanges.ScreenSize | ConfigChanges.Orientation)]
public class SplashScreenActivity : Activity
{
protected override void OnCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
base.OnCreate(savedInstanceState);
SetContentView(Resource.Layout.SplashScreen);
// Create your application here
//var intent = new Intent(this, typeof(MainActivity));
//StartActivity(intent);
//Finish();
}
protected override void OnStart()
{
base.OnStart();
// Create your application here
var intent = new Intent(this, typeof(MainActivity));
StartActivity(intent);
}
}
After starting the app, I get a white screen (note the theme) and my second activity (MainActivity) shows up after a few seconds.
If I remove the StartActivity and show the splash screen only, it shows the white screen for about 1-2 seconds, then the image and the blue bacground appear (as expected) - obviously the second activity is not started.
What should I do to make the layout appear immediately?

Answer 1

You could use a custom Theme, instead of a custom layout.
Just a note, for this solution to work you must add the following Nugget Packages to the project:
Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 and Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.AppCompat
As stated in the reference link bellow.
I had to do that a while back and used this link as reference:
Creating a Splash Screen
Basically, you create a .xml file in your drawable folder with something like the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item>
<color android:color="#color/splash_background"/><!-- Your BG color here -->
</item>
<item>
<bitmap
android:src="#drawable/splash"<!-- your splash screen image here -->
android:tileMode="disabled"
android:gravity="center"/>
</item>
</layer-list>
Then you edit the styles.xml file (by default in Resources/values), and add:
<style name="MyTheme.Splash" parent ="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#drawable/splash_screen</item><!-- here you should put the name of the file you just created in the drawable folder -->
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
<item name="android:windowFullscreen">true</item>
</style>
Finally your Splash Screen should extend AppCompatActivity instead of Activity and the Theme should be your custom, like this:
[Activity(Label = "My Xamarin App", MainLauncher = true, NoHistory = true, Theme = "#style/MyTheme.Splash",
ConfigurationChanges = ConfigChanges.ScreenSize | ConfigChanges.Orientation)]
public class SplashScreenActivity : AppCompatActivity
I Hope this helps.