ConstraintLayout beta5 wrap_content doesn't properly wrap - android

I have a XML layout for a ViewHolder inside a RecyclerView.
This layout's root is a ConstraintLayout whose height is set to wrap_content.
Inside this flat hierarchy there are 3 textviews and an image view with a fixed height; think of:
<ConstraintLayout>
<TextView height=wrap>
<TextView height=wrap>
<TextView height=wrap>
<ImageView height=150dp>
</ConstraintLayout>
It's a relatively simple layout. In beta4 this is how it looks in the Designer (and eventually at runtime, each recyclerView cell):
Apologies for the "red tape" but it's NDA blah blah.
That being said, the elements are:
The 3 text views (red taped with a nice purple background)
The ImageView with 150dp height is the gray thing.
The Purple background was applied to the root ConstraintLayout. All nice.
Now this is how it looks, without a single modification with Beta 5:
As you can see the Purple (root) Constraint Layout is now "confused" and doesn't wrap content as it used to.
Things I tried:
Adding app:layout_constraintHeight_default="wrap" to the ConstraintLayout (and spread too). Didn't make a difference.
The ImageView has a app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent" constraint that I tried removing, didn't make a difference either.
Revert back to beta4 :)
For the record, this is the full layout (id's have been renamed for red-tape reasons and no tools:text or similar due to the same reasons). The layout is otherwise exactly the same.
<?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="wrap_content"
android:background="#color/colorAccent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/toplabel"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:text=""
android:textStyle="bold"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#+id/top_bottom_label"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toLeftOf="#+id/top_right_label"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/top_right_label"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:gravity="end"
android:maxLines="1"
android:text=""
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/top_bottom_label"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="1.0"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/toplabel"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/top_bottom_label"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:gravity="end"
android:maxLines="1"
android:text=""
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="1.0"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/toplabel"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/top_right_label" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageview"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="150dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/top_bottom_label"
app:srcCompat="#android:color/darker_gray" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
Am I supposed to do something different? (I know I can replace this with a RelativeLayout and probably do the same, but anyway… I believe in ConstraintLayout!) :)

I filed a bug about this and I got a workaround.
It's a regression and will be fixed (we hope) but… turns out my Chain is also incorrectly defined. My top_bottom_label does not have a bottom endpoint, and according to the documentation elements in a chain should be connected on both endpoints.
So I added app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#id/imageview" to the top_bottom_label and this seems to work for my case. I have, effectively added the imageView to the chain, even do I don't really care much for it. It works for now.
Update February 14th 2017: The ConstraintLayout team # Google fixed the issue in master. It will likely be fixed in a next release. (Thanks!).

