Develop Reference

Android Layouts: Stick one Layout to the top of the screen and place another Layout centred below

I am working on my first android-project, a memory-game in Android Studio. The gameActivity-Frame should contain some textViews, displayed in one line (for stats) on the top of the screen and the memory-cards below. There are mutliple memory-versions, so the number of memory-cards vary - and by that the dimension of thier GridLayout.
My main Layout is a LinearLayout (vertical). I placed another LinearLayout (horizontal) on it, where the Textviews take place. To display the cards, I used a GridLayout which will be filled with cards once the game started.
The LinearLayout (with textViews) should always stick on the top of the screen. The GridLayout should be centered in the remaining space below.
What I get is that both Layouts either stick in the middle, or that the LinearLayout is correct, but the GridLayout is either on the bottom or on the top of the remaining space.
I tried to find a solution here on SO, and I think I tried every possible combination of the gravity- and layout_gravity - settings of the components. I can imagine the problem is that I can use either wrap_content or match_parent in the main Layout, but not both. Guess I'd need wrap_content to stick the first Layout to the top and match_parent to use the whole space below this Layout.
How can I stick the first Layout to the top and center the GridLayout in the remaining space?
The picture shows my current layout (see code below) and how I want it to look.
center_GridLayout
Edit to clarify:
The LinearLayout should stick to the top of the screen, the GridLayout should be
centered in the remaining space below the LinearLayout.
RelativeLayout won't do the job properly, because the layouts might overlap, depending on the amount of memory-cards and the user's device's dimensions.
I uploaded another screenshot where it's better visible what I want to achieve:
This is my .xml (deleted some unimportant textViews):
<?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:id="#+id/MemoryLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:orientation="vertical">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginRight="20dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textStatsPairs"
android:layout_width="65dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/textStatsPairs" />
</LinearLayout>
<GridLayout
android:id="#+id/gridLayoutMainActivityTEST"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:columnCount="4"
android:foregroundGravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:rowCount="4"
android:textAlignment="center"
android:useDefaultMargins="true"
tools:context=".GameActivity" />
</LinearLayout>

use relative layout or constraint layout.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 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:id="#+id/MemoryLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginRight="20dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textStatsPairs"
android:layout_width="65dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/textStatsPairs" />
</LinearLayout>
<GridLayout
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:id="#+id/gridLayoutMainActivityTEST"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:columnCount="4"
android:foregroundGravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:rowCount="4"
android:textAlignment="center"
android:useDefaultMargins="true"
tools:context=".GameActivity" />
</RelativeLayout >

You can use relative layout along with linearlayout.From your question i got that you want your linearlayout always stick to top and GridLayout always stick to center.If this is the case then i think following code snippet will help you.
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<GridLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true">
</GridLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true">
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Texts Here"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center"/>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

The ConstraintLayout was what fixed my problem... Here's the solution that finally works perfectly:
<?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:id="#+id/memory_activity_4x4"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/linearLayout_4x4"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginRight="20dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textStatsPairs"
android:layout_width="65dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/textStatsPairs" />
</LinearLayout>
<GridLayout
android:id="#+id/gridLayout4x4"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:columnCount="4"
android:foregroundGravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:rowCount="4"
android:textAlignment="center"
android:useDefaultMargins="true"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/linearLayout_4x4"
tools:context=".GameActivity" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Android make button 1/3 of screen width and height in relative layout

I have some XML. In this XML there is a single button inside a relative layout. The relative layout takes up the entire screen. I want the button to have 1/3 of the screen width and height. How could I do this?
Here is the XML:
<?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:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingLeft="0dp"
android:paddingRight="0dp"
android:paddingTop="0dp"
android:paddingBottom="0dp"
tools:context="com.vroy.trapper.MainMenuActivity"
android:layout_weight="2">
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:text="#string/menu_button_text"
android:background="#drawable/round_button"
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
I looked at this question, but even though I assigned a weight to the relative layout itself I could not assign a weight to the button.

you can do this easily in java code.
write this code in oncreate.
Button btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);
int width = getResources().getDisplayMetrics().widthPixels/3;
int height = getResources().getDisplayMetrics().heightPixels/3;
btn.setLayoutParams(new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(width, heigth));

Percent Support Library is the thing you need.
This library is pretty easy to use since it is just the same RelativeLayout and FrameLayout we are familiar with, just with some additional functionalities.
First of all, since Percent Support Library comes along with Android Support Library 23 so please make sure that you update Android Support Library in SDK Manager to the latest version already. And then add a dependency like below in build.gradle file:
compile 'com.android.support:percent:23.0.0'
Now come back to your Question, you can do something like this for achieving your output. Hope it will help you.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.percent.PercentRelativeLayout 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="match_parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:background="#drawable/bird"
android:text="Your text"
app:layout_heightPercent="33%"
app:layout_widthPercent="33%" />
</android.support.percent.PercentRelativeLayout>

(EDITED to consider width as well)
Wrap the button around a linear 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="match_parent"
android:paddingBottom="0dp"
android:paddingLeft="0dp"
android:paddingRight="0dp"
android:paddingTop="0dp">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:gravity="center"
android:weightSum="3" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:gravity="center"
android:weightSum="3">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/menu_button_text"
android:background="#drawable/round_button"
/>
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
Change the android:gravity if you want your button to be on the right/left etc. With this, you could still use your relative layout for other things around it.

