Develop Reference

How to display X and Y axis for XYPlot in AndroidPlot

Background
I'm developing an app for Android that plots data as a line graph using AndroidPlot. Because of the nature of the data, it's important that it be pannable and zoomable. I'm using AndroidPlot's sample code on bitbucket for panning and zooming, modified to allow panning and zooming in both X and Y directions.
Everything works as desired except that there are no X and Y axis lines. It is very disorienting to look at the data without them. The grid helps, but there's no guarantee that grid lines will actually fall on the axis.
To remedy this I have tried adding two series, one that falls on just the X axis and the other on the Y. The problem with this is that if one zooms out too far the axis simply end, and it becomes apparent that I have applied a 'hack'.
Question
Is it possible to add X and Y axis lines to AndroidPlot? Or will my sad hack have to do?
EDIT
Added tags

I figured it out. It wasn't trivial, took a joint effort with a collaborator, and sucked up many hours of our time.
Starting with the sample mentioned in my question, I had to extend XYPlot (which I called GraphView) and override the onPreInit method. Note that I have two PointF's, minXY and maxXY, that are defined in my overridden XYPlot and manipulated when I zoom or scroll.
#Override
protected void onPreInit() {
super.onPreInit();
final Paint axisPaint = new Paint();
axisPaint.setColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.MY_AXIS_COLOR));
axisPaint.setStrokeWidth(3); //or whatever stroke width you want
XYGraphWidget oldWidget = getGraphWidget();
XYGraphWidget widget = new XYGraphWidget(getLayoutManager(),
this,
new SizeMetrics(
oldWidget.getHeightMetric(),
oldWidget.getWidthMetric())) {
//We now override XYGraphWidget methods
RectF mGridRect;
#Override
protected void doOnDraw(Canvas canvas, RectF widgetRect)
throws PlotRenderException {
//In order to draw the x axis, we must obtain gridRect. I believe this is the only
//way to do so as the more convenient routes have private rather than protected access.
mGridRect = new RectF(widgetRect.left + ((isRangeAxisLeft())?getRangeLabelWidth():1),
widgetRect.top + ((isDomainAxisBottom())?1:getDomainLabelWidth()),
widgetRect.right - ((isRangeAxisLeft())?1:getRangeLabelWidth()),
widgetRect.bottom - ((isDomainAxisBottom())?getDomainLabelWidth():1));
super.doOnDraw(canvas, widgetRect);
}
#Override
protected void drawGrid(Canvas canvas) {
super.drawGrid(canvas);
if(mGridRect == null) return;
//minXY and maxXY are PointF's defined elsewhere. See my comment in the answer.
if(minXY.y <= 0 && maxXY.y >= 0) { //Draw the x axis
RectF paddedGridRect = getGridRect();
//Note: GraphView.this is the extended XYPlot instance.
XYStep rangeStep = XYStepCalculator.getStep(GraphView.this, XYAxisType.RANGE,
paddedGridRect, getCalculatedMinY().doubleValue(),
getCalculatedMaxY().doubleValue());
double rangeOriginF = paddedGridRect.bottom;
float yPix = (float) (rangeOriginF + getRangeOrigin().doubleValue() * rangeStep.getStepPix() /
rangeStep.getStepVal());
//Keep things consistent with drawing y axis even though drawRangeTick is public
//drawRangeTick(canvas, yPix, 0, getRangeLabelPaint(), axisPaint, true);
canvas.drawLine(mGridRect.left, yPix, mGridRect.right, yPix, axisPaint);
}
if(minXY.x <= 0 && maxXY.x >= 0) { //Draw the y axis
RectF paddedGridRect = getGridRect();
XYStep domianStep = XYStepCalculator.getStep(GraphView.this, XYAxisType.DOMAIN,
paddedGridRect, getCalculatedMinX().doubleValue(),
getCalculatedMaxX().doubleValue());
double domainOriginF = paddedGridRect.left;
float xPix = (float) (domainOriginF - getDomainOrigin().doubleValue() * domianStep.getStepPix() /
domianStep.getStepVal());
//Unfortunately, drawDomainTick has private access in XYGraphWidget
canvas.drawLine(xPix, mGridRect.top, xPix, mGridRect.bottom, axisPaint);
}
}
};
widget.setBackgroundPaint(oldWidget.getBackgroundPaint());
widget.setMarginTop(oldWidget.getMarginTop());
widget.setMarginRight(oldWidget.getMarginRight());
widget.setPositionMetrics(oldWidget.getPositionMetrics());
getLayoutManager().remove(oldWidget);
getLayoutManager().addToTop(widget);
setGraphWidget(widget);
//More customizations can go here
}
And that was that. I sure wish this was built into AndroidPlot; it'll be nasty trying to fix this when it breaks in an AndroidPlot update...

