Develop Reference

Constraint Layout Vertical Align Center - Two Child Views

I have two TextViews, one above the other. I would like the vertical middle of the two TextViews to be at the same position as the vertical middle of the ImageView. (This is so, regardless of the amount of text that may go into either TextView, everything will always look neat, vertically.)
I created what I need perfectly using two LinearLayouts (as the space above the title is the same as the space beneath the description):
But Android Studio was unable to covert it to ConstraintLayout successfully, as it just dumped the TextViews at the bottom of the layout. I've played with a lot of attributes, but could not quite arrive at the desired layout.
My question is similar to this one, except that I am trying to center_vertical align a pair of views rather than a single one - which means I have no view edge to align to the centre of the ImageView/container.
Is it possible to achieve what I'm after with ConstraintLayout? (I expect I may be able to do it with a single RelativeLayout, but I would like to use the layout_constraintDimensionRatio attribute on my ImageView which presumably leave me needing to use ConstraintLayout.)
In case it helps, here's the code for my aforementioned LinearLayout:
<?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"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_width="#dimen/resources_list_image_size"
android:layout_height="#dimen/resources_list_image_size"
android:layout_marginEnd="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:layout_marginRight="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:contentDescription="#string/resource_image"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"/>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textViewTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="#style/MyTextAppearanceMedium"
tools:text="Title" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textViewDescription"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="#style/MyTextAppearanceSmall"
tools:text="Description" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Update: Solution
Thanks to Ben P's answer, this is my final code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<!-- Add guideline to align imageView to. -->
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Guideline
android:id="#+id/guideline"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
app:layout_constraintGuide_percent="0.3" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:contentDescription="#string/resource_image"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="H,1:1"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/guideline"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textViewTitle"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:layout_marginLeft="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#id/textViewDescription"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/imageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
android:textAppearance="#style/MyTextAppearanceMedium"
app:fontFamily="#font/roboto_slab_regular"
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed"
tools:text="#string/enter_title_colon" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textViewDescription"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:layout_marginLeft="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/imageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/textViewTitle"
app:fontFamily="#font/roboto_slab_light"
android:textAppearance="#style/MyTextAppearanceSmall"
tools:text="Description" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

It sounds like you could solve this problem by using a packed chain anchored to the top and bottom of the ImageView. You'll also need to use horizontal bias and a constrained width in order to get wrapping to work correctly.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<View
android:id="#+id/anchor"
android:layout_width="80dp"
android:layout_height="80dp"
android:layout_margin="64dp"
android:background="#caf"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/one"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0"
app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#id/anchor"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/anchor"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#id/two"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/two"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0"
app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/one"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/anchor"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#id/anchor"/>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
The important attributes here are:
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed" on the first view, which causes the two textviews to stack right on top of each other
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0" on both views, which means that when the text is not long enough to reach the edge of the screen it will stick to the edge of the anchor view
app:layout_constrainedWidth="true" on both views, which prevents the textview from ever being wider than its constraints, and so the text wraps to a new line

If you want to use ConstraintLayout you could use something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout 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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_width="200dp"
android:layout_height="200dp"
android:contentDescription="description"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/linearLayout"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#+id/imageView"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#+id/imageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/imageView">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textViewTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
tools:text="Title" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textViewDescription"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
tools:text="Description" />
</LinearLayout>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

You can use this layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:background="#color/colorAccent"
android:text="I am 5% of the screen height"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/textView3"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="#+id/textView3"
app:layout_constraintHeight_percent="0.05"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="1.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="#+id/textView3"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/imageView2" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView3"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintHeight_percent="0.15"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
android:background="#color/colorPrimary"
android:text="I am 15% of the screen height (And the image is 20% screen size in height) "
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#+id/imageView2"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#+id/imageView2"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/textView2" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintHeight_percent="0.20"
app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="1:1"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/rose" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
It will look like this:
One important thing about this layout:
You can control your aspect ratio (for the image) with app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="x:y" and by passing "1:1" make it square
And by the way - I am using support library for no reason on this example, you can use androidx

