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Android Textview with width 0 is forcing content to disappear below it

I have a TextView whose width should not exceed the ImageView above it. Both image and text are downloaded from server and I don't know their dimensions (can't make assumptions either). I went through the logic to wrap the text content using this SO post.
Here is my layout XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/parentLL"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
android:id="#+id/LL1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/image1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/text1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:width="0dp"
android:text="This is a string whose width may or may not be more than the image downloaded" />
</LinearLayout>
<TextView android:background="#android:color/holo_red_dark"
android:id="#+id/text2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="Second Text"/>
</LinearLayout>
With this code, the TextView at the end (text2) does not even show up. There are 2 solutions to this issue :
Apply android:maxLines="5" to the text1. Problem with this approach is that Text1 view would always be 5 lines high (I understand 'lines' is not a unit of height, but that's what I see visually). So if the text content is just one word, there would be a big white space below. And then text2 shows up.
Change topmost linear layout (parentLL) to RelativeLayout. text2 can then be used with alignBelow=LL1. This works as expected. But I cannot migrate the topmost view to RelativeLayout, because this view is from a library not in my control. I can only modify LL1 and it's children. Due to my code, other views below (like text2) are suffering (by not showing up).
There is a third approach for setting the textview as a compound drawable on ImageView. I guess that might work (haven't tested), but my requirement is to show the TextView if image download has failed (which can be detected only after a while). So I need to have a TextView. Also, my LinearLayout LL1 can have other children too.
I would request for some help understanding :
Why is my code not showing up the content below the textview 'text1'? With width=0 on textview it seems to set the height of the parent to be match_parent.
How is RelativeLayout able to handle this smoothly ? Can I replicate any of that behavior in TextView's onMeasure ? Assume I have callbacks to detect image has been downloaded, and I can get image width also.

I think what you are running into is a conflict of setting the width and height but not setting the layout weight, which is a key factor in how Linear Layouts work. If you add one more vertical LinearLayout in there and then move #id/text2 into it, you should be set. You'll need something like the following (obviously modified to your specs, this was just a quick test). Note my use of android:layout_weight,
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:text="Large Text"
android:id="#+id/textView3" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:text="Large Text"
android:id="#+id/textView2" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Which splits the screen in half vertically as shown in this picture,
Photo of resulting layout

I had to wrap the TextView in a RelativeLayout, which was wrapped by a LinearLayout. Not happy with this solution, but this is the only way for now.

Android - nested layouts

I have built the following XML layout:
<?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="fill_parent"
android:background="#color/white"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/ll1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.2"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.3"
android:gravity="center"
android:src="#drawable/logo" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.7"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="#string/my_profile"
android:textColor="#A669DA"
android:textSize="20sp" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/ll2"
android:background="#A669DA"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.15"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/TextView"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
android:text="#string/payroll_header"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:textSize="20sp" />
</LinearLayout>
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scrollView1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.65" >
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/ll3"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:weightSum="2" >
<ExpandableListView
android:id="#+id/expandableListView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fadeScrollbars="true" >
</ExpandableListView>
<HorizontalScrollView
android:id="#+id/horizontalScrollView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<ExpandableListView
android:id="#+id/expandableListView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
</ExpandableListView>
</HorizontalScrollView>
<ListView
android:id="#+id/listView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
</ListView>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>
The root element of this XML layout is a linear layout. It contains 2 linear layouts and one scroll. Since scroll view can only have one child, it contains a linear layout which in turn contains an expandable listView, horizontal scrollview (which contains an expandable listview) and a listview. As you can see, this is a very complicated layout, and I think it should be possible to simplify. Basically, I want the top 2 linear layouts to always take 35% of the screen, and the scrollview to take the rest. That's why I gave a weight of 0.2 to the first linear layout, 0.15 to the second linear layout, and 0.65 to scrollView.
Within the scrollView, I would like each of the 3 elements to take as much space as they would need, so that user scrolls down if he/she doesn't see everything. I know that expandableListView and ListView are already scrollable, so I will disable scrolling in them, so that parent's scroll bar is used.
However, I am facing several problems with this design:
1) In the first screenshot, you can see an expandableListView, horizontalScrollBar (with an expandableListView), and a listView.
Each of them has height set to "wrap content", so I would expect each of them to take as much space as they need. However, you can see in the second screenshot that when I open the second expandable listView (the one within a horizontal scrollBar), listview doesn't move down to make space for the expanded list view. How can I achieve it, so that each of them moves down when the expandable list above expands? Is the only way to do it is to combine them all in one expandableListView?
2) My second expandableListView is in the horizontalScrollBar, however, I can't scroll it horizontally. Can I even put horizontal scrollBar inside a vertical scrollBar?