Related

Inexplicable white/blank space in Android app, not showing in layout preview

The preview looks fine, but the app runs differently. In the layout inspector, there is simply nothing where this weird white space is. It seems to be a problem with ConstraintLayout + ViewPager. I had the same issue in three places, all with same ViewPager, 0dp vertical size setup. I have solved by converting ConstraintLayouts into LinearLayouts. But the question is why do I need to regress to a LinearLayout? I originally wrote the UI with ConstraintLayout, and ViewPager, it was fine. Somewhere along the way, without touching the code, things turned weird and this blank space showed up. As if something in Android UI rendering changed under the hood. Anyone have any idea what it is, or how to solve while keeping a ConstraintLayout?
Here is the layout inspector image of the app running on a device. I have clearly marked the problematic white space with my mouse calligraphy skills.
Here is the layout preview for the following xml code, note UI elements fill the screen, no white space after the bottom toolbar in this view, unlike live app. Don't mind the colour difference, the app changes colours at run time.
fragment_layout.xml (Between green and marked blank space in live app image, the rest of UI is from activity, but I know that's not the problem, so won't add the xml for that)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout
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">
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".ui.order.OrderBuildFragment"
>
<com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout
android:id="#+id/order_tabs"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:tabMode="fixed"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/order_viewpager"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"/>
<androidx.viewpager.widget.ViewPager
android:id="#+id/order_viewpager"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:background="#android:color/white"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/order_tabs"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#id/build_order_bottom_toolbar"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent">
</androidx.viewpager.widget.ViewPager>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
android:id="#+id/build_order_bottom_toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/order_viewpager"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/order_service_point_spinner_label"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/service_point"
android:textColor="#color/white"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/order_toolbar_service_point_spinner"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#id/build_order_guideline_service_point_and_action_buttons"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
/>
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatSpinner
android:id="#+id/order_toolbar_service_point_spinner"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#id/build_order_guideline_service_point_and_action_buttons"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/order_service_point_spinner_label"
android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"/>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Guideline
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/build_order_guideline_service_point_and_action_buttons"
app:layout_constraintGuide_percent="0.5"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/order_textView_price"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:text="#{#string/currency_symbol + viewModel.price}"
android:textColor="#color/white"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/order_toolbar_button_more"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/build_order_guideline_service_point_and_action_buttons"
tools:text="$999.99"
/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/order_toolbar_button_more"
style="?android:attr/borderlessButtonStyle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:onClick="moreButtonAction"
android:text="#string/more"
android:textColor="#color/white"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="#id/order_toolbar_button_send"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/order_textView_price"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/build_order_guideline_service_point_and_action_buttons"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/order_toolbar_button_send"
style="?android:attr/borderlessButtonStyle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:onClick="sendButtonAction"
android:text="#{viewModel.sendButtonText}"
android:textColor="#color/white"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/order_toolbar_button_more"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/build_order_guideline_service_point_and_action_buttons"
tools:text="#string/send"/>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
<androidx.core.widget.ContentLoadingProgressBar
android:id="#+id/build_order_progress_bar"
style="?android:attr/progressBarStyle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:visibility="#{safeUnbox(viewModel.loading)}"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
/>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
</layout>
My Linear layout solution simply included replacing ConstraintLayout with a LinearLayout, removing all constraints from child elements and adding orientation: "vertical" (of course) plus putting layout_weight: 1 in the ViewPager element. If that helps anyone.
My guess is that you are using androidx.constraintlayout:constraintlayout:2.0.0-beta2.
This specific version is known to cause issues like this.
Update to the latest version ('androidx.constraintlayout:constraintlayout:2.0.0-beta6' at the time of writing).

