Develop Reference

Is there a better way to align the text in different buttons in Android?

It is my firs time that I try to design a good UI instead of debugging apps, so I am new to this type of stuff.
I have three buttons under each other and the text should be aligned correctly. So that the "F" of Favorites starts at the same horizontal point as the "E" of Equalizer.
The way I did it, is not satisfying. I worked with paddingEnd and just tried out until it looked almost equal on the horizontal axis.
One other idea was to make the gravity center_vertical|left and instead use drawablePadding. This did not work because the width of the buttons is defined as match_parent. But also when I change the buttons to android:layout_width="wrap_content" and remove android:paddingStart and android:paddingEnd for testing, it does not work.
I got these info out of android:drawableLeft margin and/or padding
There should be a way to make it "easy" to fulfill the design I require. Has someone an idea what I am making wrong and has a solution for me?
The code of the xml layout file and a screenshot of the result are attached.
If something else is required to solve this question, then just ask me straight away.
Screenshot of the buttons
<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">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/menu"
android:layout_width="300dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:background="#drawable/border"
android:paddingEnd="0.3dip"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/favButton"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="80dp"
android:insetTop="1dp"
android:insetBottom="1dp"
android:paddingStart="50dp"
android:paddingEnd="15dp"
android:background="#drawable/rectangle"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/ic_bxs_heart"
android:text="#string/favorites"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="16sp"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/eqzButton"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="80dp"
android:insetTop="1dp"
android:insetBottom="1dp"
android:paddingStart="50dp"
android:background="#drawable/rectangle"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/ic_equalizer"
android:text="#string/equalizer"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="16sp"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/settingsButton"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="80dp"
android:insetTop="1dp"
android:insetBottom="1dp"
android:paddingStart="50dp"
android:paddingEnd="27dp"
android:background="#drawable/rectangle"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/ic_settings"
android:text="#string/settings"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="16sp"/>
</LinearLayout>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

How to resize RelativeLayout/LinearLayout and content inside those layers programmatically, based on screen size

I am developing an Android application, for very first time.I am coming from web environment, and i am not sure if i can transfer my skills over Android UI as well.
<?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"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#android:color/background_light"
android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/SignUpHolder"
android:layout_width="350dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/holo_blue_light"
android:gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:padding="15dp">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:contentDescription="#string/Yeah"
app:srcCompat="#mipmap/ic_launcher" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/someTxt"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:singleLine="true"
android:text="#string/sign_up_with_string_sign_up_with_facebook"
android:textSize="25sp" />
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
As you can see
android:layout_width="350dp"
layout_width is set hardcoded by 350dp.
By this, this LinearLayer is not touching the screen of the phone and will be in every kind of mobile screen.
I am looking for a way to cut the width of this LinearLayer by 20-50dp, but do not be way to small so ImageView and TextView to be cutted off.
Is there a way to get the phone screen width, calculate it and set this Layer dynamically by some dp?

An easy way to achieve what I think you want would be to combine a match_parent width with horizontal margins. Something like this:
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/SignUpHolder"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
android:layout_marginRight="20dp"
android:background="#android:color/holo_blue_light"
android:gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:padding="15dp">
This will cause your LinearLayout to be as wide as whatever parent it is inside of... minus 20dp on each side.

You can add margin. Instead of hard coding the width, use this in your linear layout tag
android:layout_margin="30dp"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"

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.

RelativeLayout View to right of TextView

I got following simple Layout. The problem can be reproduced in the android studio designer:
<?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">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/x"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_marginEnd="#dimen/margin_small"
android:layout_marginRight="#dimen/margin_small"
android:text="#string/long_string"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"/>
<CheckBox
android:id="#+id/y"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/x"
android:layout_toEndOf="#+id/x"
android:layout_centerVertical="true" />
</RelativeLayout>
This layout works fine if the text length of the textview is short. The checkbox is placed on the right of the textview. But if the text gets long and even wraps maybe, then the checkbox is pushed out of the view. It is not visible anymore. I would like that the checkbox is always visible on the right of the textview even, if it fills the whole width of the screen.
I tried to rewrite the layout with a LinearLayout which doesn't work either.
<?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="horizontal">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/x"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="#dimen/margin_small"
android:layout_marginRight="#dimen/margin_small"
android:text="#string/long_string"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"/>
<CheckBox
android:id="#+id/y"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</LinearLayout>
Do you know a trick to to achieve this with relative layout? I would somehow expect this behaviour from relative layout by default. Thanks ;)

