How to add flexible sizing to layout components of android - android

Is there any way to add flexible sizing attributes to in XML of android layout.
I want to add elements such that the height/width of one element equals to height of parent minus another element.
Like in CSS, we can use calc() function
Ex: calc(100% - 100px)
Is there a way to do something similar in android, like:
I set
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
So, is there anything like:
<RecyclerView
android:layout_height = "(match_parent - ?attr/actionBarSize)"/>
Is there any way to achieve this in XML itself and not with java in the activity?

No there is not. But you can do it by using margins.
For example if you need to "cut" the height of a RelativeLayout from bottom you can use:
android:layout_marginBottom="?android:attr/actionBarSize"
or if you want to do it from the top:
android:layout_marginTop="?android:attr/actionBarSize"

Yes you can do that in Relative layout as below
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/linear_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" />
<ListView
android:id="#+id/listview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_above="#+id/button" />
</RelativeLayout>
As in above code first i placed button at bottom.Now for remaining place i want to display listview. So i place listview above button and make it match_parent.So it will all remaining space.

Related

Unable to add TextView into main xml Layout

I've been working on an app and am looking to adding a text view below the Camera view so that I could display some text there.
But, for some reason when trying to drag a text view into the layout it doesn't show up on the final screen.
This is my code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/topLayout"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:keepScreenOn="true">
<com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview
android:id="#+id/preview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<com.google.android.GraphicOverlay
android:id="#+id/faceOverlay"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview>
</LinearLayout>
Layout view com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview height is set as 'match_parent' , so its eating up all the space on the view-port.
Try giving particular height and you should be able to see textview added below CameraSourcePreview.
Hope it helps.
Most likely, you're not able to add the TextView due to there not being enough space on the screen.
You're using a LinearLayout which displays all of it's views one after the other in either a vertical or horizontal manner.
Your CameraSourcePreview has it's height and width set to match_parent, which means it'll stretch completely on the screen. However, in a LinearLayout, this also means that there's no space to place the next View because it'll be placed off the screen.
You can add android:layout_weight="1" to your CameraSourcePreview. This will allow your TextView to fit into the LinearLayout because it's basically your CameraSourcePreview telling others it'll resize itself to allow for other components to fit on the screen.
But if you don't want your CameraSourcePreview to resize itself based on other Views, then you should look into using some other Layouts instead of LinearLayout. Perhaps one such as ConstraintLayout or RelativeLayout will work better, since they allow overlapping Views on top of each other.
This is happening because the height of the camera view is taking the whole space on the display you can use layout_weight for LinearLayout to make some necessary space for your TextView.
Just make height of CameraSourcePreview equals to 0dp and add a property
android:layout_weight="1"
So this it would look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/topLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:keepScreenOn="true"
android:orientation="vertical">
<com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview
android:id="#+id/preview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1">
<com.google.android.GraphicOverlay
android:id="#+id/faceOverlay"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview>
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="some text here" />
</LinearLayout>
Instead of using LinearLayout I suggest to use FrameLayout which is easy to control for your case. It is also possible to display textView on CameraSourcePreview by using following code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/topLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:keepScreenOn="true">
<com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview
android:id="#+id/preview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_gravity ="center">
<com.google.android.GraphicOverlay
android:id="#+id/faceOverlay"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</com.google.android.CameraSourcePreview>
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="some text here"
android:layout_gravity ="center|bottom" />
</FrameLayout>

Concatenating layouts during runtime

I am thinking to create a layout whose height is much more than the screen height. OK say, the parent layout is LinearLayout and it is set to provide a vertical scrollbar automatically.
Inside the parent layout, there are many controls (listview, gridview, listboxes, editboxes etc). To make it easier for design, can I put listview in one xml, gridview in one xml, listbox in one, editbox in one etc and then later use some defined function to concatenate and allocate them all in the parent layout ?
If this is not possible, how can I design a layout that has many controls allocated that design screen can't fit at design time ?
xml_common.xml
code:
<?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="#dimen/common_topheader_width"
android:background="#drawable/topheaderfor9patch" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/xml_common_header_imageLogotop"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_marginLeft="2dp"
android:layout_marginRight="#dimen/common_left_right_margin"
android:src="#drawable/qarrow" />
</RelativeLayout>
///////////////////////////////////////////
Main_view.xml
Code:
<?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:background="#drawable/mainbg"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<include layout="#layout/xml_common" />
</LinearLayout>
you can set different images as per your choice set in runtime of common view.

Attach view to custom RelativeLayout in Android

I have a RelativeLayout with a match_parent main LinearLayout view and a secondary wrap_content LinearLayout which is initially not visible (gone).
The secondary one has to be shown at the top of the screen but declaring it at the beginning of the xml file, it is not shown even when set to visible because it's behind the main one.
That's why it's declared after the main LinearLayout.
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/main_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<!-- FULL SCREEN CONTENT -->
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/secondary_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#color/f_white_transparent"
android:gravity="center"
android:visibility="gone">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/myText"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="10dp" />
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
I would like to create a custom RelativeLayout to be used in all the xml files where I can obtain the same behavior and I can be able to put whatever content under the main layout.
Is there any way to do it still using xml?
You are using a RelativeLayout but do not use the benefits of it. You can declare the wrap_content-Layout in first place and add the parameter android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" to it.
In your match_parent-LinearLayout you can add the parameter android:layout_above="#+id/secondary_layout" to make sure it will give space to the secondary Layout. This way gone will work, too.

