Android - Equal column width layout for any size text - android

I'm quite new to android. I wanted to show cards in a tabular form. I want 2 columns which should be exactly equal in length (even if the size of the content in one of the column increases).
For example, it should be like Play Store or Google Keep. My card will have 2 lines of data. First for Title and second for Description.
I tried many layouts; TableLayout, GridLayout etc. but neither worked actually. Lastly I read this SO post but it doesn't work if text size on my card increases.
Any idea on how this can be done? It will be a bonus if the Description text ellipsizes at end.

If I understand you well enough:
Try using a LinearLayout and setting the layout_weight of the items inside the layout. So you'll have something like:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<Card
android:id="#+id/card1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<Card
android:id="#+id/card2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1" />
</LinearLayout>
Then if you wanted to perhaps have multiple things in the columns just make those card items additional LinearLayouts of vertical orientation.

Related

Table Layout with dynamic amount of rows and dynamic content

Im pretty new to Android Development, so after like three days of trying different things with the XML Layout Design, i give up and hope for help from you guys.
What i want to achieve:
A table layout with with multiple rows, each filled with calculations im making in the background
The first three rows shall contain the input parameters, the following ~12 rows shall contain output parameters
rows 3 to 6 shall be rearrangeable, so to speak change name and shown values.
This is the concept, thats what one row should look like:
My way of trying things was:
Creating a TableRow for "Taupunkt" and "Td" and another one for three textfields and the +/- picture.
But how on earth am i supposed to insert the ">" arrows picture into the layout? Basically it should be centered between the rows.
I hope i did a clear explanation of my problem and hope that there is someone out there who can help me :)
PS.: App is going to support Android 4.0 and above
EDIT: As seen in the picture, how would i go about centering the plus/minus vertically to the textfields? Like, it should have the same space above and below it to the textfields
You can use ListView or RecyclerView as mentioned in comments.
For second question to make your view centrally aligned you can use android:gravity attribute in LinearLayout. Just made one same which is using center_vertical. Checkout -
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/btn_google"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="#dimen/standard_padding"
android:background="#drawable/rectangle_round_red"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:minHeight="#dimen/standard_height"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/icon_google" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="Google"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:textSize="#dimen/font_18" />
</LinearLayout>
This is how it looks

Android dialog box takes too much space

Windows 7, Android Studio 1.1.0, compiled SDK 21, Samsung Galaxy Core (SDK 14).
I'm designing a form with few fields to fill as a dialog box, but I have plenty of blank space that I can't get rid of. Arranged it using TableLayout. I skipped some irrelevant fields in xml code, but all layout-related ones are there.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:padding="#dimen/margin_small"
android:background="#color/HellTeal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TableRow>
<TextView/>
<EditText/>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView/>
<Spinner
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
<Spinner
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView/>
<Spinner
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
Everything looked fine on preview (sorry for this color, it's set to show taken space).
Unfortunately it looks different in reality. This takes way more space than it should, when I use it as dialog layout. Codes creating dialogs where maximally simplified, so it's not some weird declarations. There are screens with this layout in AlertDialog and DialogFragment respectively. Notice, how additional space is colored in second case, weird.
I noticed that the amount of additional space somehow depends on contents. It's even posible for it to be equal to 0. See this comparison (I didn't change anything in either layout):
I noticed that my layout appears properly if I don't set anything to views (onClickListeners, adapter etc.). So I started making as simplistic class as possible and adding proper line then. I found out that thing forcing this space in my case were spinners. Both use exactly the same array for items. I noticed the longer selected item is, the more aditional space is taken. Seems like maybe some mechanism preventing crossing screen borders, because right spinner affects dialog more. Left has to be like 7-8 characters to change dialog's size
What I tried:
explicitly setting layout and rows to wrap_content
using linear layouts as TableLayout and TableRow
setting layout_height = "fill_parent" for TableLayout - I read on wrap_content messes things up, but not in this case
Adding various views and observing, how amount of blank space changes, I see no formula
simplifying code
Seems like you have everything that you need in your table layout even the ok and cancel buttons. I suggest you to go with AlertDialog. But don't set buttons and title in your builder. Set your view also after created the alert. Try following code
AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
//you won't need yes no buttons because it is already containing in your layout
View view = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.aaa_test, null);
AlertDialog aler=builder.create();
alert.setView(view,0,0,0,0);
alert.show();

Vertically aligning suffix with tab space in android TextView

I have rows (of horizontal LinearLayout) with a TextView at the end that displays time. An this is how it looks:
Now I need the suffix (am/pm) in all rows to be aligned vertically. This is not the case in the above layout, as you can see, the last row is misaligned as the displayed time is longer.
I achieved this using the tab character \u0009. This means I would set the text to be for example "7:21\u0009\u0009pm". This produces desired result as show below:
However, I need to know if (1) this is the most efficient way and (2) that this would work on all android devices. If there is an alternative way to achieve this please let me know.
And here is an XML layout of a row for your reference:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="#dimen/prayer_time_row_height"
android:layout_marginLeft="48dp"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<com.devspark.robototextview.widget.RobotoTextView
style="#style/text_subhead"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Today"
android:textColor="#color/material_light_secondary_text"
android:visibility="invisible" />
<com.devspark.robototextview.widget.RobotoTextView
style="#style/text_subhead"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Event"
android:textColor="#color/material_light_primary_text" />
<com.devspark.robototextview.widget.RobotoTextView
style="#style/text_subhead"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="12:06\u0009\u0009am"
android:textColor="#color/material_light_primary_text" />
</LinearLayout>
BONUS
Bonus points for pointing out a way to vertically align the hour-minute separator, i.e., colon character.
Maybe using tabs is the most efficient, but the gap is pretty big and not configurable. If you need all those rows in a single view group, you may try to check out RelativeLayout: align am/pm vertically on common left, and put hours to the left and on the baseline. This is the most flexible way, since you can control relative positions and margins, but computation-wise it's less efficient because it requires extra calculation upon laying out elements.
As per aligning colons — in most fonts (not just monospace) digits are designed to take equal space, so just align the numbers on the right (e.g. in relative layout) and it should do.
For the colon character, you could try using the character "\uee01" instead of ":". This is what google does with the clock in the lock screen.
https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/packages/Keyguard/src/com/android/keyguard/KeyguardStatusView.java#L247
You can use a 2-column TableLayout. The first column is the time without AM/PM and the second column is just the AM/PM. Set the gravity of the first column to "end" or "right" and the times will be lined up at the colons if you are using a fixed width font.