TextView exceed Constraint if text is too long in ConstraintLayout

I have one TextView aligned to the left and centered vertically. Two groups of ImageView and TextView are both aligned to the right, with two layout configurations, one with image on the right, another with image on the left.
The hello world text can be very long. I want it to expand to fill the whole width without covering up the left text.
I have added app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/text1" to constraint the right group (image + text) not to overlap with the left text. However, it does not behave as I expected.
How to make it not overlapping using only ConstraintLayout?
Text1 will be covered up if the right text is too long, which is not expected. Be noted that the image on the second row is gone too.
code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout 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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
android:id="#+id/text1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
tools:text="Text1" />
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
android:id="#+id/row1_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/row1_image"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="1"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/text1"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
tools:text="Hello World" />
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatImageView
android:id="#+id/row1_image"
android:layout_width="22dp"
android:layout_height="22dp"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/row1_text"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
tools:src="#drawable/ic_confirm" />
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Barrier
android:id="#+id/horizontal_barrier"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:barrierDirection="bottom"
app:constraint_referenced_ids="row1_text,row1_image" />
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatImageView
android:id="#+id/row2_image"
android:layout_width="22dp"
android:layout_height="22dp"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/row2_text"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="1"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/text1"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#id/horizontal_barrier"
tools:src="#drawable/ic_confirm" />
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
android:id="#+id/row2_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/row2_image"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#id/horizontal_barrier"
tools:text="Hello World" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
expected to be like below if the right text is too long. It can achieved by LinearLayout and RelativeLayout

Kindly check the Constraintlayout version. Use app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
with android:layout_width="wrap_content"

You can use Guidelines to stop your text from expanding more than needed.
let's take this layout for example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<TextView
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="longgggggg texttttttttttttttttexttttttttttttttttexttttttttttttttttexttttttttttttttt"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="#+id/guideline2"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TextView"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#+id/guideline2"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Guideline
android:id="#+id/guideline2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
app:layout_constraintGuide_percent="0.18" />
And because of app:layout_constraintGuide_percent="0.18" and android:layout_width="0dp" on both text views the long textView will not exit its constraints.

I had a similar issue, the problem was that I was mixing left and start, so the view was constrained from Right to Left, but the left was set as constraintStartToParent.
Changing everything to start / end solved the issue.

One Textview overlaps another in ConstraintLayout

I have ConstraintLayout with two TextView inside:
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/second"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
I want to place the first one at the top left-corner of parent container and to place the second one at the top-right parent's corner. But both textviews can have text with any length. And when first one has very long text it overlaps the second textview. I can solve this problem by wrapping both textviews in LinearLayout. But this way seems to me inelegant. Maybe there is another way to do it? I mean with ConstraintLayout's feautures

First of all, remove the wrap_content from your widths as this makes the left/right constraints irrelevant. Use 0dp in its place to make it adhere to the constraints' rules.
Then create a horizontal chain between the views and have it as spread, so that the views don’t overlap at any point and they also stay at the edges of the screen at all times.
Finally, align the texts accordingly so that the left one aligns to the start of the view and the right one aligns to the end. In the example below you see that no matter how long the text is, the views don’t overlap and stick to their sides.
NOTE: It is considered better practice to use start/end constraints (as in my code) instead of left/right in order to cater for devices with different text direction. You can also modify the code below by adding the appropriate margins to have the text farther away from the edges of the screen.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout 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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/first"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAlignment="viewStart"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#+id/second"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="spread"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
tools:text="#tools:sample/lorem/random" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/second"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAlignment="viewEnd"
app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="spread"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/first"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
tools:text="#tools:sample/lorem/random" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

use this
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="chauhan"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/second"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="mehul"/>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/second"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:gravity="right"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
This way second TextView won't overlap first one for sure, but there might happen that first is too long so that there is no place for second one. If that could be the case I would recommend setting maxWidth to first TextView, so that in worst case scenario there is some space left for second TextView.
Also I added graviti to second one to keep text on right side of TextView.