how can I implement ui the same as on the image

I am developing news app and I want to implement constrainlayout inside CardView and achieve ui the same as image below
but I could achieve what I want below my xml file
where I have implemented constrainlayout inside cardview
<TextView
android:id="#+id/articleTitle"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/articleTitle"
tools:ignore="NotSibling" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/articleAuthor"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:text="hhhhh"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/imageView" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/articleImageView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/articleTitle" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/articleDescription"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
android:text="hhhhh"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#+id/imageView" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/articleImageUrl"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintDimensionRatio="H,16:9"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#id/articleTitle"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
tools:ignore="ContentDescription" />
below my xml ui output from layouteditor
What you need to achieve is not difficult at all (although, it's hard to tell because I don't know your project).
Based upon the image you provided, here's a rough approximation using basic Constraint Layout features (no Chains, or anything too fancy); again, I don't know the exact specs and requirements, but this should serve as a starting point.
Here's how the final product looks in the Android Studio Editor, I didn't run this, so there are some artifacts not 100% correctly rendered (like the borders of the CardView), because Android Studio does an "approximation" of how it looks:
Root Layout
You mentioned you wanted a CardView, so the root is naturally a MaterialDesign Card View:
<com.google.android.material.card.MaterialCardView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/card"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="16dp"
android:background="#android:color/darker_gray"
android:elevation="4dp">
Constraint Layout
Inside the card view, there's one single viewGroup: a Constraint Layout
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
android:id="#+id/innerRoot"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/white">
This ConstraintLayout is going to contain all the Card's contents in a flat hierarchy. It matches its parent (the card) in width, but it wraps its height, just like the Card itself.
Top News Header, Icon, and subtext:
THere are various ways to achieve this, and depending upon your requirements, you may want to play with vertical chains, constraining the width, etc., to avoid text from overlapping each other, and/or to enable/disable multi-line support, or ellipsis, etc. None of this information can be inferred from your static image.
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/topFlameImageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:contentDescription="Header title"
android:padding="8dp"
android:src="#drawable/ic_flash_on_black_24dp"
android:tint="#android:color/holo_red_light"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<com.google.android.material.textview.MaterialTextView
android:id="#+id/topTitleTextView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Top News"
android:textStyle="bold"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/topFlameImageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<com.google.android.material.textview.MaterialTextView
android:id="#+id/bottomTitleTextView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Editor on duty: Dan"
android:textColor="#android:color/darker_gray"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#id/topFlameImageView"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/topFlameImageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/topTitleTextView" />
Notice it's just an ImageView, and two TextViews, one below the other, all constrained together.
Big Image
I didn't put an image, but did add a blue background representing the image. I gave it an arbitrary height of 250dp, but this is not mandatory, you may change this; it gives you an idea.
This image is constrained to be below the above header with "Top News", etc, and it spans the whole width of the card.
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/bigImage"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="250dp"
android:background="#android:color/holo_blue_dark"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/topFlameImageView" />
Title + Icon
Below the big image, there's what appears to be a Title (and its icon). Nothing special, just like the "header" above, an image and a text.
Here is where there's something that I didn't do: In your image, the text in this, aligns to the left/start, even below the icon; in this example, the TextView is constrained to the end/right of the icon, and so if it's multi-line, it will not "properly" justify its text to fit below the icon. In other words, in the image above, the word "Update" should be below the red "lightning bolt" icon, but it's not. (I think it looks better this way anyway... but I haven't thought how to make it look like what you exactly want). Using drawableStart in the TextView, doesn't give the same effect, so that's why I used a separate imageVIew for these "icons", to better control the image's placement.
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/titleImageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:contentDescription="Title"
android:padding="8dp"
android:src="#drawable/ic_flash_on_black_24dp"
android:tint="#android:color/holo_red_light"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/bigImage" />
<com.google.android.material.textview.MaterialTextView
android:id="#+id/titleTextView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Real Madrid provide Toni Kroos injury update"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/titleImageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#id/titleImageView" />
User Avatar, Name, and Timestamp (?)
This is similar to the Title, and the Header at the beginning, except you want the timestamp (17 m) to be at the end/right of what appears to be the user name Onefootball.
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/userAvatarImageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:contentDescription="Title"
android:padding="8dp"
android:src="#drawable/ic_account_circle_black_24dp"
android:tint="#android:color/holo_green_light"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/titleTextView" />
<com.google.android.material.textview.MaterialTextView
android:id="#+id/userNameTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Onefootball"
android:textColor="#android:color/black"
android:textSize="14sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#id/userAvatarImageView"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/titleImageView"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#id/userAvatarImageView" />
<com.google.android.material.textview.MaterialTextView
android:id="#+id/timestampTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingStart="8dp"
android:paddingEnd="8dp"
android:text="- 17m"
android:textColor="#android:color/darker_gray"
android:textSize="14sp"
app:layout_constraintBaseline_toBaselineOf="#id/userNameTextView"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#id/userNameTextView" />
One image, one Text, another text; nothing fancy.
Closing the tags
Last but not least, you have to close the ConstraintLayout and the CardView...
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
</com.google.android.material.card.MaterialCardView>
And that's all.
Final Comment | Conclusion
At the beginning of this combo, I told you StackOverflow is not a Free Coding Site; this is still true, and I've made this effort because it seems like you are learning Android and I love helping people, but keep in mind that in general, it's much much better if you try firsts and come up with 20 different small questions as you go through it.
I would have personally tried to solve this in small bits (like I presented it above) and when something didn't behave as expected, it would have been easier to ask here "Hey look at this small thing, why doesn't it do X Y Z????" than to try to post the whole thing, and hope someone comes around and fixes it for you so you can copy paste the solution and forget about it.
I really hope you learn from this and don't just copy/paste it.
Good luck with your project.

