Develop Reference

Add Padding top in a Linear Layout

This is my linear layout:
It is too close to the top. I am trying to add some space to the top. I have tried using android:paddingTop but that does not work. How do I add space at top in linear layout?
XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/linearLayout"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="20dp"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:paddingLeft="20dp"
android:paddingTop="200dp"
android:paddingRight="20dp"
android:paddingBottom="20dp">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pNameTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fontFamily="#font/comfortaa_bold"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="18sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pDescriptionTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fontFamily="#font/comfortaa_bold"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="18sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pTypeTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fontFamily="#font/comfortaa_bold"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="18sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pPriceTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fontFamily="#font/comfortaa_bold"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="18sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pQuantityTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fontFamily="#font/comfortaa_bold"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="18sp" />
</LinearLayout>

Given what you show in your image, it looks likely that you've already specified android:padding to give padding to all four edges. If that is the case, adding android:paddingTop won't do anything; the system will ignore that attribute in favor of the generic android:padding.
If, for example, you currently have android:padding="16dp", you'll have to delete that and replace it with something like this:
android:paddingTop="32dp"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:paddingRight="16dp"
android:paddingBottom="16dp"
If you are using ListView and want to add only some spacing above the very first item, then the situation is different. Instead of adding paddingTop to your item view, you have some choices.
Padding on the ListView
Add these two attributes to your ListView or RecyclerView tag:
android:paddingTop="32dp"
android:clipToPadding="false"
This is by far the easiest solution, but it will affect how the scrollbar is drawn, which you may not like.
Add a header view to the ListView
Create a layout file for a header view. I suggest using a <Space> tag if you just want some extra space at top:
<Space
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="32dp"/>
Then inflate this and add it to your ListView:
val header = inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_header, listView, false)
listView.addHeaderView(header)
By default, a divider will still appear between this header and your first list item. If you don't want that, you can disable it:
listView.setHeaderDividersEnabled(false)
Dynamic padding in getView()
In your adapter's getView() method, you can programmatically set the padding based on the item's position. First, define two dimen resources like this:
<dimen name="extra_padding">32dp</dimen>
<dimen name="normal_padding">16dp</dimen>
Then, in getView(), add code like this:
val paddingTop = when (position) {
0 -> resources.getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.extra_padding)
else -> resources.getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.normal_padding)
}
view.setPadding(view.paddingLeft, paddingTop, view.paddingRight, view.paddingBottom)

How to dynamically add a TextView/ImageView to a ListView item in Android

I am creating a chatting app in Android.
I was able to create the normal text chat list view with the following as the list item layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/chat_msg_view"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/msg_send_time"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="20dp"
android:layout_below="#+id/chat_msg_view"
android:layout_margin="2dp"
android:paddingTop="2dp"
android:textColor="#android:color/holo_blue_dark" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/msg_status"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/msg_send_time"
android:layout_margin="2dp"
android:paddingTop="2dp"
android:textColor="#android:color/holo_blue_dark" />
</RelativeLayout>
But now i am trying to send images as well via chat. So now i need to replace the first TextView in the above layout to ImageView if content being sent is IMAGE.
What is a good approach to do this.

There are lots of approaches you can use. If you are using a list view adapter you can use itemType to change the entire list item layout (good if you are changing the entire layout, but can be a bit complicated) or you can place an image view at the same location in your layout as the text view and show or hide which ever one you are using. I.E. If showing image, show the image view and hide the text view, if you are showing the text view, show the text and hide the image. Then you don't need to insert/remove views at run time, which is a little more complicated.
Your layout might look a bit like this...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/chat_msg_view"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/chat_image_view"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:visibility="gone"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/msg_send_time"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="20dp"
android:layout_below="#+id/chat_msg_view"
android:layout_margin="2dp"
android:paddingTop="2dp"
android:textColor="#android:color/holo_blue_dark" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/msg_status"
android:layout_width="250dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/msg_send_time"
android:layout_margin="2dp"
android:paddingTop="2dp"
android:textColor="#android:color/holo_blue_dark" />
</RelativeLayout>
Notice how chat_image_view is also aligned to parent left.. it will be on top of the text view, but it has visibility "gone" so you wont see it.
Hope this helps, good luck.

how to make list views like google io 2014 app in android?