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:layout_width="0dp"
app:layout_constraintRight_toLeftOf="#+id/second"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/second"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/first"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
android:id="#+id/tvFirst"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#+id/tvSecond"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
android:id="#+id/tvSecond"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#+id/tvFirst"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

ConstraintLayout with growing TextViews claiming equal space if needed

Is it possible to in ConstrainLayout have two textviews constrained such that they take 50% of the horizontal space each if they need it, and if they don't the other grows to fill the space.
A Correct: When texts are short the textViews do not interfere with eachother.
B Correct: The short left textView yields space to the longer right one
C Correct: Share horizontal space equally and grow vertically
D Incorrect: Right textView grows on expense of the left textView.
E Incorrect: Right textView grows vertically rather than filling available horizontal space.
I've tried a lot of things. It think layout_width="wrap_content" or layout_constraintWidth_default="wrap" is a must since it is the textViews' only way to communicate how much space it wants.
Experimented with:
layout_constrainedWidth="true/false"
layout_constraintWidth_default="spread/wrap"
layout_constraintWidth_max="wrap"
layout_constraintHorizontal_weight="1" // with 0dp as width
Experimentation mostly with the textViews in a horizontal chain, since there is a symmetry in the problem I think a symmetric solution makes sense.
Has anyone managed this or is it just impossible? I do not know why it behaves as it does with the second element in the chain being 'heavier' than the first one forcing it to be the only one to grow vertically.

To solve your problem, you have to set the width of the TextViews to 0dp. I added a Barrier to the TextView at the left so that whenever the right TextView needs space, it will take the space of the left TextView. Try this code:
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout 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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TextView"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView3"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTestTest"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#+id/text_barrier"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Barrier
android:id="#+id/text_barrier"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:barrierDirection="end"
app:constraint_referenced_ids="textView1" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Barriers is what you are looking for in combination with chaining.
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/barrier"/>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Barrier
android:id="#+id/barrier"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:barrierDirection="start"
app:constraint_referenced_ids="textView2" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/barrier"/>

Use Constraint layout horizinatal chain property.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout 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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/title"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#655643"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="5dp"
android:layout_marginStart="5dp"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="spread"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#+id/subtitle"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
tools:text="Dream Destinations sfsd sdfsdfdsfsdfsdfsdfsdfs" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/subtitle"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#999999"
android:textSize="13sp"
android:layout_marginStart="5dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="5dp"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/title"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#+id/title"
tools:text="by Someone, 921 discoveriesdfdsfdsfsdffsfsfsdf" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Constraint Layout Getting a default top margin for imageview

I am trying to create a layout using constraint layout, with an ImageView on top, a button in the ImageView, a TextView below it and then another TextView below it. Following is the xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
app:cardElevation="4dp">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/white">
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/news_image1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="16:9"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
android:layout_marginTop="0dp"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/news_title1"/>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/news_share_button_1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:src="#drawable/share_button_big"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#+id/news_image1"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="#+id/news_image1"
android:layout_marginRight="15dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="15dp"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/news_title1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:lines="3"
android:ellipsize="end"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/news_image1"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/news_read_more1"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:textColor="#color/colorPrimaryText"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/news_cell0_textview_margin"
android:textSize="12sp"
android:typeface="monospace" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/news_read_more1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:lines="1"
android:ellipsize="end"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/news_title1"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:textColor="#color/read_more_text_color"
android:text="#string/news_read_more"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/news_cell0_textview_margin"
android:textSize="10sp" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
</android.support.v7.widget.CardView>
Everything is correct except for a small margin on top of the first ImageView. Whatever I do I cannot get rid of that margin. See the image below.
Please note the margin between the top of the ImageView and the card, that is what is troubling me.