Border Lines for cells in GridLayout, TableLayout, or GridView?

I am trying to create a table/grid for some items within my app and I would like to have a border around each cell to divide the items up and have a coherent association of the setting with the item. This app will be used in an industrial setting where there may be people unfamiliar with Android that need to use this, thus trying to make it as easy as possible.
The table/grid will contain TextView, EditText, Spinner, and Button, and will also be scrollable (via ScrollView parent).
I read about the GridView and found that it (seems) to only be able to get items programmatically, please correct me if I am wrong. I felt that this was unnecessary since I know what items I want and where. Also, I have not tried adding items to a layout programmatically yet so I figured I would try the other options first. Also, the GridView documentation does not say one way or the other if border lines are automatically shown, or if you can have them shown at all.
I started with a TableLayout and was able to get everything except the border lines to work. I tried android:divider to get the lines but that didn't work. One thought I had was to create a bunch of TextViews with black backgrounds and ~2dp widths/heights to make my own border lines. This feels like a huge waste though. Then I also read the TableLayout documentation and found this: "TableLayout containers do not display border lines for their rows, columns, or cells."
I then tried the GridLayout and had the same results as the TableLayout. I tried padding and margins, neither worked. Also, the GridLayout documentation states: "The grid is composed of a set of infinitely thin lines that separate the viewing area into cells."
My questions are:
Is there an attirbute that I missed in TableLayout or GridLayout that will give me border lines via the xml?
If no, then will the GridView give me the lines I want?
Will I be able to add all the perviously mentioned items I want to the GridView?
I was actually able to achieve the desired look by setting the android:background="#000000" within the GridLayout view and then in the child items I set the android:background="#8CDD81" (just some green color) and combined with android:layout_margin="2dp" I was able to get the "grid" lines that I wanted. Thanks to CommonsWare though for getting me thinking in a new direction that turned into a solution.
EDIT:
This does not work quite as anticipated. You need the android:layout_alignLeft/Right which are only available via RelativeLayout in order to get just the right width on the child items. Haven't tested this yet using this idea, child items within RelativeLayout within GridLayout.
Is there an attirbute that I missed in TableLayout or GridLayout that will give me border lines via the xml?
No.
If no, then will the GridView give me the lines I want?
No.
Will I be able to add all the perviously mentioned items I want to the GridView?
Yes, though how well something like a Spinner will work, I can't say.
The simplest way, off the top of my head, to give you the lines you seek is to have each cell of the TableLayout or GridLayout be some container containing the widget(s) for that cell, where you give the container a background that is your line. A ShapeDrawable could be defined in XML for that background, which will be nicely resizeable based upon the actual requirements of the cell.
For future visiters this is how I did it with TableLayout:
table.xml
<TableLayout android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#969696">
<!-- table heading -->
<TableRow>
<Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Name"
android:background="#d2d2d2"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
/>
<Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Address"
android:background="#d2d2d2"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
/>
</TableRow>
<!-- table data -->
<TableRow>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Ahtisham"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
android:background="#f1f1f1"
/>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Kashmir"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
android:background="#f1f1f1"
/>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>

Can't Align ImageView in Table Cell in Android

OK, here's ANOTHER question about positioning objects in tables in Android, but nothing I've found on Stack has helped.
I want the ImageView in the XML below to be left aligned in its cell. No matter what I've tried, though, it won't do this (it's always centered). The layout_width and layout_weight are set as they are to control the position and sizes of the cells themselves. Maybe these settings are making it impossible to left align the ImageView in its cell, though.
android:layout_gravity="left" and android:gravity="left" didn't work in either the ImageView tag or the TableRow tag. One kind of kludgy solution that seems to work is to add a blank TextView in a third column, to force the 2nd column holding the ImageView to be exactly the width of the ImageView's bitmap. However, I'd prefer not to have to do this, especially since different rows may contain bitmaps of different widths.
<TableLayout
android:id="#+id/scoreTable"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" >
<TableRow
android:id="#+id/thisWeek"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/thisWeekText"
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="30dp"
android:layout_weight="35"
android:gravity="right"
android:paddingRight="30px"
android:text="#string/thisWeek"
android:textStyle="bold" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/chevron1"
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="20dp"
android:layout_weight="65"
android:layout_marginLeft="0px"
android:src="#drawable/doser_scale4a"
android:visibility="visible" />
</TableRow>
I replaced the TextViews with ImageViews, using bitmaps of the text that was in the TextViews. This was OK for me because that text won't be changing, though I guess if it did I could create images for all possible text and switch between those images.
This was not an ideal solution, since I assume using bitmaps instead of text uses more memory, and making bitmaps for my text required a little time and effort and some sacrifice of ease and flexibility of changing the text, if that is desired at some point, but I couldn't figure out how to make this work with TextViews. Android definitely seems limited in this way, since it shouldn't be that difficult to align text any way you want in a table cell, should it?
Each "cell" of the TableRow is a View, so you could put a LinearLayout (with your preferred gravity) and put inside this LinearLayour your image.

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