Use LinearLayout instead of RelativeLayout to achieve your goal.
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<View
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="vertical">
<View
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/menu_button_text"
android:background="#drawable/round_button"
android:id="#+id/button"/>
<View
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
</LinearLayout>
<View
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
</LinearLayout>
Hope it helps!!

How to create a stampcard type layout?

Im trying to create a stampcard system on my application but when its coming to laying out the stamps (they wil be invisable untill requested and shoud be spaced evenly in 2xrows of 3),
I cant get the view to sit right, I want the stamps to appear evenly over an Image view but it just wont happen, I tried to get my linear layout that will hold the 2 rows to stretch to the relative view ( who's size is set by the stampcard ImageView) so i could space them out evenly using their weight but it wouldn't stretch it would allways wrap the content any help would be appreciated.
The layout xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/main_fragment_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/home_page_title"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="64dp"
android:background="#drawable/bottom_bar"
android:gravity="center_horizontal|fill_vertical"
android:text="#string/home_fragment_title"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:textStyle="bold" />
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/stamp_card_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#id/home_page_title"
android:gravity="center" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/the_stamp_card"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:src="#drawable/stamp_card" />
<LinearLayout
android:id="#id/row_holder"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/stamp" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/stamp" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
<Button
android:id="#+id/scanBtn"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#id/stamp_card_layout"
android:background="#drawable/brown_btn"
android:text="Scan?"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:textSize="23sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:typeface="normal" />
</RelativeLayout>
The Result:
I don't know what to do as they have to be over the image and stay relative to the stampcard and the only way I know how was using a relative layout and it is being designed for api 8 so it has to be simple :/
thanks in advanced!

The solution I came to is to just have multiple Stampcard images each with a one more stamp than the last and to cycle though them.

Android - XML layout vs programmatic

I'm trying to use relative layout with a custom class that extends view, and a couple of buttons. This is what I eventually want it to look like:
http://imgur.com/B5MtdJ7
(forgive me for posting a link rather than an image, apparently I'm not cool enough yet)
Currently this is hardcoded with heights in dp (see XML below), and there are two problems with this:
It only looks acceptable on my Nexus 7 screen, and no other device
Both custom views' onDraw method still provides a canvas with height and width that exactly match the resolution of the device
If I try to set layout_height to wrap_content, each custom view attempts to take up the whole screen, which seems consistent with bullet point 2, but clearly is not what I want.
What I want to achieve is a Relative Layout with two custom views, that looks exactly as shown in the picture, but will scale itself to the dimensions of the screen it's sitting on AND the custom views canvas actually knows how big a part of the screen it sits on. How do I do this?
Edit: the reason this is "vs programmatic" is that I think overriding on measure wouldn't be a bad shout, but I have no idea how that would interact with the XML. I'd rather have the layout definition in one place, too.
My XML is below:
<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=".TrajectoryView" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.5" >
<com.sportsim.virtualcricket.view.SideProfileView
android:id="#+id/side_profile_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
</com.sportsim.virtualcricket.view.SideProfileView>
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.5" >
<com.sportsim.virtualcricket.view.BirdsEyeView
android:id="#+id/birds_eye_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.25"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.5"
android:text="Button" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.5"
android:text="Button" />
</LinearLayout>

This would be fairly easy using LinearLayout and weights. I've given an example below but I can't test it at the moment. It should provide some direction though.
<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=".TrajectoryView" >
<com.sportsim.virtualcricket.view.SideProfileView
android:id="#+id/side_profile_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.5"/>
<com.sportsim.virtualcricket.view.BirdsEyeView
android:id="#+id/birds_eye_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.25" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.25"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.5"
android:text="Button" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.5"
android:text="Button" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Defining a specific xml layout with a nested layout

I am in the process of designing my first Android application and I am trying to get the hang of creating an XML layout. (I have a great deal of experience with Java)
Essentially what I wanna do:
Where the outlines describes:
Blue: A basic View (where i can set a text)
Red: A ButtonView (Used so the user can synchronize data)
Green: A nested RelativeLayout (Where i am going to add a lot of other stuff)
More specifically what i wanna do:
So my question is this: How can i set up the different layouts? I am having the must trouble with setting up the blue and red views because i want the red view to fill up around 25% of the screen width(and the blue to fill up the last 75%).
Thank you in advance.

Use layout_weight property to specify the percentage of screen space a view takes.
Like here, for e.g:
<LinearLayout android:layout_height="match_parent" android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" .........>
<LinearLayout android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<EditText android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="3"/>
<Button android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
</LinearLayout>
//Other view
</LinearLayout>

Use following xml, this is specially designed for you.
<?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" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_weight="0.75">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/headingTextView"
style="#android:style/TextAppearance.WindowTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Cafe Vigeos"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:textSize="30sp" />
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_weight="0.25">
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/nested_relative_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>