This is working for me: make checkBox alignParentRight and make TextView toLeftOf it:
<?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">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/x"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/y"
android:text="This is very-very-very looooooooooooong stringgggg, very-very, long-long"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"/>
<CheckBox
android:id="#+id/y"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>
Edit. You can include this Relative Layout into other (parent) layout:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:gravity="left">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/x"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/y"
android:text="this is veryyyyy yyyyyyyyyy yyyyyy yyy loooooo oooooooo ooon nnggggg gggg striiii iiiiin gggggg ggggg ggggggg ggg"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"/>
<CheckBox
android:id="#+id/y"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
It's also working. If you put android:gravity="left" into Relative layout, it will locate its content on the left side.

One way out would be to put the textview and checkbox in a linear layout with orientation horizontal. Set width of checkbox to be whatever you want (a constant) and the width of textbox to be 0dp and layout_weight of 1.

You should put the property layout_weight to make your views (TextView and Checkbox) have a deff space in the screen instead of use a hard value
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/x"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0.9"
android:layout_marginEnd="#dimen/margin_small"
android:layout_marginRight="#dimen/margin_small"
android:text="#string/long_string"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"/>
<CheckBox
android:id="#+id/y"
android:layout_weight="0.1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</LinearLayout>

I guess the desired layout is not possible by default. I tried to do this using RelativeLayout, LinearLayout and TableLayout. It is technically understandable that the these layout do not support that behaviour. The relative layout would have to explicitly respect the case that an element on the left or right is minimal visible inside the parent even it is placed to left or right. Another solution would be if the table layout would allow a column to consume the rest of the space but respects min width of other columns as well.
For my case i wrote a workaround. I used the initial relative layout of my question but set a max width to the textview using following calculation:
DisplayMetrics displaymetrics = new DisplayMetrics();
context.getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(displaymetrics);
int displayWidth = displaymetrics.widthPixels;
That guarantees the checkbox to be visible. I know the solution could be hardly possible in scenarios where the given layout is embedded in a more complex layout.

Android ScrollView is not working

This is my .xml file where I have used two scrollview,in Input Edittext and onether in output TextView. What is wrong here...It is not working in android device.
Another problem is that when I turn my device it only shows the input text area. The output text area goes down.I want to see the half screen of input and half screen of output area.
How to fix it??
Thanks
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="35dp"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/test"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/test" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/rdf"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/rdf" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/load"
android:layout_width="75dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/load" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/clear"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/clear" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/close"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/close" />
</LinearLayout>
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scrollView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/input"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="175dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:background="#fff"
android:ems="10"
android:gravity="top|left"
android:textSize="14dp"
android:inputType="textMultiLine" >
<requestFocus />
</EditText>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
<Button
android:id="#+id/run"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/run" />
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scrollView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/output"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="225dp"
android:background="#fff"
android:text="#string/output"
android:textColor="#1e90ff" />
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

Try setting layout_weight=1 and layout_height=0dp for the two scroll views instead of their
contents.

What is wrong here...It is not working in android device.
That's pretty vague. What were your expectations? What isn't working? In other words, please be a little more specific.
However, based on the layout code given, here are some recommendations:
Avoid hardcoding the size of views. You cannot make assumptions about screen size with the large variety of screen sizes, densities and devices out there. Also, even if you're able to make the layout look nice in portrait mode, it'll probably be not even close to that in landscape.
If you're going to put just a single View in a ScrollView, there's no need to wrap it in a ViewGroup container; just set the View directly, without nesting it again and added an extra layer of complexity to the view hierarchy.
There's no need to wrap a TextView or EditText with a ScrollView, as both views are scrollable by itself.
Regarding your second question: you can prevent Android from extracting all UI components when there's little layout estate left with the keyboard popped up. You'll need to set the IME_FLAG_NO_EXTRACT_UI flag on the EditText, or in xml: android:imeOptions="flagNoExtractUi".
I do like to point out that there's a reason Android has this behaviour by default. In most cases it hardly makes sense to force a tiny part of the UI to be visible, even more as whatever is being typed by the user is probably what really matters.