I want to create a list view layout with a image and title in it. I want a layout like listview in google io 2014 app. It should be a tiled listview with some colour till the image gets loaded, after the image is loaded it should be shown in the upper half of the listview and title should be shown below with some background colour. I am attaching the screenshot of google io app here.
Updated: If somebody can point me some template custom layout for this listview it would be helpful!

Create a custom list with all the needed controls in separate layout and inflate it using a custom adapter you can find a small example here
you could create a custom layout something like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:background="#drawable/images"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
/>
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:background="#862c10">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:text="HTML5 everywhere how and why android users use the webplatform" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_marginTop="10dip"
android:text="Wed 5 2001" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_marginTop="10dip"
android:text="Steven roberts and mark robinson " />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

(this should not be the answer, but forgive me I could not add a comment, and actually I hope this will give him the answer).
First of all I guess you didn't get on well with using ListView and Adapter in Android. So I suggest you to read the following article first:
ListView tutorial 1
ListView tutorial 2
They will teach you how to use xml to define your custom row view. Then you will know how to use George Thomas's xml. Try how to implement the getView() method.

Android AutoCompleteTextView suggestions overlapping the TextView

I am making an application using Google maps. I am using AutoCompleteTextView to get suggestions of places. The output is as follows :
As you can see from the image, the border of the suggestion box is overlapping the TextView. I am using custom item layout with a Textview inside a Linear Layout.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#fff"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/resultValue"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#fff"
android:paddingBottom="5dp"
android:paddingLeft="5dp"
android:paddingRight="5dp"
android:paddingTop="5dp"
android:textColor="#474040"
android:textSize="15sp" />
</LinearLayout>
Is there a way to bring the suggestion window down and to remove or change the colour of the grayish border of the suggestion window ?

Was doing the same thing as in the accepted answer, but was still having the overlap issue. To fix that make this call:
autocompleteView.setDropDownVerticalOffset(0);

Try like this, android:popupBackground="#EFEEEC"// change according your border you want for the suggestion box
<AutoCompleteTextView
android:id="#+id/autocomplete"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
android:background="#drawable/text_area"
android:inputType="text|textNoSuggestions|textMultiLine"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:popupBackground="#EFEEEC"
android:textColor="#333333"
android:textColorHint="#9c9c9c"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:completionThreshold="1" />
and auto_textview.xml
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="12dp"
android:textColor="#333333"
android:layout_margin="15dp"
android:textSize="16sp" >
</TextView>
text_area9.png
Final output will look like
Hope this help you.

Use a custom drawable like
AutoCompleteTextView txtNames= (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.editBox);
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.drawable.customlist, restList);
txtRestNames.setAdapter(adapter);
and add customlist as
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/cust_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="5dip"
android:textSize="12dp"
android:singleLine="false"/>
Change the parameters/color to suit your needs. Try it....hope it helps

AutoCompleteTextView Items not Clickable when containing ToggleButton

I ran into a strange problem when dealing with AutoCompleteTextViews.
I've got the following layout for my items:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:minHeight="48dp"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:padding="8dp" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/name"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:text="Some place I already visited"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<ToggleButton android:id="#+id/starred"
android:layout_width="32dp"
android:layout_height="32dp"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:background="#drawable/starred"
android:textOn=""
android:textOff=""/>
</LinearLayout>
Now my Adapter sets the Visiblity of the ToggleButton for some items to Gone and for other to Visible. The ítems where it's gone work as expected you can click them and the text gets put into the AutoCompleteTextView but where the ToggleButton is visible the items don't respond to touch. Altough you can interact with the ToggleButton.
Is there a way to make this work with AutoCompleteTextViews or do I have to use another type of View.

Simple make the ToggleButton from the row not focusable(with android:focusable="false" or in code, in the adapter, btn.setFocusable(false)).