Your news_image, news_title1, and news_read_more1 views form a chain. Apparently, though I cannot find documentation on this, all views in a vertical chain will share vertical margins. In other words, applying a layout_marginTop or layout_marginBottom attribute to one of those three views will wind up applying it to all three of them.
You will have to re-allocate your margins, keeping this in mind.
Edit
Looks like the behavior is a little more sophisticated than I thought. First of all, it looks like it only applies to views with the spread "chain style" (which is the default). Second, it looks like top margin is applied to the view it is specified on as well as all views above that one in the chain, while bottom margin is applied to the view it is specified on as well as all views below that one in the chain. Finally, it appears that margins are cumulative (so if you had 10dp top margin on your bottom view and 20dp top margin on your middle view, the final result would be 30dp on your top view, 30dp on your middle view, and 10dp on your bottom view).
As for how to solve this problem in your specific case? You should be able to use left/right margins without issue. And then probably you should use bottom margin on your top view to space the three views out.
Edit #2
Muthukrishnan's answer made me realize that you could solve this problem by simply removing the chain from your views. If you delete the app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/news_title1" constraint from your ImageView, that will break the chain and now the vertical margins aren't shared.

Thanks to the great starter by Ben P, I managed to figure out a solution. There are three(plus one weighed) chaining styles available in ConstraintLayout. According to this great tutorial the chaining styles are explained as:
Spread: The views are evenly distributed. E.g.
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle=”spread”
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle=”spread”
Spread inside: The first and last view are affixed to the constraints on each end of the chain and the rest are evenly distributed. E.g.
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle=”spread_inside”
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle=”spread_inside”
Packed: The views are packed together (after margins are accounted for). You can then adjust the whole chain’s bias (left/right or up/down) by changing the chain’s head view bias. E.g.
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle=”packed”
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle=”packed”
Weighted: When the chain is set to either spread or spread inside, you can fill the remaining space by setting one or more views to “match constraints” (0dp). By default, the space is evenly distributed between each view that's set to "match constraints," but you can assign a weight of importance to each view using thelayout_constraintHorizontal_weight and layout_constraintVertical_weight attributes. If you're familiar with layout_weight in a linear layout, this works the same way. So the view with the highest weight value gets the most amount of space; views that have the same weight get the same amount of space.
spread is the default chaining style. I changed it to spread_inside so that the first and last views are affixed to the constraints on each end of the chain(hence obeying the margins provided). The xml now looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
app:cardElevation="4dp">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/white">
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/news_image1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="16:9"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
android:layout_marginTop="0dp"
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="spread_inside"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/news_title1"/>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/news_share_button_1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:src="#drawable/share_button_big"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#+id/news_image1"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="#+id/news_image1"
android:layout_marginRight="15dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="15dp"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/news_title1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:lines="3"
android:ellipsize="end"
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="spread_inside"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/news_image1"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/news_read_more1"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:textColor="#color/colorPrimaryText"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/news_cell0_textview_margin"
android:textSize="12sp"
android:typeface="monospace" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/news_read_more1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:lines="1"
android:ellipsize="end"
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="spread_inside"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/news_title1"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:textColor="#color/read_more_text_color"
android:text="#string/news_read_more"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/news_cell0_textview_margin"
android:textSize="10sp" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
</android.support.v7.widget.CardView>

Try this, I remove app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" in your layout it works
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
app:cardElevation="4dp">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#android:color/white">
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/news_image1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="16:9"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"/>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/news_share_button_1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:src="#drawable/ic_menu_share"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#+id/news_image1"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="#+id/news_image1"
android:layout_marginRight="15dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="15dp"/>
<AliasTextView
android:id="#+id/news_title1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:lines="3"
android:ellipsize="end"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/news_image1"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:textColor="#color/colorPrimaryText"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/news_cell0_textview_margin"
android:textSize="12sp"
android:typeface="monospace" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/news_read_more1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:lines="1"
android:ellipsize="end"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/news_title1"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
android:textColor="#color/read_more_text_color"
android:text="#string/news_read_more"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/news_cell0_textview_margin"
android:textSize="10sp" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
</android.support.v7.widget.CardView>