Android 1.5 Widgets, Google Maps API and VerifyError

Here are two things that don't get along: Android 1.5 widgets and the Google Maps API. Trying to include both in your application results in a dreaded VerifyError when you try to create a widget on the home screen.

The basic cause, according to Dianne Hackborn:

Hi, it looks like there is a bug initializing a process when it is launched to handle a broadcast sent to an explicit component. In this case its shared libraries are not linked to it.

This manifests itself in two ways, basically whenever a class imports any com.google.android.maps classes. The first is if your widget needs to initialize any classes that import maps. The second is if any of your broadcast receivers initialize any classes that import maps. In both cases, the widget will attempt to load com.google.android.maps and fail, throwing a VerifyError.

The solution to the first is to not have any references to com.google.android.maps. This is sometimes easier said than done, but if you divide out your maps classes from your widget classes this is doable. Worst-case scenario, you can use reflection to call your maps classes; they will throw exceptions when the widget tries to load them, but hopefully you don't need them anyways. (This happened when I had my Application try to clear some maps cache data onLowMemory()).

The solution to the second is to put all of your receivers in a different process.