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Button layout_height=wrap_content inside linear layout has height much bigger then wrap_content

I have LinearLayout with TextView and Button. I set layout_height attribute to wrap_content but layout_height has much bigger size. If I remove this button then all is alright. I try to decrease button text size but frame of the button still the same. I don't want hardcode button size. What can be the reason this strange result?
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:weightSum="1" >
<TextView
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:layout_marginLeft="#dimen/left_margin"
android:layout_marginTop="#dimen/top_margin"
android:layout_weight=".3"
android:text="#string/contact" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0.7"
android:layout_marginLeft="#dimen/left_margin"
android:layout_marginTop="#dimen/top_margin"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:weightSum="1" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/contact"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:gravity="center_vertical"/>
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/contact" android:textSize="#dimen/button_font_size"/>
</LinearLayout>

Button has background and other layout properties and does not seem possible to reduce its height. An option would be to use a TextView with custom style and handle click event so that it behaves like a Button.
Example:
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#ddd"
android:padding="6dp"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="Contact" />
It requires some work and time spent to style the TextView properly, but if you have no other choice, it may do the trick for you.

I had this issue as well when using a button, you can manually set the height and width, but I also have not found a set way to reduce the wrap_content size.
android:layout_width="40dp"
android:layout_height="30dp"

This is because of minimum height of a button. Set android:minHeight="1dp" or any other size to make it happen.

Picture is too big to see all views

I have a PizzaOverview.
XML:
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_tv" android:gravity="center_horizontal" android:textSize="15pt"></TextView>
<ImageView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_iv" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></ImageView>
<RatingBar android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_rb" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></RatingBar>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_date" android:gravity="center|center_horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></TextView>
<RelativeLayout android:id="#+id/relativeLayout2" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<Button android:text="close" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_bt" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></Button>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
If the picture is too big the date is invisible.

add scroll view to your layout or fix the size of imageview
add the scroll view to your layout
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<ScrollView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_tv" android:gravity="center_horizontal" android:textSize="15pt"></TextView>
<ImageView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_iv" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></ImageView>
<RatingBar android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_rb" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></RatingBar>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_date" android:gravity="center|center_horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></TextView>
<RelativeLayout android:id="#+id/relativeLayout2" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<Button android:text="close" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_bt" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></Button>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

Ensure that the images you supply to the activity are the correct resolution and size.
Also make sure that you have separate layouts for separate screen size categories.
Read this section of the android documentation for more details on layouts and managing different screen sizes. It tells you the basics you'll need.

You could place your image with the rating bar and the text below it in a RelativeLayout. Give a marginBottom to your RelativeLayout equal to the height of your Button. Then place your text, give it an id and add android:layout_alignParentBottom="true". Set the height of the image to fill_parent and add attribute android:layout:below="id_of_text".

You can as the other answer states make the screen scrollable. But if your content is dynamic (and depending on device it is arguable to say you content will ALWAYS by dynamic) you should make sure the that ImageView has it's bounds set correctly.
In the source code you have:
<ImageView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_iv" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></ImageView>
You should instead have:
<ImageView android:layout_height="0dp"
android:weight="1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/pizza_iv"
android:src="#drawable/icon"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:scaleType="centerInside"/>
The extra attribute of weight will make your view fill any available space along the orientation set in the bounding LinearLayout. This is dependant on the weight of other views along that orientation (as the other views have no weight value in this case it will fill all space up until the edge of your fixed views).
The extra attribute of scaleType="centerInside" will make your image sit in the center of the bound's you have suggested (which are the width of the screen and all available space vertically) without ever growing large enough to overlap the bounding container.
When using ImageView you should keep in mind that the ImageView is a bounding container for an Image. It can be as large or as small as possible but is only a mechanism for telling the UI where to place an image. The scaleType attribute is what you use to say how you want the image placing within this bounding countainer. Using "wrap_content" on an ImageView isn't effective and can lead to trouble later in the design (especially when considering different devices).

my layout won't layout right

I have a TableLayout that won't behave and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or not doing right
Here is my layout file
<TableLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#drawable/wall_paper"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<TableRow
android:layout_weight="1"
android:paddingTop="25dp">
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/name"
android:textColor="#color/nb_text"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dip"/>
<EditText android:id="#+id/name"
android:layout_width="150dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
<TableRow android:layout_weight="1">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<Button android:id="#+id/chgPhoto"
android:text="#string/newphoto"
android:background="#drawable/camera"
android:layout_height="40dp"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dip"
android:layout_gravity="left"
android:gravity="left" ></Button>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/StuPhoto"
android:src="#drawable/person_icon"
android:layout_width="100dip"
android:layout_height="80dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="25dip" ></ImageView>
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
I want the person icon and resulting photo to be much bigger and shifted farther to the right but nothing I do seems to help. In fact, when I increase the layout_width/height of the photo, it simply shifts the icon with that space like so:
Any ideas on how to make this behave? Be kind - I readily admit layouts have me confused.

try adding stretchColumns="*" to your tablelayout and why don't you set a layout_gravity for the picture you're trying to move to the right?

