Develop Reference

Layout on phone & emulator quite different from designer

I am trying out a simple layout exercise but am struggling to get even a simple layout to work.
In the designer it is as follows:
But when run, the output on an emulator or real phone is:
The Xml markup is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context="com.example.hceng.myapplication.MainActivity"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="81dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="0dp">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="E-mail:"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="52dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="18dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Click Me!"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="148dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="96dp" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText"
android:layout_width="266dp"
android:layout_height="36dp"
android:ems="10"
android:inputType="textEmailAddress"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="66dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="41dp" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
I am new to this markup language, but I thought it seems simple enough with absolute positioning throughout. In any case, the layout seen in the designer is what I want. Why is the above not working?

According to the documentation
When you drop a view into the Layout Editor, it stays where you leave it even if it has no constraints. However, this is only to make editing easier; if a view has no constraints when you run your layout on a device, it is drawn at position [0,0] (the top-left corner).
This is the reason why you see layout correctly in editor but not on the emulator.

You can try this, if not bound to ConstraintLayout
<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:orientation="vertical"
tools:context="com.example.hceng.myapplication.MainActivity">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="12dp"
android:gravity="center">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/email_tv"
android:text="E-mail:" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText"
android:layout_width="266dp"
android:layout_height="36dp"
android:ems="10"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/email_tv"
android:inputType="textEmailAddress" />
</RelativeLayout>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Click Me!"
android:gravity="center" />
</LinearLayout>

Constraint layout has some limitations but I am not sure if colour is one of them.
First
You could try changing the constraint layout to maybe coordinator layout or relative layout.
If that fails
Maybe, the target SDK version in your Android Manifest is too high, if the target version is higher than phone version, it reverts to defaults. So you could try doing placing a lower target version.

Elements overlapping on each other in my android studio emulator

I am new to Android Studio, when I created my app all my elements overlapped on each other. I am not sure how to edit this code. Please give me a detailed description.
Layout editor and emulator result
Code for the layout
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="schemas.android.com/apk/res/android";
xmlns:app="schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto";
xmlns:tools="schemas.android.com/tools";
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context="com.example.first.anew.MainActivity">
<TextView
android:layout_width="216dp"
android:layout_height="60dp"
android:text="Hello World!"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="16dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="61dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="45dp"
android:text="Login"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="343dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="177dp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="215dp"
android:layout_height="65dp"
android:text="username"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="117dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="61dp" />
<android.support.constraint.Guideline
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/guideline"
app:layout_constraintGuide_begin="20dp"
android:orientation="horizontal" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText"
android:layout_width="217dp"
android:layout_height="57dp"
android:ems="10"
android:inputType="textPassword"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="218dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="61dp" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Your emulator screen and the layout editor are different because of tools namespace. In a few words, it is a tool that helps you to better visualise the written code. This tool also generates constraints like tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="343dp", which inform the layout editor on how it should draw the views. The problem is that this constraints will not be present in your app code, resulting in that weird behaviour when all views are overlapped (since the above mentioned constraints are not used in the app code we can deduct that there are no constraint at all).
Since you are a beginner I would recommend to start with a LinearLayout or RelativeLayout because I think that ConstraintLayout is harder to understand, use and debug.

put the whole code. if you are using Relativelayout, this will happen. change it to Linearlayout at the top i mean the bottom most element, and put orientation as vertical

see this - for me my soltion works...
add this in xml to the button etc
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.57"
then play with it in the design.
Good luck! :)

you can click the infer Constraints buttonclick on this
and run your programme again..it will solve your problem

Android Virtual Device does not display correctly

enter image description here
please see the pic. How can I fix this error? I tried installing a couple other devices, checked some function for hardware vs software graphics. TIA
<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"
tools:context="haroonahmad.berkeleysucksapp.MainActivity">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Berkeley Admisions"
android:textSize="24sp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="88dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="88dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="0"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="16dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="335dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="0"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="268dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="335dp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Points: 0"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="163dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="415dp" />
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="495dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="8dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="8dp">
</RelativeLayout>
edit: sorry i'm a completely new to adding code, didn't realize I could only add to the first post.
I tried changing the ConstraintLayout in both places to RelativeLayout, didn't work. then tried right clicking on the resource file and changed the layout and layoutvertical to RelativeLayout, and still didn't work. thanks for any further suggestions

You're probably using a root layout that does not match the alignments you're setting in other views. Try using RelativeLayout as root layout.
Maybe if you post your XML layout, it is easier for us to identify the problem.

OK I fixed it by changing the whole text before xmlns to RelativeLayout. thanks for the tip!

Items Don't Stay Where Placed With Drag Drop Feature in Android Studio

So Android Studio has the drag/drop feature in the design tab. I am able to place the elements where I want them, and the layout looks great on the screen.
However, when I go to run the app emulator, it looks completely different. Everything gets shoved up to the top-left hand corner of the screen, nowhere near where I placed it in design mode.
Is there a way to have your elements show the same way in the emulator, as the way you place them in design mode? Right now I'm having to go back and edit all the code each time.
I have my code below, as well as a image link below to further clarify my point.Comparison of Design mode vs App Emulator
<?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"
tools:context="com.example.luke.currencyconverter.MainActivity">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Enter The Amount in Dollars"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="-159dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="126dp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="403dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:text="Enter The Amount in Dollars:"
android:textColor="#android:color/black"
android:textSize="22sp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="33dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="365dp" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/currency"
android:layout_width="361dp"
android:layout_height="450dp"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/currency"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="12dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="-117dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/convert"
android:layout_width="361dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:onClick="convert"
android:text="Convert"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="12dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="462dp" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/dollarField"
android:layout_width="368dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ems="10"
android:inputType="numberDecimal"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="8dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="408dp" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Drag and drop for android will only place the object within the screen. To keep it there you should modify the xml so that the objects will be constrained to each other.
You can use either relative layout or constraint layout for an easier time in designing your layout.

I figured it out. I was using "constraint layout", and I needed to use "relative layout".

I just had this error as well and as annoying as it sounds, my solution was to delete my xml file and recreate it.

Text color is changing in Android Studio but not showing on phone

I have browsed through a few places but can't find anything "exact" to solve my issue. I set code in Android Studio and the display showed my top text as orange and the bottom text as blue...which is what I intended. When I tried running it on my phone, the text color did not show as it does in Android Studio. (Just is gray text on my phone)
This is a simple bit of code as I'm currently learning from Udacity and a couple other places. Any ideas why code would show as working on Android Studio but wouldn't work on the phone? (especially when dealing with something as simple as text color?)
The code is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="#+id/activity_main"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context="com.example.saoiray.happybirthday.MainActivity">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:text="I'm awesome! Birth of a developer (^_^)"
android:textColor="#FF5722"
android:textSize="32sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:text="Oh yeah, Stephen is awesome!"
android:textColor="#3F51B5"
android:textSize="32sp" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/androidparty"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:src="#drawable/androidparty"
tools:ignore="ContentDescription" />
</RelativeLayout>

I had the same problem, and i disabled the "High contrast fonts" from the Settings-> Display -> Visibility enhancements , of the phone and now the textColor appears like in Virtual Device