Develop Reference

How to make buttons to take space and increase size of as much as they want with respect to the resolution?

I have a layout in which buttons placed on a screen, i want that if the screen has more space then buttons should be three per row, whatever the space they get, also their sizes should be adjusted with screen and i want maximum three buttons per row in the centre of the screen. Right now i have used linear layout for each row of two buttons, please guide me how to make adjustable buttons so if the screen size is big, it should display three buttons max, if size is very small it should display only two buttons per row with small button sizes and as explained on default screen it should display three buttons per row.
See my code example here
<LinearLayout android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingLeft="25dip"
android:paddingRight="25dip"
android:paddingTop="25dip"
android:layout_width="fill_parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="110dip"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:text="#string/car" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/Taxi"
android:layout_width="110dip"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:text="#string/taxi" />
</LinearLayout>

You can use layout_weight to set the width of the button automatically according to the width of LinearLayout.
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/wrapper"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingLeft="25dip"
android:paddingRight="25dip"
android:paddingTop="25dip"
android:layout_width="match_parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/car" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/Taxi"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/taxi" />
</LinearLayout>
However, I don't think you can set the LinearLayout to have three buttons depends on the width by XML. You can only achieve it programmatically.
if(getCurrentScreenWidth() > SPECIFIED_WIDTH_FOR_3_BUTTONS){
LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById("wrapper");
Button button = createNewButton();
layout.addView(button)
}
BUT the best practices will be to load different layout according to screen as described in android document

This is how I would do this.
For each of your buttons set width like:
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:text="#string/car" />
If you set the width to 0dp and the weight to 1 for each of your buttons then the buttons will expand to fill the space.

Using fix value for height and width may causes the problem with different screen. use below xml code to align button as per your requirement.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:weightSum="3" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/car" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/Taxi"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/taxi" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/bus"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/bus" />
</LinearLayout>

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.

How can I evenly space my ImageViews in a RelativeLayout

I had a Android application built in which I had 3 ImageViews placed horizontally across a LinearLayout, they were placed with a android:layout_width="0dp" and android:layout_weight="1" such that they had an even spread in the layout.
Now I have to switch to use a RelativeLayout (because I want to overlap another image and that can't be done with a LinearLayout) so I want to start with replicating the same effect of having the 3 ImageViews evenly spread/scaled across the parent layout, but I'm not sure how to achieve this.
I feel like I need to make use of the android:scaleType... maybe center crop:
Scale the image uniformly (maintain the image's aspect ratio) so that both dimensions (width and height) of the image will be equal to or larger than the corresponding dimension of the view (minus padding).
Which sounds good but I can't seem to get it to work right... Any thoughts on how I would achieve this even spread of ImageViews across my RelativeLayout?
Snippet of code right now:
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragcircle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:tag="circle"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:adjustViewBounds="false"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
android:src="#drawable/circle" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragsquare"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:tag="square"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/dragcircle"
android:adjustViewBounds="false"
android:src="#drawable/square" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragtriangle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:tag="triangle"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/dragsquare"
android:adjustViewBounds="false"
android:src="#drawable/triangle" />
Note: I can't find a question with the same constraints as this one on SO. There are a number of questions like:
Android: how evenly space components within RelativeLayout?
and
android RelativeLayout, equal spacing?
But if you check out the details you'll see that they are people who have not considered the LinearLayout as an option for equal spacing and switching layout types ends up being the solution. I have, I was using it, but it does not work for me because I need to overlap an image:
Note the example, I have 3 ImageViews with basic shapes, but I also have a 4th ImageView (it starts hidden) which is overlapping the middle one. This is why I must use a RelativeLayout

