Develop Reference

Reusable TextView instead of copy-paste(without include and without style)

In my current project I have about 10 buttons that are almost the same. I'm looking for a way to reuse the code for these buttons.
I've tried to move part of code to separate layout and reuse it via <include... layout=...>, but no success.
I use binding in the project and the compiler does not allow me to cast this View to TextView for calling it from the code. I've tried to move part of this code and set it as a style. No way :-( I have a few selectors here (for different states including enabled and disabled). However, they don't work.
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv_next_button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:enabled="true"
android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="40dp"
style="#style/Myfont_Bold"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:background="#drawable/selector_button_next_bg"
android:drawablePadding="36dp"
android:letterSpacing="-0.01"
android:lineSpacingExtra="3sp"
android:padding="#dimen/padding_15"
android:text="#string/next"
android:textColor="#drawable/selector_button_next_font"
android:textSize="#dimen/text_16"
app:drawableEndCompat="#drawable/selector_button_next_arrow"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/ll_switchers"/>
Any ideas?
I don't want to copy-paste this code 10 times.

Create a style for reused styled Views and apply it in every layout it used
<style name="MyCustomStyle" parent="DesiredParentStyleFromLibrary">
<item name="attribute1">value</item>
<item name="attribute2">value</item>
<item name="attribute2">value</item>
// and so on
</style>

android-add top padding to Chip text

I'm using Chip component from material library in my android app. It is an action chip which has an icon and a text inside. the point is that I need to add some padding to the top of the text in order to bring it down a little a bit.
I have tried to add textAppearance style to the chip, but can not find any style item to do what i need. how to do that?!
<com.google.android.material.chip.Chip
android:id="#+id/chip"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
app:chipIcon="#drawable/satisfied"
app:chipIconTint="#444"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="my text!"
android:textAppearance="#style/Widget.App.Chip" />
<style name="Widget.App.Chip" parent="Widget.MaterialComponents.Chip.Action">
<item name="android:textSize">14dp</item>
<item name="android:fontFamily">#font/xyz</item>
<item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
// what item is needed to achieve top padding?!
</style>

simply: you can't. Chip is designed as is and it extends AppCompatCheckBox and further TextView (doc HERE). so these icons on the left and/or right are compound drawables, not separated Views (e.g. ImageViews), so every padding you will set to Chip will add padding to text and all icons (as this is one View). for your purposes you must create own custom View, easiest way would be probably to create horizontal LinearLayout with childs: TextView and ImageViews on left and right to it, and then you can set additional padding only for text

Android how to center text of chip with fixed size?

I have a chip with 100dp of width but the text is not centered how I can center the text.
I use androidx with material library, I've tried put android:textAlignment="center" and android:gravity="center" but not work
<com.google.android.material.chip.Chip
android:id="#+id/chip"
style="#style/Widget.MaterialComponents.Chip.Choice"
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="7:00" />
I have this
I want this

just now I faced with the same problem, and I solved it by set a chip property: android: textAlignment = "center". I tested your example and it works fine too, here the code that I tested:
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<com.google.android.material.chip.Chip
android:id="#+id/chip"
style="#style/Widget.MaterialComponents.Chip.Choice"
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="7:00"
android:textAlignment="center"/>
</FrameLayout>
Also make sure that you don't set or change a chip's text alignment somewhere in your code.

The short answer:
Chips aren't meant to be used the way you are trying to use them. They are supposed to wrap your content. Therefore there isn't a clean way to align the text in the center.
There is a workaround tho, you can use Chip_textEndPadding and Chip_textStartPadding attributes, which will be kinda awkward I guess.
I don't really know what you are trying to achieve, I mean, what is your why? Is it a button? Is it suppose just to show some text?
Please describe the feature, or at least, part of it.
Anyway:
According to the material design guidelines
Chips allow users to enter information, make selections, filter content, or trigger actions. Chips should appear dynamically as a group of multiple interactive elements. Unlike buttons, which should be a consistent and familiar call to action, one that a user expects to appear as the same action in the same general area.
Does your feature as anything to do with this?
In case you want a clickable, circular component you can simply use material button.
There is a similar question that was asked at github.