Is it advisable to use LinearLayout inside ConstraintLayout in Android?

I am new to ConstraintLayout in Android and newbie to Android too. I have a question. Is it advisable to use LinearLayout inside ConstraintLayout? For example:
<?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"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/landing_screen"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context="com.braigolabs.braigo.landing.LandingActivity">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/landing_screen"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="1.0"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="1.0"
tools:layout_constraintTop_creator="1"
tools:layout_constraintRight_creator="1"
tools:layout_constraintBottom_creator="1"
tools:layout_constraintLeft_creator="1"/>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="0dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="51dp">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="66dp"
android:layout_marginStart="66dp"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="#string/login_welcome_braigolabs" android:textAppearance="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="93dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="403dp"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/login_button"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Button.Colored"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:elevation="2dp"
android:text="#string/login_login_button_title"
android:textAllCaps="false"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteX="116dp"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="543dp"/>
</LinearLayout>
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
Also curious to know how popular is the ConstraintLayout among the developers?
Is it advisable to use LinearLayout inside ConstraintLayout?
No... usually.
In general, the idea behind ConstraintLayout is that it allows you to position all of your children without having to nest any other ViewGroups inside the ConstraintLayout. As such, I would say that it is not advisable.
However, there are some things that a LinearLayout can do that a ConstraintLayout can't (mostly revolving around weighted spacing of views), and so if you need these particular corner cases in your layout, you won't have any option other than falling back to a LinearLayout.
how popular is the ConstraintLayout among the developers?
ConstraintLayout is relatively new, but it is quite powerful and certainly something that you ought to familiarize yourself with. It won't always be the perfect tool for the job at hand, but it will often allow you to easily create layouts you would otherwise spend hours on.
I can't speak to widespread adoption statistics, but I can say that I've seen tons of questions on this site about the correct usage of ConstraintLayout, so clearly devs around the world are starting to work with it.
As of the 2.0.0-alpha5 release of the constraintlayout library, it's now possible to declare a Flow virtual layout element within your ConstraintLayout which (as the name suggests) determines how referenced items are to flow (e.g. vertically, horizontally) within the ConstraintLayout. So it's no longer necessary to declare a LinearLayout within your ConstraintLayout.
For example, if you wanted items within your ConstraintLayout to flow vertically, you'd do so like this:
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
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="I am the first TextView" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="I am the second TextView" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView3"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="I am the third TextView" />
<androidx.constraintlayout.helper.widget.Flow
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:orientation="vertical"
app:constraint_referenced_ids="textView1,textView2,textView3"
app:flow_horizontalAlign="start"
app:flow_verticalGap="8dp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
You can play around with the app:flow_ attributes in the Flow element to achieve different flow behaviour. For more information about the Flow element, refer to the release notes here. For an example, see here.

