Develop Reference

Application starting with different activity, Android Studio

first timer here (both in development and posting in SO). I've used idunnololz to create an animated listview for a simple reference app I'm trying to make. It's turned out really well, but after I've created it, when I run the app to test it, it now runs as AnimatedExpandableListView both in the ActionBar title and in the app drawer. I've searched here and found that you can get the app to launch with a different activity by editing the AndroidManifest.xml, so I verified that I'm pointing to my MainActivity class:
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme" >
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
I presume this may be an issue with the MainActivity class, but maybe there's something here that I'm missing?

I found my answer here:
Android: App name shows the first page name, not the app name
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme" >
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter **NEED #string/app_name HERE**>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

How to insert an android activity into the manifest given in a tutorial?

I am very new to android development with eclipse, and I encounter dozen of errors and problems. Here is the next one:
I am following an android tutorial given here in order to set up the action bar. In this tutorial is says to insert an activity as follows:
<activity android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light" ... >
Can I just put this line into the xml manifest file?
<activity android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
Or do I need to replace the '...' by something more useful?

Please read the docs: activity-element
The activity's name is required, so you would need to have:
<activity android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light" android:name="MyActivity">
Other than that, you are not required to add any other attributes.
Although be sure to place the activity element within the proper place in your xml. It should be contained in your application block:
<application android:label="#string/app_name"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<activity android:name="MyActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>

Unless you really want your app to work under API levels under 3.0 then you have to add it like this.
android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light"
Inside your already defined activity in your manifest (the one that has the intent filter and other declarations).
otherwise you dont have to add that at all.
This is one example.
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
and this is another
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme=#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light"" >
<activity android:name=".DetailActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
</activity>

The second way you posted is just fine, be sure to close the activity tag so it looks like <activity android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light"></activity>
Also, if you're using eclipse, it is easier to go into the AndroidManifest and under the Application tab scroll to the bottom where there's Application Nodes and then add your view from there. Eclipse will auto generate the correct code in the xml file.

Label attribute in AndroidManifest.xml

I have a manifest with its label declared so the launcher label is different from the Main Activity (the one that is launched at start).
It was working fine, but today I saw on a friends phone it took the activity's label instead.
I have no idea what could be happening.
If it is of any help, the phone was a Motorola Razr.
Here's the relevant portion of the manifest:
<application
android:name="com.app.eventiame.EventiameApp"
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/logo"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar" >
<activity
android:name="com.app.eventiame.MainActivity"
android:label="#string/title_activity_main" >
<intent-filter android:label="#string/app_name">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

You have wrote
android:name="com.app.eventiame.EventiameApp"
instead you can just specify your app name here as below
android:name="EventiameApp"

Change text displayed below app icon on android/eclipse

I would like to change the text that is displayed below the icon when you can look at all the apps on your phone, i.e. the "Facebook" below the facebook logo icon. How would I go about doing this? I have tried strings.xml but that did not have what I was looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You can do it programmatically in your activity:
setTitle("Activity title");
or
getActionBar().setTitle("Activity title");
Or in your AndroidManifest file, there is android:label tag:
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme">
<activity
android:name="com.example.so1.MainActivity"
android:label="ACTIVITY NAME"
>
</activity>
</application>
Also if you want to change Launcher activity's title to something different than your app name then you could do it like this:
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme">
<activity
android:name="com.example.so1.MainActivity"
android:label="ACTIVITY NAME"
>
<intent-filter android:label="APP NAME">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>

How would I go about doing this?
This is controlled by the android:label attribute on the <activity> element in the manifest for your LAUNCHER activity. If your <activity> does not have an android:label attribute, it will inherit the value from the <application> element.

If you want to do it for your app that you are building,, then you need to change it inAndroidManifest.xml under android:label
<application
android:label="#string/app_name"
In your string.xml you can have an entry with app_name.
<string name="app_name">The Name</string>
Hope it helps.

Activity label appears on home screen instead of app name

In AndroidManifest.xml, the application tag has:
android:label="#string/app_name"
and app_name in res/values/strings.xml reads "My App".
But after running or debugging on both the emulator and an attached device, the app icon on the home screen displays the main activity's label instead of the app label. Is this expected behavior, and if not why might it be happening?

Yes it is Expected behavior. The app name will be seen in the applications tab in settings. The main screen displays the launcher activity's label.

If you want to display the app_name property as the label of your application below the launcher icon you can specify the android:label property in the application tag of your android manifest file.
For example:
<application
android:name=".MyApp"
android:icon="#drawable/myIcon"
android:label="#string/app_name">

A workaround for this behaviour:
In manifest:
<application
android:icon="#mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:roundIcon="#mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme">
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
In MainActivity's onCreate:
getSupportActionBar().setTitle(R.string.activity_name);
By doing this, the app name will appear on home screen, and you can still have a different title for your launcher activity.

People see here, I got the same issue and finally resolve it.
Launcher show only the mainActivity because activity label is preferred for Phone Launcher.
So one want show Application labe rather than MainActivity's, he should delete the line:
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/title_activity_main"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.NoActionBar">
<intent-filter android:label="#string/app_name" >
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
delete this:
android:label="#string/title_activity_main"