Develop Reference

View used by multiple methods - where should I put my findViewById()?

I'm using a particular TextView: TextView txtStatusView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtStatus); in several methods in my view's .java file. In each method I'm using the above line of code to find and initialize the same txtStatus view. Should I instead be putting this once at the top of the class (my thought: to prevent wasting time or power finding the view every time), or is it better that I have this line for each method that uses the view?

Declare the variable globally and define it inside your onCreate()
Declare like:
TextView txtStatusView;
Inside onCreate():
txtStatusView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtStatus);

Automatically/dynamically update TextView text in Android

I have an android app that I have decided to rewrite, one of the reasons for the rewrite is because I could have 10+ TextViews with text set based on a variable in a class e.g.:
MyClass myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.myNumber = 5; // inside MyClass - public int myNumber;
LinearLayout mainLayout = (LinearLayout) view.findViewById(R.id.mainLayout);
TextView myTextView = new TextView(getActivity()); //In a fragment
myTextView.setText(String.format("myNumber currently has a value of %d", myClass.myNumber));
mainLayout.addView(myTextView);
return view;
Up until now I have been using .setOnClickListener on the buttons/views that change myNumber, to set the text of the view again when the value of myNumber changes, which then calls .invalidate() to redraw the TextView, this has worked fine, but I use this method very heavily and code is getting quite repetitive and changing one integer can affect quite a lot of views (all of which use it differently - such as different wording, or a calculation (e.g. myNumber * 2)). I guess it's because it's made an immutable string in the TextView.
I have tried to create a custom TextView that implements Observer (making MyClass extend Observable) and in the update method I can get it to invalidate itself for the refresh, but it still has the same text. I have also tried creating single element arrays, in an attempt to pass the reference not the value in the hope that when it is changed and then the view is invalidated it will pick up the new value but the text still ends up remaining the same.
How can I get a TextView that will auto update when the value of myNumber has changed? Some sort of binding?

Bindroid works perfectly for this, just a note for users, using fragments the sample application is using this from an Activity so the bind method using Activity is called, so in the fragment I was using getActivity() which caused it to not work properly, digging around in the library I found a bind method that takes a View and passed in my view which gets inflated in the fragment and it works great!!! This is super easy to integrate btw it was just me not getting it!

Designing an Android User Interface: Textview text doesn't change

I'm having issues with understanding how I should organize my user interface in Android. My original plan was to create TextViews and ListViews programatically and change them when buttons are clicked, etc.
Here's my first simple attempt. viewFriends is a method within my Activity class. It's called when a menu button is pressed.
private void viewFriends()
{
mText = new TextView(this);
mText.setText("Gathering information...");
setContentView(mText);
...irrelevant code follows
Why doesn't this seemingly simple example work? How should I logically organize and manage my user interface objects (TextViews, ListViews, Buttons, etc).
Thanks.

The best work would be having those listviews and textviews in your XML files and give them a suitable ID like following:
<ListView
android:id="#+id/myList"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
Just like above have your text view too in XML file an add the android:id attribute.
Once you define this way in your java file have references to them:
ListView myListObj = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.myList);
Now you have an object called myListObj in your java file and now you can do whatever you want to do with it.
:)
Let me if you find any issue in this so that I can update the answer to meet your specific need.

Don`t use setContentView in your method. Usually it should only be called once in the onCreate method of your activity.
Best predefine your bottons/TextViews in xml, get a handle for them (findViewbyId...)
and modify them that way.
If you create them programaticly, just add them to a view containter from your xml.
Like :
setContentView(R.layout.main);
Lets say in main.xml there is a LinearLayout with the id: root.
// get accces to that layout:
LinearLayout rootLayout = (LinearLayout) findViewById (R.id.root);
// create a new TextView
TextView tv1 = new TextView (this);
tv.setText("Hello!");
// add it to your base layout
rootLayout.addView(tv1);
// done! :)

Make a double check on what you are getting in "this".
change it to your java file name.this

You have to reload/refresh your activity once you change it.
Try this
#Override
protected void onResume() {
if(param.equalsIgnoreCase("gr"))
{
finish();
Intent myIntent = new Intent(yourActivity.this, yourActivity.class);
startActivity(myIntent);
}

Change TextView padding dynamic on widget

I tried to change the padding of a TextView which is placed on a widget.
Direct via 'findViewById' it isn't possible because the class extends from AppWidgetProvider.
Therefore I tried to use remoteViews.setBundle with the following
code. But this is not a solution.
Bundle b = new Bundle(4);
b.putInt("left", 5);b.putInt("top", 5);b.putInt("right",
5);b.putInt("bottom", 5);
remoteViews.setBundle(R.id.name1, "setPadding", b);
Does anyone have a solution for me?

You cannot do this. If you look at the android source the setPadding method is not marked with "#RemotableViewMethod" which allows it's value to be set by the RemoteViews object. The only hack we found was to use a different layout.

How do you get a view reference from a class that doesn't extend Activity?

I want to have a class "Utils", that will have several methods used all over my code. For example, I have a top bar with a textview and two ImageButtons that must display different texts and icons on different activities.
I find myself writing stuff like this on every activity:
(TextView) topBarText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.topBarText);
topBarText.setText(R.id.mytextForThisView);
I'd like to findViewById once in my whole app, and call a method setupTopBar(String text, R.id.iconForImageButton1, R.id.iconForImageButton2), or even pass the current Activity's id and let the method figure out what to show in the text and images.
I created the class Util, but it doesn't extend Activity. The problem is that if it doesn't, findViewById isn't accessible, so I can't use it.
What's the pattern to do something like this in Android?

Your helper methods should look like
public static void setTopBarText(Activity act, int textId){
(TextView) topBarText = (TextView)act.findViewById(R.id.topBarText);
topBarText.setText(textId);
}
Then you can do a static import from Activity and call
setTopBarText(this, R.id.mytextForThisView);

The Answer is not good for some situation.
This is my method:
In your Activity:
YouCustomClassObject.passView((View)findViewById(R.id.aview));
Using parameter passing can solve this kind of problem.