ConstraintLayout View.GONE usage

I recently started using ConstraintLayout. As I discovered, most of the features are pretty straight forward, and well explained in the docs with samples, text and video tutorials and all.
The thing that got in my mind is how to I solve this 'puzzle' as elegant as possible?
As you can see, in the right section of the layout, I have multiple Views aligned left. On the last but one row, there are 3 Views aligned horizontally (they are also aligned TOP between each other).
Problem is: if I set first View's visibility from that row as GONE, the other two (in the same row), go left as expected, but the one underneath (last row in the vertical alignment) goes over the row before (because its constraintTop property is set as bottom of the View set as GONE).
The only solution I can think of is using a ViewGroup to group those 3 Views and add the constraint to last row View to it.
Am I missing some property on ConstraintLayout which could help my case? Maybe some sort of fallback (or multiple) constraints if one of them is set on a GONE View?
Sorry if my explanation seem quite abstruse, maybe the pictures will help you more :)
LE: Added layout: https://gist.github.com/DoruAdryan/7e7920a783f07b865489b1af0d933570
You can use the new Barriers feature of ConstraintLayout.
<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="wrap_content">
<android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatImageView
android:id="#+id/iv_item_small_product_image"
android:layout_width="113dp"
android:layout_height="113dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="7dp"
android:layout_marginStart="7dp"
android:background="#android:drawable/btn_radio"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatImageView
android:id="#+id/iv_row_1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:background="#android:drawable/bottom_bar"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/iv_item_small_product_image"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<ro.emag.android.views.FontTextView
android:id="#+id/tv_row_2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="3dp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="2"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/iv_item_small_product_image"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/iv_row_1"
app:layout_goneMarginTop="0dp"
tools:text="Some text long enough to be split on multiple lines on some devices." />
<android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatRatingBar
android:id="#+id/rb_row_3_1"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.RatingBar.Small"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="9dp"
android:isIndicator="true"
android:numStars="5"
android:stepSize="0.1"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/iv_item_small_product_image"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/tv_row_2" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv_row_3_2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="6dp"
android:layout_marginStart="6dp"
android:layout_marginTop="9dp"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/rb_row_3_1"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/tv_row_2"
tools:text="106" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv_row_3_3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="6dp"
android:layout_marginStart="6dp"
android:layout_marginTop="9dp"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/tv_row_3_2"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#id/tv_row_2"
app:layout_goneMarginLeft="0dp"
app:layout_goneMarginStart="0dp"
tools:text="Options available" />
<android.support.constraint.Barrier
android:id="#+id/barrier"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:barrierDirection="bottom"
app:constraint_referenced_ids="rb_row_3_1, tv_row_3_2, tv_row_3_3" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv_row_4"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="3dp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/iv_item_small_product_image"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/barrier"
tools:text="Some text on last row" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
Now, the last row is depending on the barrier instead of one of the views of the third row. As the barrier is depending on the three views of the second row, you won't have the gone margin problem.
Plus, i noticed that you don't need the guideline. The right segment can depend on the imageview directly.
In case you are not familiar with Barriers, here's a link to help you out.
As this feature is available only in the 1.1.0 beta1 release of ConstraintLayout, don't forget to add this line to your build.gradle file.
compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.0-beta1'
make sure to include maven { url "https://maven.google.com" }

How to center multiple Views together using ConstraintLayout?