Bitmap Matrix postRotate changes X and Y axis direction

I'm trying to rotate my Bitmap using a readymade solution I found somewhere. The code is below:
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
float x = ship.Position.left;
float y = ship.Position.top;
canvas.drawBitmap(ship.ship, x,y,null);
invalidate();
}
However, when I do it, the X and Y axii change their direction - if I increase the Y the image goes towards the top of the screen, not towards the bottom. Same happens to X if I rotate by 90 degrees.
I need to rotate it but without changing the Y and X axii directions.
Even rotated, I still want the Bitmap to go towards the bottom if I increase Y and to the right if I increase the X.
public void update()
{
if(!moving)
{
fall();
}
else //moving
{
move();
faceDirection();
}
Position.top += Speed;
}
private void move() {
if(Speed < MAXSPEED)
Speed -= 0.5f;
}
private void fall() {
if(Speed > MAXSPEED*-1)
Speed += 0.2f;
}
private void faceDirection() {
double OldDiretion = Direction;
Direction = DirectionHelper.FaceObject(Position, ClickedDiretion);
if (Direction != OldDiretion)
{
Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.postRotate((float)Direction);
ship = Bitmap.createBitmap(ship, 0, 0, ship.getWidth(),ship.getHeight(), matrix, false);
}
I tried the code above, but it's still changing the Y direction, It's going to bottom of the BitMap, not bottom of the screen.
Here is the project: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8V9oTk0eiOKOUZJMWtsSmUtV3M/edit?usp=sharing

You should first rotate, than translate:
matrix.postTranslate(x, y);
matrix.postRotate(degree);
alternative would be to try to use preRotate() instead of postRotate().
I also strongly recommend to translate/rotate the original while drawing. So your createBitmap() call shouldn't modify the orientation. At least not when you change it dynamically on user interaction. Otherwise you would create a lot of bitmaps to represent rotations over and over again which would impact the performance.

The problem is that you don't actually rotate the bitmap - you just draw it rotated. So, the next time you redraw it, you first push it towards the bottom or right by incrementing x/y and then rotate it.
You have to actually rotate the bitmap itself. You could use the following code:
ship.ship = Bitmap.createBitmap(ship.ship, 0, 0, ship.ship.getWidth(), ship.ship.getHeight(), matrix, false);
Here you create a new rotated bitmap and set your reference to point to it.
Note! You must do this only once! So you can't do it in the onDraw method, since then it will get rotated every time it's redrawn. You have to do it somewhere else and then draw it as usual in onDraw (without the matrix rotations).

