How to create an info overlay in Android

Question

I am looking for a way to create a short overlay intro of an app to display to first time users. These posts gave me some understanding of how it can be done, but not entirely:

How do I create a help overlay like you see in a few Android apps and ICS?

How to use LayoutInflater / ViewStub for an overlay

I do not understand how to access my elements correctly, since my root layout element is a LinearLayout that includes an Actionbar and a ViewPager instead of containing actual elements.

Are there any frameworks that does this for you?

Answer 1

I think that this library : ShowcaseView is your best option. As its name implies, it allows you to recreate the Android 4.x showcase view; ie :
.

The documentation of the project explains how to implement it. Word of advice though : this kind of explanation view is viewed as bad design most of the time : if your application is well designed, you don't need to provide a tutorial to the user, it is supposed to be intuitive.
It can be totally justified in some cases of course, just be sure that :
-your users really need a tutorial.
-it is not because you are doing something opposite to the Android convetions.

Answer 2

Have a look at MaterialShowcaseView. It inherits from ShowcaseView and is up-to-date.