I'm trying to do minor tweaks to the layout of items inside an ActionBar, and hitting a lot of problems. It would help if I knew (or even better: could override!) the layout which Android is using for the ActionBar itself.
(Android's layout system doesn't allow you to fully control layout of "items" direct from the item itself - all the options are enabled/disabled based on what type the parent/container layout has)
So, for instance...
try to make a custom ActionView that takes "all remaining space" (because you have no title / don't need a title)
...everything breaks. There are lots of workarounds, all of which have their own bugs (I've tried 3 from SO already, and they all break on different versions of Android / different handsets)
this would be TRIVIAL if I could set the ActionBar's layout to "RelativeLayout" and use "layout_toLeftOf" etc
...but the docs don't seem to answer this, nor do they provide a way of setting it. Any ideas? I don't want to have lots of hardcoded, broken code to workaround the API (because it'll make maintaining this app a nightmare :( )
Have you looked at ActionBarSherlock? It's a support library extension that implements action bar on all versions of Android using single API. Also, when it comes to layouts, I often find it very useful to look at the source code. You can find action bar layouts on the very top of the list here.
Load the view hierarchy and then you will be able to see the views that compose any layout.
http://developer.android.com/tools/debugging/debugging-ui.html
Related
Is there a library for creating Floating Action Buttons with labels (similar to the Evernote app)?
Evernote Screenshot
The popular libraries seem to be
https://github.com/futuresimple/android-floating-action-button (closest to what I want... ability to expand hide "sub" actions)
https://github.com/makovkastar/FloatingActionButton (Primary function is to hide/show with a scrollview, recyclerview, or listview)
https://github.com/oguzbilgener/CircularFloatingActionMenu (library which has been around pre-lollipop)
Neither of these, to my knowledge, have this capability. Before re-inventing the wheel, has somebody already done this?
This feature request ended up being implemented in https://github.com/futuresimple/android-floating-action-button. This includes labels on both the left and right sides.
If you're interested, see the discussion here: https://github.com/futuresimple/android-floating-action-button/issues/22#issuecomment-66155108
Disclaimer: I haven't used this (yet).
I'd recommend this library over others that I've seen.
Nowadays there are available techniques of manipulating behaviour of the view that enable you to program FloatinActionButton as you want and to have joy that you have made it by yourself!
Fade in/out FloatingActionButton while scrolling RecyclerView . DETAILS
Slide down/up , beside it blog says how to:
Expand floatingActionButton and show subFloatingButtons. DETAILS HERE
There is to much details, "how to do". Therefore I've attached just links to blogs. Anyway I encourage you guys to take a look at those blogs. You will have total control over your application. Currenty I use all solutions from both blog's. Enjoy!
Especially the last library you mentioned looks quite sophisticated. To my knowledge, you can set any kind of View you want to be shown as a Button.
This View could simply be a custom-view of yours that shows an image as well as a label.
In case anyone is still looking for this functionality: I made an Android library that has this ability and much more, called ExpandableFab (https://github.com/nambicompany/expandable-fab).
The Material Design spec refers to this functionality as 'Speed Dial' and ExpandableFab implements it along with many additional features.
Nearly everything is customizable (colors, text, size, placement, margins, animations and more) and optional (don't need an Overlay, or FabOptions, or Labels, or icons, etc). Every property can be accessed or set through XML layouts or programmatically - whatever you prefer.
Written 100% in Kotlin but comes with full JavaDoc and KDoc (published API is well documented). Also comes with an example app so you can see different use cases with 0 coding.
Github: https://github.com/nambicompany/expandable-fab
Library website (w/ links to full documentation): https://nambicompany.github.io/expandable-fab/
Background
setListNavigationCallbacks is used to allow the user to switch between different views of the current screen easily via the ActionBar, as shown here and here.
The problem
I've noticed it got deprecated as of API21 (Lollipop), and that all the documentation says is to look for other navigation solutions, but it doesn't say what's the best one that fits the same point:
This method is deprecated. Action bar navigation modes are deprecated
and not supported by inline toolbar action bars. Consider using other
common navigation patterns instead.
All other functions/classes that are related to this function are also deprecated, such as setNavigationMode, OnNavigationListener, ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST .
What I've tried
The navigation drawer is for navigation of different screens, and not different views of the same screen.
adding an action item that will provide a way to switch between the modes, but that's a bit weird...
using a ViewPager, but that's also weird as it doesn't really switch views, plus it takes more space.