Putting two child layout inside a parent layout with equal weight distribution in Android

I want to use two child layout (one linear layout and one relative layout) inside a parent layout (relative layout) in such a way that both of the child layout will take exactly half of the screen and items inside of each child layout will not cause one child layout to get more width than another one!
It is pretty easy, use parameter layout_weight in children of LinearLayout, something like this:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
If I understand correctly from your illustration, the red box is a RelativeLayout, whereas the green boxes are a LinearLayout and a RelativeLayout.
A simple solution would be to center an empty View inside the RelativeLayout and align the two child Views against it:
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/v_center" />
<View
android:id="#+id/v_center"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_centerInParent="true" />
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/v_center" />
</RelativeLayout>
A nice little bonus here is that you can provide some spacing between the two by specifying the View's dimensions.
Beware, however, that RelativeLayouts aren't very efficient, and nesting them is an especially bad idea. I suggest using the hierarchy viewer tool to inspect the layout timings to make sure it's relatively fast, and to try to avoid nesting the layouts in this fashion.

How to make several RelativeLayouts each occupying a potion of the screen?

I want to have a relative layout inside another full-screen relative layout, occupying full width but 50% of its parent's height, preferably done with XML and not java code.
I have figured out how how to align parent's center, and how to fill up the width, but is there a way to get 50% of parent's height? What about 30%? 6.2834%?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="??????????"
android:layout_centerInParent="true" >
The reason I'm trying to do percentage is that, if I specify it with "dip", while the object will remain the same size, the layout will look a lot different on different screen sizes (e.g. a phone and a tablet).
EDIT:
Thank you for all the answers about using LinearLayout and weighting. I have looked at that before, too. I feel I might have over-simplified the problem. Say I need something like this:
I suppose I could use complicated LinearLayout and weighting to outline the center square, then having the center square to fill_parent, like so:
But then what should I do with the other 3 squares (layouts)? Can I have another "layer" of LinearLayout for another square? Or should I divide up the whole screen into many, many small cells and having these sublayouts span over multiple cells (not sure if this is even possible)?
Try to use LinearLayout with weightSum
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:weightSum="2"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:background="#FF0000">
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
If you don't absolutely need it nested in one RelativeLayout you can use weight in a LinearLayout as others have pointed out. I just added in an additional RelativeLayout above and below so you can use the rest of the screen if you are trying to. If not, just remove the other RelativeLayouts.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="#+id/ParentLinearLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:weightSum="10" >
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/RelativeLayoutTop"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2.5"
android:background="#color/torange" >
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/RelativeLayoutMid"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="5"
android:background="#color/tpurple"
android:padding="8dp" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/description"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="#string/describe"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/RelativeLayoutBottom"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2.5"
android:background="#color/torange" >
</RelativeLayout>
I usually go with a LinearLayout for this and set the weight to a certain percentage :
<?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:orientation="vertical">
<View
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="25"/>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="50">
</RelativeLayout>
<View
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="25"/>
</LinearLayout>
To your edit:
At some point you need to determine the layout. Start by taking the layout in groups. Look for patterns. In your simple explanation we have devised a way using a linearlayout to group 3 objects with one in the middle. With your new layout, could you group those items in any way?
Once you have simple layout patterns set, maybe add specific spacing that you are looking for by defining weights. Then you might want to add a relative layout and start anchoring views to specific views. Ask yourself do they overlap? Does one view always position on top of other views or on the sides. What defines the bounds of your views and then take it from there using linear layouts, weights, relative layouts, toLeftOf, toRightOf, bellow, above, margins, and padding.
Here is an example of what I mean by grouping like objects. It's by no means the best solutions but that all depends on how you define the positioning parameters.
Yellow = vertical linear layout
Green = horizontal linear layouts
You have 1 large vertical layout and inside two horizontal layouts with multiple objects inside of that. From there you can break it down into easier to manage portions on how to arrange and item within that layout. Now with relative layouts you could position items relative to another object, you could remove some of the work handled by the linear layouts but you will then be defining their distance relative to the other objects and might have to fiddle to get the layout to adjust properly on different screen sizes (reason to not use static positioning).
Maybe try using a LinearLayout with 3 layouts inside with android:layout_weight set to 1, 2, 1.
<?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:orientation="vertical" >
<RelativeLayout
android:background="#FF0000"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dip" >
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:background="#00FF00"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dip" >
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:background="#FF0000"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dip" >
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
RelativeLayout does not support percentage of width and height for children. Use LinearLayout with android:layout_weight attribute.

Categories

Resources