Android dynamic feature modules do not work, cannot access resources properly

Question

I am having trouble accessing a resource located in dynamic feature raw folder from my main activity. The installation of the dynamic feature works fine and I can access it immediately with application context but I cannot access it any more after I have restarted my app.

The dynamic feature has no classes, only a data.json file.

My test procedure:

• Activity "ActivityFromBase" starts "Activity2" with startActivity2
• Activity2 installs dynamic features with installDynamicFeature();
• After installation runTest() of Activity2 outputs: fromApplicationContext: 2113994755 fromContext: 0 fromNewContext: 0 fromNewContext2: 0 fromNewContext3: 2113994755 fromNewContext4: 2113994755
• When Activity2 is closed runTest() of ActivityFromBase outputs the same: fromApplicationContext: 2113994755 fromContext: 0 fromNewContext: 0 fromNewContext2: 0 fromNewContext3: 2113994755 fromNewContext4: 2113994755
• When the app is restarted runTest() of ActivityFromBase outputs: fromApplicationContext: 0 fromContext: 0 fromNewContext: 0 fromNewContext2: 0 fromNewContext3: 0 fromNewContext4: 0
• Activity "ActivityFromBase" starts "Activity2" with startActivity2
• runTest() of Activity2 outputs: fromApplicationContext: 0 fromContext: 2113994755 fromNewContext: 0 fromNewContext2: 0 fromNewContext3: 0 fromNewContext4: 0
• When Activity2 is closed runTest() of ActivityFromBase outputs the same: fromApplicationContext: 0 fromContext: 2113994755 fromNewContext: 0 fromNewContext2: 0 fromNewContext3: 0 fromNewContext4: 0

My questions:

• Any idea why I cannot access the resource from ActivityFromBase until Activity2 is opened at least once? Please note that I have cut out and simplified the original code but this is the basic code relevant for this problem.
• Which is the correct context to use for getResources() and for the packageName of getIdentifier() after dynamic installation and after restart?
• Why is SplitCompat.install(this) needed in attachBaseContext? I thought it is only needed for classes in the dynamic feature and not for resources.

public class ActivityFromBase extends AppCompatActivity {
    public void startActivity2() {
        Intent intent = new Intent(activity, Activity2.class);
        startActivityForResult(intent, 1);      
    }   

    @Override
    public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
        testAccessResource(this);
    }
    
    @Override
    protected void attachBaseContext(Context newBase) {
        super.attachBaseContext(newBase);
        SplitCompat.install(this);
    }

    final public static String dynamicResourceName="dynamicResources";
    final public static String dynamicResourcePackageName="com.app."+dynamicResourceName;

    public static int getRawResourceFromPackage(final Context context, String name, String packageName) {
        return context.getResources().getIdentifier(name, "raw", packageName);
    }
    
    static public int testAccessResource(final Context context) {
            String name="data";
            
            int fromApplicationContext=getRawResourceFromPackage(context.getApplicationContext(), name,  dynamicResourcePackageName);
            int fromContext=getRawResourceFromPackage(context, name,  resourceIDWithContext.context.getPackageName()+"."+dynamicResourceName);
            int fromNewContext=0;
            int fromNewContext2=0;
            int fromNewContext3=0;
            int fromNewContext4=0;
            int fromNewContext5=0;
            try {
                Context newContext = context.createPackageContext(context.getPackageName(), 0);
                fromNewContext=getRawResourceFromPackage(newContext, name,  context.getPackageName()+"."+dynamicResourceName);
                Context newContext2 = context.getApplicationContext().createPackageContext(context.getApplicationContext().getPackageName(), 0);
                fromNewContext2=Tools.getRawResourceFromPackage(newContext2, name,  context.getApplicationContext().getPackageName()+"."+Tools.dynamicResourceName);
                fromNewContext3=Tools.getRawResourceFromPackage(context.getApplicationContext(), name,  context.getApplicationContext().getPackageName()+"."+Tools.dynamicResourceName);
                fromNewContext4=Tools.getRawResourceFromPackage(context.getApplicationContext(), name,  dynamicResourcePackageName);
                fromNewContext5=Tools.getRawResourceFromPackage(newContext, name,  context.getApplicationContext().getPackageName()+"."+Tools.dynamicResourceName);
            } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
            }
            String message="fromApplicationContext: "+String.valueOf(fromApplicationContext)+" fromContext: "+String.valueOf(fromContext)+" fromNewContext: "+String.valueOf(fromNewContext)+" fromNewContext2: "+String.valueOf(fromNewContext2)+" fromNewContext3: "+String.valueOf(fromNewContext3)+" fromNewContext4: "+String.valueOf(fromNewContext4)+" fromNewContext5: "+String.valueOf(fromNewContext5);
            Log.d("dynamic",message);
    }

}

public class Activity2 extends Activity {
    @Override
    protected void attachBaseContext(Context newBase) {
        super.attachBaseContext(newBase);
        SplitCompat.install(this);
    }

    public void runTest() {
        testAccessResource(this);
    }

    public void installDynamicFeature() {
        SplitInstallManager splitInstallManager;
        splitInstallManager =  SplitInstallManagerFactory.create(this);
        SplitInstallRequest request =
                SplitInstallRequest
                        .newBuilder()
                        .addModule(ActivityFromBase.dynamicResourceName)
                        .build();

        SplitInstallStateUpdatedListener listener = state -> {
            if (state.status()== SplitInstallSessionStatus.INSTALLED) {
                if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
                    SplitInstallHelper.updateAppInfo(this);
                }
            } 
        };
        splitInstallManager.registerListener(listener);

        splitInstallManager
                .startInstall(request);
    }
}

AndroidManifest of dynamic feature

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:dist="http://schemas.android.com/apk/distribution"
    package="com.app.dynamicresources">

    <application android:hasCode="false"/>

    <dist:module
        dist:instant="false"
        dist:title="@string/title_dynamicresources">
        <dist:delivery>
            <dist:on-demand />
        </dist:delivery>
        <dist:fusing dist:include="true" />
    </dist:module>
</manifest>

AndroidManifest of app

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.app">
    <application
        android:name="com.google.android.play.core.splitcompat.SplitCompatApplication">
        <activity
            android:name=".ActivityFromBase"
            android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize"
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:launchMode="singleTask"
            android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar"
            android:exported="true">
        <activity
            android:name=".Activity2"
            android:parentActivityName=".ActivityFromBase"
            android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
                android:value="com.app.ActivityFromBase" />
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

Answer 1

After dozens of uploads to the internal test track I was able to identify the reason. Somehow the AdMob initialization destroys the resource access if it is done too late. attachBaseContext is called before onCreate method of the activity so the solution was to do the AdMob initialization there:

@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context newBase) {
    super.attachBaseContext(newBase);
    MobileAds.initialize(this, ...
    SplitCompat.install(context);
}