I ended up going the opposite route with this - rather than scale the drawables, which maybe of various sizes, to the layout I want, I went to the images themselves and scaled them to what I want.
Then I can use "wrap_parent" or whatever without having to scale the image. Seems a hard way to go
as I might want larger or smaller drawbles on another device. But specifying the size jacked things up to no end

LinearLayout text wrap problem when having two buttons of same size plus one stretched in the center

Looks like there's a plenty of questions about centering, same size etc, but so far I didn't find the exactly my case so I dare to ask :)
What I need is a layout of three buttons like this:
[ previous ][*select*] [ next ]
where [previous] and [next] buttons are of the same size (i.e. in this case, size of the [previous] button as it is bigger), and the [*select*] button should stretch to occupy all of the available width.
Following the hints of making two buttons in LinearLayout same sized, i came up with the following xml file:
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/button_bar"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<Button
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Previous" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:text="Select" />
<Button
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Next" />
</LinearLayout>
This almost works :)
Except one thing: instead of making Next button to match the size of Previous button, android makes Previous button to be the size of the Next :)
And because of this the text "Previous" gets wrapped in two lines, like
Previ
ous
Dunno if this is a bug or not, but can you advice me a workaround or some another way to achive the desired layout?
Thank you!

I'd suggest using a RelativeLayout
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/buttons"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:clickable="false">
<Button
android:id="#+id/previous"
android:layout_width="30dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Previous"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/next"
android:layout_width="30dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Next"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"/>
<Button
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Select"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/previous"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#id/next" />
</RelativeLayout>
This should work.

If you are including "android:layout_weight" you should give either "android:layout_width" or "android:layout_height" as "fill_parent"
modify your code like this
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/button_bar"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<Button
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:text="Previous" />
<Button
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1.5"
android:text="Select" />
<Button
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:text="Next" />

In that sort of case I would go for a TableLayout, in which you have one row, and a weight of 1 for EACH button. and the stretchColumn attribute put to column 1. Does this make any difference?

I'm not sure if you can match a size to some other besides by doing this in code. The easiest solution is probably adjusting the previous and next button widths in dp/sp units until they look good and have the select button be the only one with the layout_weight attribute.

Making EditText and Button same height in Android

I have an EditText and a Button in my LinearLayout and I want to align them closely together so they see seem to belong together (edittext + micButton for speech input).
Now they don't have the same height and they aren't really aligned well (Button seems to be a little lower than the EditText). I know I can apply a negative margin like -5dp to make them come closer together, but is there perhaps a better way to do this?
Set them in a specific container/layout so that they will automatically have the same height and no margin between them?

Using relative layout you can stretch a view depending upon another views size without knowing the exact size of the other view.
Here is the code :
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
>
<Button
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="100dp"
android:text="button"
android:id="#+id/but"/>
<EditText
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/but"
android:layout_alignBottom="#id/but"
android:layout_alignTop="#id/but"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
Check this link for reducing space between views :
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/android-developers/RNfAxbqbTIk

Hmm, don't know why people bother so much with tables. Since the both Views are within a LinearLayout (presumable orientation=Horizontal), this command should center both within the layout:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<EditText
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical" />
</LinearLayout>
Note: Since EditTexts and Buttons may orient their text slightly differently, you may have to do some tweaking (by changing margins or padding) to get the text to align properly.

I hope this solution might help for your scenario...Here is the code..
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rlLayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="15dp"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:padding="3dp" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/etId"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="50dip"
android:background="#c8c8c8"
android:hint="Edittext"
android:paddingLeft="20dip"
android:paddingRight="10dip"
android:textColor="#000000" />
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rlLayoutid"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/etId" >
<Button
android:layout_width="30dp"
android:layout_height="30dp"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_marginRight="14dp"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:background="#drawable/calender" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

# Daniel Here You can use layout weight and weight sum
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:gravity="center"
android:weight_sum=2
>
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight=1
android:text="button"
android:id="#+id/but"/>
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight=1
/>
</LinearLayout>

Android tries to automatically level everything off of the text and not the buttons themselves.
Took me forever to finally figure it out. Its really simple. Should fix it.
myButton.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL);
or if they are in a row.. attach the buttons to a table row, then.
myTableRow.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL);