I'm programming an Android application with Eclipse using Android's SDK, and I have a serious problem with the GUI Editor.
The problem is auto-alignment: For example, I drag and drop one button into the GUI Form.
And then I drag another button, which HAS to align to something, usually it aligns to the first button, but also if not, it has to align to something else.
And that means, if I move the first button, the second button moves as well.
This is seriously bad because every time I drag one button, it drags all the others away.
Is there a way to cancel this thing? What I mean is that I'll be able to freely drag around Buttons in the form, without having them align to other Buttons and moving with them.
I come from .NET development, where in Visual Studio for example, this kind of auto alignment just doesn't exist, which is perfect. You can freely drag buttons all over without having them align or stick to each other.
So can I force the buttons not to align, just like in Visual Studio GUI design, for example?
Related
I am having trouble using android studio's drag and drop feature. I have no problem getting the items onto the preview mode of the android phone, but when I want to move the palettes, I can't seem to be able to place them where I want. A lot of times I will place let's say a TextView, and it will snap to a different location an inch away. Anyone know if any solutions?
Unless you know a way to un-snappy the editor, it's time to get to know the XML Text Editor, next tab over in Android Studio.
The way I get round the snappy side is in there: use the "android:layout_below="#+id/example" and it's brethren. Unless you have a massive amount of elements, this is very doable.
On OSX using Android Studio 1.5.1, I'm getting "changed lines" popups that cover the scrollbar on the right and prevent me from scrolling. They're pervasive and require extra attention to get the right combination of clicks and mouse movement to regain control of the scroll bar from this hijacking.
How do I stop this popup? It isn't useful at all for me.
The popup covers the scrollbar for other things too, like TODOs.
It appears that two messages combine into a correct popup to the left, that doesn't cover the scrollbar. So... whatever is responsible for this popup knows how to do things correctly, but chooses not to in some cases.
These two images are at the far right, the scrollbar.
This blocks clicks and makes it difficult to scroll.
This is more reasonable, but still unnecessary for my needs.
I did find a thread on this subject, but I do not want to turn syntax highlighting off. Also, it appears that for some configurations these popups are click-through so they don't interfere with functionality. No so for me, unfortunately.
Intellij Idea 14 - disable highlighting level messages
I tried disabling plugins, but the functionality appears to be in the core (or the core set of plugins for Android Studio).
Has anyone else seen this? Is there a preference that can just disable these change line popups?
I have started working on making a simple launcher app. I have already gone through many posts and source code of various launchers but I am really stuck at the home screen thing. I just want to create a simple view pager and on long click of it I want it to behave like android stock launcher where user can drag and drop screens to rearrange it and may delete it by swiping down to the cross button.
I am really confused as there is no proper documentation of how things happening in android stock launcher
Please tell me how to achieve this properly. If anyone has extracted that code and give it to me it will be a great help. Links are appreciated.
Thanks!
The standard home screen is implemented as a single large view, with each screen being a child view. Each of those individual screens then lays out icons and app widgets according the grid appropriate for the device.
The way the swiping behavior works is by overriding onInterceptTouchEvent and onTouchEvent. It's tricky because there are so many things that a touch could be doing: the user could be tapping on an icon, swiping to the next screen, or starting a long-press. When you implement one of these behaviors, you have to make sure you don't get in the way of another one.
Once the user is doing a long-press, your launcher app enters a different mode, and the event processing behaves differently in this mode. That is, it implements the standard drag-and-drop behavior. This is tricky too.
I spent two years of my life working on the home screen app for a major device manufacturer. It's complicated, and I'd recommend that you have a good reason for diving into the project.
I frequently get designs for android apps featuring iphone-like functionality. In this case it has to do with a back button integrated in the layout as part of the header (on the left side).
Android already comes with a back button - although I have seen some technophobes completely ignore the back button and complain about the flow of an app. ("why is their no cancel button, 1 star, uninstall" push back)
First of all, recreating iOS elements is tedious and counterproductive, but in this case do android users expect a back button in the header at this point? Would a "back" button subtract from a UX at all?
For instance, Android users expect to long-click items in a listview to see what happens - often for options or to delete. Or at least the assumption can be made.
But for a back button in the layout, do Android users get enough apps with iOS-style back buttons to simply expect it?
Insight appreciated
Implementing a back button taking up screen real estate really has no point or benefit for an Android user. The only thing it does is cramp the UI for no real reason since the back button already exists.
Android users don't expect a software back button, since it's simply not the Android way of going back and not many apps have it.. hardly any apps have it actually.
Not only is a software back button completely unnecessary but it could even irritate the user since it could be seen as trying to "iPhone-ify" the app. Not popular at all for some Android users ;)
I am porting an iPhone app to Android, and I can't find the Android equivalent of the UINavigationItem. These are buttons with a triangular side indicating movement between different screens. For an example of what I'm trying to accomplish, this is from the BeyondPod app:
http://mobiputing.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/beyondpod.jpg
The buttons labeled "Categories" and Podcasts" are what I'd like to duplicate.
Android has a hardware back button. Forward is typically accomplished by some widget, such as a button or link, somewhere in the Activity.
I looked at the screenshot you posted again and noticed that your left and right buttons are to switch between categories and not to go to an earlier screen.(Im not sure if im right)
If that's the case using the left and right buttons are okay as they are to switch between categories and not the previous screen. But keeping a left button just to go to the previous screen isn't really necessary. Here we need to think in terms of an android user. They are hardwired to press the hardware back button to go to a previous screen. There are many examples of apps that have a bit of changes in their android and iPhone version. Eg Evernote.
It uses tabs on the iPhone but in android they sort of created a dashboard in combination with an action bar.
So main thing to consider when porting an iphone app is to make enough changes so that an android user will feel like it has a navigation they are used to. Most apps that look exactly the same as iphone apps are created with these cross mobile development tools(titanium, sencha touch).