[mono-android] FindViewById returning a ViewGroupInvoker

[Chris Tacke]

I have an AbsoluteLayout that contains a MapView.  I load this layout in my Activity (which is a MapActivity) like this:

m_layout = LayoutInflater.Inflate(Resource.Layout.DriverLayout, null);
SetContentView(m_layout);

And the MapView shows up on the screen and works just fine.

The MapView is defined in the layout like this:

    <com.google.android.maps.MapView
        android:id="@+id/DriverMap"
        android:layout_width="800px"
        android:layout_height="400px"
        android:layout_x="0px"
        android:layout_y="100px"
        android:clickable="true"
        android:apiKey="mykey" />

Later on in my app, I'd like to get hold of this MapView so I can zoom in on it, but I'm having difficulty.

My first attempt returned null:

            var m = m_layout.FindViewById<MapView>(Resource.Id.DriverMap);

A more generic version with a cast fails (i.e. code doesn't continue to run past this point - assuming the cast failed)

var m = (MapView)m_layout.FindViewById (Resource.Id.DriverMap);

So I tried without a cast:

var m = m_layout.FindViewById (Resource.Id.DriverMap) as Android.GoogleMaps.MapView;

And again I get back a null;

So I tried this:
var m = m_layout.FindViewById(Resource.Id.DriverMap);

And I *do* get back an object - just not a MapView.  I run this:

var mt = m.GetType().Name;

And I get back "ViewGroupInvoker"

My GoogleFu fails to even find what this type is.  Obviously it's related to a ViewGroup, but I've not explicitly created one (maybe the MapView does?).  So I guess I have a couple questions:

1. How do I get access to my MapView?  I mean that's really what I want.
2. Why am I getting back this "ViewGroupInvoker" and what is it?  Getting the right answer (#1) is good, but understanding the failure is also important so I don't fall into this again.

-Chris