Mapping A "Touch Region" to a Bitmap

I am trying to gain some more familiarity with the Android SurfaceView class, and in doing so am attempting to create a simple application that allows a user to move a Bitmap around the screen. The troublesome part of this implementation is that I am also including the functionality that the user may drag the image again after it has been placed. In order to do this, I am mapping the bitmap to a simple set of coordinates that define the Bitmap's current location. The region I am mapping the image to, however, does not match up with the image.
The Problem
After placing an image on the SurfaceView using canvas.drawBitmap(), and recording the coordinates of the placed image, the mapping system that I have set up misinterprets the Bitmap's coordinates somehow and does not display correctly. As you can see in this image, I have simply used canvas.drawLine() to draw lines representing the space of my touch region, and the image is always off and to the right:
The Code
Here, I shall provide the relevant code excerpts to help answer my question.
CustomSurface.java
This method encapsulates the drawing of the objects onto the canvas. The comments clarify each element:
public void onDraw(Canvas c){
//Simple black paint
Paint paint = new Paint();
//Draw a white background
c.drawColor(Color.WHITE);
//Draw the bitmap at the coordinates
c.drawBitmap(g.getResource(), g.getCenterX(), g.getCenterY(), null);
//Draws the actual surface that is receiving touch input
c.drawLine(g.left, g.top, g.right, g.top, paint);
c.drawLine(g.right, g.top, g.right, g.bottom, paint);
c.drawLine(g.right, g.bottom, g.left, g.bottom, paint);
c.drawLine(g.left, g.bottom, g.left, g.top, paint);
}
This method encapsulates how I capture touch events:
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent e){
switch(e.getAction()){
case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:{
if(g.contains((int) e.getX(), (int) e.getY()))
item_selected = true;
break;
}
case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:{
if(item_selected)
g.move((int) e.getX(), (int) e.getY());
break;
}
case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:{
item_selected = false;
break;
}
default:{
//Do nothing
break;
}
}
return true;
}
Graphic.java
This method is used to construct the Graphic:
//Initializes the graphic assuming the coordinate is in the upper left corner
public Graphic(Bitmap image, int start_x, int start_y){
resource = image;
left = start_x;
top = start_y;
right = start_x + image.getWidth();
bottom = start_y + image.getHeight();
}
This method detects if a user is clicking inside the image:
public boolean contains(int x, int y){
if(x >= left && x <= right){
if(y >= top && y <= bottom){
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
This method is used to move the graphic:
public void move(int x, int y){
left = x;
top = y;
right = x + resource.getWidth();
bottom = y + resource.getHeight();
}
I also have 2 methods that determine the center of the region (used for redrawing):
public int getCenterX(){
return (right - left) / 2 + left;
}
public int getCenterY(){
return (bottom - top) / 2 + top;
}
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I feel as though many other StackOverflow users could really benefit from a solution to this issue.

There's a very nice and thorough explanation of touch/multitouch/gestures on Android Developers blog, that includes free and open source code example at google code.
Please, take a look. If you don't need gestures -- just skip that part, read about touch events only.

This issue ended up being much simpler than I had thought, and after some tweaking I realized that this was an issue of image width compensation.
This line in the above code is where the error stems from:
c.drawBitmap(g.getResource(), g.getCenterX(), g.getCenterY(), null);
As you can tell, I manipulated the coordinates from within the Graphic class to produce the center of the bitmap, and then called canvas.drawBitmap() assuming that it would draw from the center outward.
Obviously, this would not work because the canvas always drops from the top left of an image downwards and to the right, so the solution was simple.
The Solution
Create the touch region with regards to the touch location, but draw it relative to a distance equal to the image width subtracted from the center location in the x and y directions. I basically changed the architecture of the Graphic class to implement a getDrawX() and getDrawY() method that would return the modified x and y coordinates of where it should be drawn in order to have the center_x and center_y values (determined in the constructor) actually appear to be at the center of the region.
It all comes down to the fact that in an attempt to compensate for the way the canvas draws bitmaps, I unfortunately incorporated some bad behaviors and in the end had to handle the offset in a completely different way.

When invalidate method called on an array of Views, the first View is not redrawn