I think you're going to want to go back to your original LinearLayout to meet all of your needs here.
If the size of your fourth image must match one of your existing image then either you'd want to create a resource that is a composite of the two images to swap to when it needs to be overlaid or replace your center ImageView with a RelativeLayout or FrameLayout that contains the ImageView. When you need to add the fourth image, add it to that layout.
Something like:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragcircle"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:tag="circle"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
android:src="#drawable/circle" />
<FrameLayout
android:id="#+id/centerimagewrapper"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragsquare"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:tag="square"
android:src="#drawable/square" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/arrow"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/arrow"
android:visibility="invisible" />
</FrameLayout>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragtriangle"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:tag="triangle"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/triangle" />

You could hide the icon you want to place on existing images and keep your previous LinearLayout to achieve this. Each component of your LinearLayout would be a custom layout (inflated):
<RelativeLayoutxmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/relativeLayout"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/img"
android:layout_width="100dip"
android:layout_height="100dip"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:src="img1_src"
/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imgOverlap"
android:layout_width="50dip"
android:layout_height="50dip"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:src="img2_src"
android:visibility="gone"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
It appears not possible to use "layout_weight" in a RelativeLayout.
You could also consider a GridView and set its number of columns; each item of the GridView would be the inflated layout above.

you could also do it programatically and tell them to be 33% of the screen width. Look at DisplayMetrics and the attributes of each ImageView if you want to achieve this.

Try this
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragcircle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:src="#drawable/circle"
android:tag="circle" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragtriangle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:src="#drawable/triangle"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:tag="triangle" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/dragsquare"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/dragtriangle"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/dragcircle"
android:src="#drawable/square"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:tag="square" />
</RelativeLayout>

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).

Android - Two ImageViews side-by-side

I am trying to create an Activity for an Android app with two imageViews aligned side-by-side. my current layout config is as follows:
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingTop="15dip" android:paddingBottom="15dip"
android:background="#drawable/dark_bg">
<ImageView android:id="#+id/numberDays"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:scaleType="fitStart"
android:src="#drawable/counter_01" />
<ImageView android:src="#drawable/counter_days"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:scaleType="fitStart"
android:id="#+id/daysText"></ImageView>
</LinearLayout>
The first image will be a square (lets say 100x100) and the second image will be rectangular (300x100) - and I want them to be aligned next to each other but always be scaled to fit within the width of the device - is this possible just with layout config?
The current config just shows the first image the entire width (and almost height) of the screen and the second image is not shown at all. I have tried changing wrap_content with fill_parent and hardocding widths but that has just resulted in the both images being shown but the first image on top of the second image (both anchored left).
Thanks
UPDATED AGAIN:
I have updated my layout to look like this now including the ScrollView as recommended but no joy:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical" android:gravity="top"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<!-- Header for activity - this has the countdown in it -->
<ScrollView android:id="#+id/ScrollView01" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent">
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:background="#drawable/dark_bg" android:orientation="horizontal">
<ImageView android:id="#+id/numberDays"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:src="#drawable/counter_01" />
<ImageView android:src="#drawable/counter_days"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:id="#+id/daysText"/>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
<!-- main body for the rest of the info -->
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal" android:gravity="center"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#drawable/light_bg">
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Using the layout_weight as suggested has given both the images the right ratios and appear to be scaled perfectly, however, I am still having the problem whereby they are both anchored to the far left of the screen, so the first image is actually overlaid on top of the second image, rather than having them side by side.
Below is a screenshot of the Eclipse display:

try using layout_weight for both of the ImageView components. So something like:
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingTop="15dip"
android:paddingBottom="15dip"
android:background="#drawable/dark_bg">
<ImageView android:id="#+id/numberDays"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:scaleType="fitStart"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:src="#drawable/counter_01" />
<ImageView android:src="#drawable/counter_days"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:scaleType="fitStart"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:id="#+id/daysText"></ImageView>
</LinearLayout>
i added android:layout_weight="1" to each of them. Read up on layout_weight for LinearLayout definitions, it's very useful!

You can try creating a horizontal ScrollView with a layout_width of a pixel value greater than the two ImageViews combined, rather than fill_parent. Then place your LinearLayout inside of it.