Using tabs, but I think that's also deprecated in some way, plus it takes more space this way.
The question
What should be the best alternative to this way of navigation?
This post explains why not only list-, but ALL navigation modes have been deprecated. It became too difficult to make it able to customize Actionbar's navigations. Toolbar is the new Actionbar (also available in the appcompat-v7 support library). However, you won't find these methods there either. Instead, you need to supply your own optional (navigation) view(s). Then you can use it like a normal view in your layout.
I am working on an application that involves me having to place a toolbar at the bottom of each activity. The toolbar will have 4 buttons on it, each starting new activities.
I am just wondering, and I apologize for how general the question, is there a proper way to go about implementing this? my plan was to but a linear layout element in each xml layout file with horizontal orientation. Then four button elements inside of that...
It seems like a huge amount of work considering I will have a lot of activities..
What you want sounds a lot like Android's ActionBar. Check this link for a guide to its usage. If you use this, your app will look and feel more consistent with the operating system, as so many apps now use the ActionBar (which is a lot of them), and you gain a lot of power for what you want to show there, and how you want to do it.
ActionBar was only introduced in Android version 3 (Honeycomb), but there's a compatibility library, ActionBarSherlock which allows you to use it in older versions of Android as well.
Hope it works for you!
You can use a same xml for various views. So I suggest creating a generic xml, then using Inflaters and other resources as strings, xmls etc. to prepare the generic xml whenever any Activity is loaded. So you can reuse it the xml.
I am currently trying to get the look of my app right. But I am having problems figuring out how to even set up a way to change themes. For one thing, is there even a way to change styles through code? I checked the method list and I saw nothing. This leads me to my actual question; is there a way that, like CSS, in which you style the parent, and then have it trickle down but also changed depending on the View? I looked at the Android docs, and they did not show any examples of this. Hopefully someone can give me an idea as to how to accomplish this, or if its not possible, to let me know that as well. Thanks in advance.
You should be able to do this using styles and themes. I've implemented this using Jake whartons Sherlock action bar. (I'm not certain if it's necessary) It involves using the comparability library which gives you the ability to use fragments and loaders as well. Look at his democode at http://actionbarsherlock.com/download.html. Look for where themes are mentioned and you will find the information you need. In the demo app you can change the theme in the top right corner and see how it affects the activities look and feel. It also shows many of the features available and the code to write them. I have found this an invaluable resource and it should show you how to theme your app.
Could anyone give me a tip on how to build a layout like in the following picture?
The application i'm working on has absolutely nothing to do with VoIP but I'm trying to build something like this. One fixed toolbar at the bottom, an interchangeable middle pane with listviews, scrollviews or other, and another toolbar at the top which would change depending on the button selected on the bottom bar.
Also, would it be possible and good practice to keep all of this within a single activity?
You should NOT build an interface like this. Don't use bottom bars! Don't use labelled back buttons on action views!
You should read the Android design guidelines and then work with tab views... and other stuff referenced there and build an Android app.
Also, would it be possible and good practice to keep all of this within a single activity?
-Yes for sure, and yes with a slight catch, depending on what you mean.
One approach would be to create your top and bottom bars inside their own XML. Then in your activity onCreate() inflate and add at the top and bottom of your Layout.
If the bottom bar will not change ever, then you could actually add that into the layouts you already have. If you do it that way, to handle the listeners you could create an Activity that contains just the bottom bar click listeners and then extend that with all of your other activities.
Since the top bar can change though you'll probably have to inflate and add the views to that at run time, that way you can react to what is going on to add / remove / present the appropriate views in the top bar.
Also just because it is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine:
When designing your bottom bar please seriously consider the fact that some devices have soft buttons directly underneath the touch screen. And they are rather close to the screen on some devices. Applications with a bottom bar that is not tall enough create an opportunity for the user to hit one of the system buttons instead of one of the bottom bar buttons as they are intending (or vice versa). Which from a users perspective I must say is VERY aggravating.
Do not use bottom bars. To give a more familiar UI, put all of those functions into the top bar. Start by looking at the source code for the ActionBarCompat project in your android sdk sample folder.
The Android developer site is a good place to start. See
UI Guide
I also agree with the poster who recommended against this specific layout. It seems to have been developed for an iPhone and shouldn't be used "as is".