Nested generic types are improperly marshaled

[jpobst]

Context: dotnet/android#6203
Context: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/android/troubleshooting/troubleshooting#javalangclasscastexception-monoandroidruntimejavaobject-cannot-be-cast-to

Xamarin.Android 4.x doesn't properly marshal nested generic types properly. For example, consider the following C# code using SimpleExpandableListAdapter:

// BAD CODE; DO NOT USE
var groupData = new List<IDictionary<string, object>> () {
        new Dictionary<string, object> {
                { "NAME", "Group 1" },
                { "IS_EVEN", "This group is odd" },
        },
};
var childData = new List<IList<IDictionary<string, object>>> () {
        new List<IDictionary<string, object>> {
                new Dictionary<string, object> {
                        { "NAME", "Child 1" },
                        { "IS_EVEN", "This group is odd" },
                },
        },
};
mAdapter = new SimpleExpandableListAdapter (
        this,
        groupData,
        Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleExpandableListItem1,
        new string[] { "NAME", "IS_EVEN" },
        new int[] { Android.Resource.Id.Text1, Android.Resource.Id.Text2 },
        childData,
        Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleExpandableListItem2,
        new string[] { "NAME", "IS_EVEN" },
        new int[] { Android.Resource.Id.Text1, Android.Resource.Id.Text2 }
);

The problem is that Xamarin.Android incorrectly marshals nested generic types. The List<IDictionary<string, object>> is being marshaled to a java.lang.ArrrayList, but the ArrayList is containing mono.android.runtime.JavaObject instances (which reference the Dictionary<string, object> instances) instead of something that implements java.util.Map, resulting in the following exception:

E/AndroidRuntime( 2991): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991): java.lang.ClassCastException: mono.android.runtime.JavaObject cannot be cast to java.util.Map
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.SimpleExpandableListAdapter.getGroupView(SimpleExpandableListAdapter.java:278)
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.ExpandableListConnector.getView(ExpandableListConnector.java:446)
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.AbsListView.obtainView(AbsListView.java:2271)
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.ListView.makeAndAddView(ListView.java:1769)
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.ListView.fillDown(ListView.java:672)
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.ListView.fillFromTop(ListView.java:733)
E/AndroidRuntime( 2991):        at android.widget.ListView.layoutChildren(ListView.java:1622)

The workaround is to use the provided Java Collection types instead of the System.Collections.Generic types for the “inner” types. This will result in appropriate Java types when marshaling the instances. (The following code is more complicated than necessary in order to reduce gref lifetimes. It can be simplified to altering the original code via s/List/JavaList/g and s/Dictionary/JavaDictionary/g if gref lifetimes aren't a worry.)

// insert good code here
using (var groupData = new JavaList<IDictionary<string, object>> ()) {
    using (var groupEntry = new JavaDictionary<string, object> ()) {
        groupEntry.Add ("NAME", "Group 1");
        groupEntry.Add ("IS_EVEN", "This group is odd");
        groupData.Add (groupEntry);
    }
    using (var childData = new JavaList<IList<IDictionary<string, object>>> ()) {
        using (var childEntry = new JavaList<IDictionary<string, object>> ())
        using (var childEntryDict = new JavaDictionary<string, object> ()) {
            childEntryDict.Add ("NAME", "Child 1");
            childEntryDict.Add ("IS_EVEN", "This child is odd.");
            childEntry.Add (childEntryDict);
            childData.Add (childEntry);
        }
        mAdapter = new SimpleExpandableListAdapter (
            this,
            groupData,
            Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleExpandableListItem1,
            new string[] { "NAME", "IS_EVEN" },
            new int[] { Android.Resource.Id.Text1, Android.Resource.Id.Text2 },
            childData,
            Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleExpandableListItem2,
            new string[] { "NAME", "IS_EVEN" },
            new int[] { Android.Resource.Id.Text1, Android.Resource.Id.Text2 }
        );
    }
}