Background
Google has announced a new layout called "ConstraintLayout" that's supposed to be the ultimate layout, that could replace all of the layouts while staying flat (without nested layouts) and have better performance.
The problem
Thing is, I barely see any tutorials for it that could help me on this matter, other than the video presented on Google IO.
What I am trying to do is, given that I have a vertically-centered LinearLayout within another layout - convert them both into a single ConstraintLayout.
After all, this is the purpose of this new layout...
The layout I wish to deal with looks like this:
Notice that the views in the center are only centered vertically, and that the 2 textViews are to the right of the ImageView, which is also centered vertically.
This all works well with RelativeLayout, which has the LinearLayout of the 2 TextViews, but I wish to know how to convert them into a single ConstraintLayout.
Here's a sample XML of what I've shown:
<?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:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:minHeight="?attr/listPreferredItemHeightSmall">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/appIconImageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_marginEnd="4dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="2dp"
android:layout_marginRight="4dp"
android:layout_marginStart="2dp"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:src="#android:drawable/sym_def_app_icon"
tools:ignore="ContentDescription"/>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/appDetailsContainer"
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_toEndOf="#+id/appIconImageView"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/overflowView"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/appIconImageView"
android:layout_toStartOf="#+id/overflowView"
android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/appLabelTextView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ellipsize="marquee"
android:text="label"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textDirection="locale"
tools:ignore="HardcodedText,UnusedAttribute"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/appDescriptionTextView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ellipsize="marquee"
android:minLines="3"
android:text="description"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"
android:textDirection="locale"
tools:ignore="HardcodedText,UnusedAttribute"/>
</LinearLayout>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/overflowView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:background="?attr/selectableItemBackground"
android:clickable="true"
android:padding="10dp"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/ic_more_vert_black_24dp"
tools:src="#drawable/ic_more_vert_black_24dp"
tools:ignore="ContentDescription"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/isSystemAppImageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignEnd="#+id/overflowView"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/overflowView"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/overflowView"
android:layout_alignStart="#+id/overflowView"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:scaleType="centerInside"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/ic_warning_black_24dp"
tools:ignore="ContentDescription"
tools:src="#drawable/ic_warning_black_24dp"/>
</RelativeLayout>
What I tried
I tried to read some articles and watch some videos of Google :
https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/constraint-layout/index.html#0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO9aX87hq9c
https://youtu.be/csaXml4xtN8?t=1693
That didn't help, so I tried to using it, hoping I will find out how to use it myself.
But I can't find out how to do it. I tried using the feature to convert the layouts, but this makes a huge mess of the views and puts additional margins that I don't want to have.
The question
How can I convert the 2 layouts into a single ConstraintLayout ?
Take a look at my answer here.
ContraintLayout contains a feature - Chains - that makes it possible to implement what you are asking:
Chains provide group-like behavior in a single axis (horizontally or
vertically).
A set of widgets are considered a chain if they a linked together via
a bi-directional connection
Once a chain is created, there are two possibilities:
Spread the elements in the available space
A chain can also be "packed", in that case the elements are grouped together
As for your case, you'll have to pack your label and description TextViews and center them in you parent vertically:
(make sure you use a version of ConstraintLayout that supports chains)
<?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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
android:text="TextView"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="#+id/button"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/imageView2"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:text="Button\nMkay"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="#+id/imageView2"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/textView"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:srcCompat="#mipmap/ic_launcher"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:srcCompat="#mipmap/ic_launcher"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:srcCompat="#mipmap/ic_launcher"/>
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
Update 25-06-2019 (#Saeid Z):
Now in constraint layout 1.1.3 we must use app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed" instead of app:layout_constraintVertical_chainPacked="true"
Set app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.5" to the views that need to be centered vertically, bias attribute only works if you specify the constraints for the boundaries (e.g. top and bottom for vertical bias, left and right for horizontal bias)
An example:
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/constraintLayout">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="#id/constraintLayout"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="#id/constraintLayout"
app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.5" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
Got it working in my layout here: https://github.com/hidroh/tldroid/blob/master/app/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml, pretty much similar layout, though I position things at 1/3rd of screen height.
EDIT: This answer had been written before chains became available. Please use chains now, see above answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/40102296/1402641
For now I believe your only choice would be to wrap the two text views in another layout - probably linear layout best fits this situation.
But the team behind constraint layout said they want to introduce "virtual containers", which serve exactly this use case: you group two or more views together and set a constraint (like centring vertically) on the container. The idea is that it is not a full nested layout inside of constraint layout, but just something that constraint layout uses to position it's children - hence it should provide better performance than nesting.
They mention it in their I/O talk (linked to the exact time). So I guess stay tuned.
To center something vertically or horizontally, set an opposing constraint on the layout.
Centered Vertically
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
Centered Horizontally
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
Take a look at mine example (Center components in ConstraintLayout)
For now you could center "image" (constrain left-top-bottom), constrain "label" top to "image" top, constrain "description" top to "label" bottom.
In example below i have matched button height with two textviews to the right (which is your case). Other textviews are constrained as on the link above.
UPDATE: Answering to your comment below:
I have installed your app and this is only i can think of currently. Since it is a ViewHolder layout, layout_height can be set to wrap_content, or you can fix it if you'd like to. I can send you xml if you want, i dont want to flood the answer.
Top TextView left constraint is constrained to right constraint of ImageView. Also, top TextView -> top constraint is constrained to top of container, so is right. Bottom TextView is constrained to bottom of container. TextViews in the middle are constrained to match width of top TextView and got no connection with ImageView.

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