as others said you can use textAlignment ...but i wanted to tell you that if your using a custom font it wont be perfectly vertically aligned. you can check here for explanation.
so i would make a custom style that inherits from chip styles and set the font padding for usage like this:
<style name="customStyle" parent="#style/Widget.MaterialComponents.Chip.Choice">
<item name="chipBackgroundColor">#color/white</item>
******* <item name="android:includeFontPadding">true</item> *************
</style>
then for the text appearance you can make another style:
<style name="CustomChipTextAppearance" parent="TextAppearance.MaterialComponents.Chip">
<item name="android:fontFamily">?attr/myFont</item>
<item name="android:textAlignment">center</item>
</style>
dont forget to force a bridge theme in xml:
<com.google.android.material.chip.Chip xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
style="#style/customStyle"
**** android:theme="#style/Theme.MaterialComponents.Bridge" ****
***** android:textAppearance="#style/CustomChipTextAppearance" *******
app:chipMinHeight="38dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
app:chipStrokeWidth="2dp"
app:rippleColor="#android:color/transparent"
tools:chipText="my chip" />

Use isTextAlignmentResolved,
For example, chipname.isTextAlignmentResolved() to do this programmatically.

Android: Horizontal Alignment of Switchcompat from both sides

I am trying to align android switchcompat on both side whether its checked or unchecked but without success.
<android.support.v7.widget.SwitchCompat
android:id="#+id/switch1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:checked="true"
android:clickable="true"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"/>
and here is the result
Any ideas how to get it done?

The Switches (the view bounds of switches to be specific) in your image are aligned as expected. However, it appears as though they are not aligned because the thumb actually goes a little out of the switch track (still within the view bounds). If you want the thumb and track to be aligned on both sides, you can create a custom Switch.
An example would be:
Create background.xml as follows:
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:state_checked="true"
android:drawable="#drawable/drawable1" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:drawable="#drawable/drawable2"/>
</selector>
Set this as background for Switch:
<android.support.v7.widget.SwitchCompat
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#drawable/background"/>
You will get something like:
I know this aint perfect in terms of design, but you get the idea!
This shows that the view bounds are actually aligned in both checked and unchecked states.
You can customize it further by setting the track, thumb and so on...
On tweaking the background a little and setting the track you can get something like:
Cheers!

Android UI widget vertical alignment issue

I am trying to create a layout (using eclipse) in which I need to vertically align various controls like TextView and Button. I am trying to keep all the widgets perfectly left aligned. Even if I specify the same left margins/paddings for the controls, still a difference of 1-2 pixels can be seen between different types of controls.
The problem is that the distance between widget’s border (blue rectangle in eclipse) and widget’s content/graphics varies across widgets (say TextView and Button).
I can apply workarounds by either specifying left padding for TextView or by reducing the left margin of the button container. But I am looking for cleaner solution. I am unable to find any attribute which controls the difference between widget's border and content.
Any pointers on how I can control this gap ?
Snapshot demonstrating the problem is below. Here is the layout XML that I am using for this problem:-
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Hello World" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Dummy Button" />
</LinearLayout>
The images below show the snapshot of the dummy application. Please note the difference between left side margin of "Hello World" TextView and "Dummy Button".
The second pic shows the button widget when selected in Eclipse. The blue rectangle indicates the widget boundary/border. Is the difference between button's border (blue rectangle) and content (greyed rectangle) controllable by some property ?

This is a tough one the TextView and other Android widgets may have some intrinsic styles of their own (android version dependant as well).
Therefore to get around this you would have to create your own style.
In creating your own style always reference the android source code on this subject:
https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/tree/master/core/res/res/values
https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/core/res/res/values/themes.xml
https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/core/res/res/values/styles.xml
There are multiple ways to create your own style.
One way is to theme your activity in your manifest.
First you need a styles.xml file, in your /values/ folder.
In here you would declare your new style:
<style name="Theme.MyTheme.Dark" parent="#android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
<item name="android:textViewStyle">#style/Widget.TextView.Black</item>
</style>
<style name="Theme.MyTheme.Light" parent="#android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
<item name="android:textViewStyle">#style/Widget.TextView.White</item>
</style>
The style above it inheriting from the Android style that hides the title bar, you can inherit from something else.
In this theme we then override the textViewStyle, this allows us to set custom values for our TextView's and override some of the intrinsic values.
<style name="Widget.TextView.White" parent="#android:style/Widget.TextView">
<item name="android:textColor">#FFFFFF</item>
</style>
<style name="Widget.TextView.Black" parent="#android:style/Widget.TextView">
<item name="android:textColor">#000000</item>
</style>
Finally you theme your activity in the AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity
android:name=".ui.phone.FirstActivity"
android:theme="#style/Theme.MyTheme.Dark" />
<activity
android:name=".ui.phone.SecondActivity"
android:theme="#style/Theme.MyTheme.Light" />
Now when you use a TextView in the FirstActivity it's text will be Black by default and in the second activity it will be white.
For your specific question:
You would have to go look in the source code files I linked at the top and see if there is any padding or minWidth or size attributes that are affecting your widgets and your layout.