I have an app in which I display nine views within a 3x3 GridView using an adapter class. Within each of the nine views that are contained within the cells of the GridView, I use Canvas and Paint objects to display a 2-dimensional line graphic; these line graphics are subsequently modified and re-displayed by invoking the invalidate() method of each view.
The line graphics in all nine views are displayed correctly when the views are created in the Adapter class’s overridden getView() method, but when I attempt to modify and then redisplay the line graphics subsequently, all of the views are refreshed successfully except for the first view in the top-left-hand corner of the grid, which continues to show the original line drawing. I’ve stepped through my code to establish that the first view is definitely being invalidated, and it is, so I’m baffled as to why the call to the invalidate() method on the first view doesn’t cause it to be redrawn, while the same call on all of the remaining views causes them to be redrawn successfully. I’ve also logged calls to the view’s onDraw method, and this shows that the first view’s onDraw method is called each time, so I’m pretty sure this problem is not being caused by any bugs in the application code.
The code that modifies and refreshes the nine views is as follows:
void updateViews(int parentTestCanvas) {
TestCanvasView testCanvas = testCanvass[parentTestCanvas];
double[] parentGenome = testCanvas.getGenome();
// Assign the parent genome to the testCanvass in the array
// The inherited genome will be subject to mutation in all cases except the first testCanvas
for(int testCanvasItem = 0; testCanvasItem < TestCanvasApp.geneCount; testCanvasItem++) {
testCanvas = testCanvass[testCanvasItem];
testCanvas.setGenome(parentGenome);
// Invalidate the testCanvas view to force it to be redrawn using the new genome
testCanvas.invalidate();
}
}
The onDraw method in the TestCanvasView class is as follows:
protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
float xOrigin = getMeasuredWidth() / 2;
float yOrigin = getMeasuredHeight() / 2;
canvas.drawPaint(cellPaint);
canvas.translate(xOrigin, yOrigin);
drawBranch(canvas, linePaint, 0, 0, this.length, this.direction, this.xInc, this.yInc, this.scale);
Log.d("TestCanvasView", "Drawing testCanvas " + mCellIndex);
}
private void drawBranch(Canvas canvas, Paint linePaint, double startX,
double startY, double branchLen, int branchDir, double[] xInc,
double[] yInc, double scale) {
branchDir = (branchDir + 8) % 8;
double newX = startX + branchLen * xInc[branchDir];
double newY = startY + branchLen * yInc[branchDir];
canvas.drawLine((float) (startX / scale), (float) (-startY / scale),
(float) (newX / scale), (float) (-newY / scale), linePaint);
if (branchLen > 1) {
drawBranch(canvas, linePaint, newX, newY, branchLen - 1, branchDir + 1, xInc, yInc, scale);
drawBranch(canvas, linePaint, newX, newY, branchLen - 1, branchDir - 1, xInc, yInc, scale);
}
}
Anyone got any ideas as to why the first view is not being redrawn?

OK, finally got to the bottom of this - it turns out that the getView method in the TestCanvasAdapter class was called twice for testCanvass[0], but only once for all the other elements. I had naively assumed that the Adapter class's getView method would be called exactly once for each element in the array, but this post confirms that getView may be called more than once for various obscure reasons that are unlikely to be readily apparent to inexperienced Android developers like me. Once I understood this, I was easily able to add the logic below to check that testCanvass[position] was not null before assigning the view reference to it within the TestCanvasAdapter.getView method, which resolved the problem.
// Add the newly created TestCanvasView object to the array on the TestCanvasApp object
if (position >= 0 && position < TestCanvasApp.viewCount
&& mTestCanvasApp.testCanvass[position] == null) {
mTestCanvasApp.testCanvass[position] = testCanvasView;
}
Many thanks to Romain Guy for taking the trouble to reply to this query.

If the first view's onDraw() method is invoked, then the invalidate worked. onDraw() is not called if the View doesn't intersect with the clipping rectangle. You can verify this by opening the Dev Tools app (on the emulator but you can also install it on a phone) and in the development settings screen, turn on "Show screen updates." It will flash regions of the screen that get invalidated/redrawn.

Android Bitmap OnTouch Questions

I've drawn 5 bitmaps from .png files on a canvas - a head, a body and two arms and legs.
How can I detect which of these has been touched on an OnTouch? And, more specifically, can I detect if the OnTouch was within the actual shape of the body part touched?
What I mean is, obviously, the .pngs themselves are rectangular, but does Android know, or can I tell it, to ignore the transparency within the image?

You could get the colour of pixel touched and compare it to the colour of pixel on the background at those co-ords.
EDIT: ok, ignore that, you can't get the colour of a pixel on the canvas, so instead, get the x,y of the touch, check if any of the body part images have been touched, if so, take the x,y of the image from the touch x,y, then get the pixel of the image, which should be transparent or colour.
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event)
{
int x = (int) event.getX();
int y = (int) event.getY();
int offsetx, offsety;
for(int i = 0;i<NUM_OF_BODY_PARTS;i++)
{
if(bodyPartRect[i].intersects(x,y,x+1,y+1))
{
offsetx = x - bodyPartRect[i].left;
offsety = y - bodyPartRect[i].top;
if(bodyPartBMP[i].getPixel(offsetx,offsety) == TRANSPARENT)
{
//whatever
}
}
}
}