First off, a little simplification: Your second LinearLayout (the 0.15 one) can be left out since it only has a single child. Just be sure to adjust the layout parameters of that single child (the TextView).
For your problem #1, try calling invalidate() or requestLayout() on your root view.
Problem #2 is actually solved: Link
My general impression is that this nesting of ScrollViews and ListViews is pretty complex. Have you considered alternatives such as TabLayout or DrawerLayout?
Cheers

How to vertically align text within TextView

I am trying to get some text vertically aligned within a TextView, but for some reason it just sticks to the top edge of such TextView.
Trust me, I've read several questions here on Stack Overflow regarding the same, or similar, questions and tried applying the provided solutions, but nothing seems to make a change.
For instance, what I thought would solve the issue right away was to add the attribute android:gravity="center_vertical|left", but that didn't help either.
This user's question describes almost exactly my issue, except that his TextView is inside a RelativeLayout which in turn is inside a ScrollView, which I don't (and don't need or want to) use. And the images he provided are also perfectly applicable to what I'm trying to describe and achieve.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:weightSum="2" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/account_server_icon"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:contentDescription="#string/account_server_icon"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:gravity="left" />
<TextView
android:orientation="vertical"
android:id="#+id/tv_account"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:gravity="left|center_vertical" />
</LinearLayout>

The problem is that your TextView's height is set to wrap_content. This means that the size of the text's container will be the same as the height of the text, thus there really is nowhere within the view to center the content (it is effectively already centered vertically).
If the LinearLayout that you posted only contains the ImageView and the TextView, then you can simple change the height to match_parent and it should work fine.
If the LinearLayout contains other Views, you might want to consider using a RelativeLayout and setting the TextView to align with both the top and bottom of the image.

as your achievement suggest, you only need to change your gravity to layout_gravity
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:weightSum="2" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/account_server_icon"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:contentDescription="#string/account_server_icon"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:gravity="left" />
<TextView
android:orientation="vertical"
android:id="#+id/tv_account"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:layout_gravity="left|center_vertical" />
</LinearLayout>

You need to set gravity then you set text alignment to gravity
<TextView
android:orientation="vertical"
android:id="#+id/tv_account"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:gravity="left|center_vertical"
android:textAlignment="gravity"
/>

Height of view not calculated correctly inside a weighted layout

Hi I have found weird behaviour when trying to implement the following layout on android.
<?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" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0.25"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0.75"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:paddingRight="15dp"
android:paddingTop="10dp"
android:paddingBottom="10dp"
android:layout_margin="20dp"
android:textColor="#android:color/black"
android:lineSpacingMultiplier="1.1" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
This piece of layout is supposed to generate a textview on the right that takes up 75% of the screen. But for some reason the height of the Textview is calculated as if the weight of its parent is 0. The text inside the view seems to wrap perfectly, but not the view itself.
Is this normal behaviour or how can I get the textview to display the correct height?

Firstly please indent your code properly so it is easy to read. You can do that automagically in the XML editor by pressing Ctrl + Shift + F.
Secondly if you want the LinearLayouts to be 25% wide and 75% wide but fill the whole height of the screen then you need
android:layout_height="match_parent"
Thirdly, if you want the TextView to take up 75% of the screen, then why not just assign the weight directly to that and not have it wrapped in another LinearLayout?
Lastly, with weights you dont need to make the children weights add to 1. Having
android:layout_weight="1"
and
android:layout_weight="3"
is also ok.

Android - How to enable full page scrolling on a layout with a ListView?

I have a layout with a ListView. The list scrolls fine, but sometimes the other content on the page needs to be bigger and either the list or the other content take up too much of the screen so I need it all to scroll.
Can that be done?
Here is the layout I have so far:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
>
<include android:id="#+id/header"
layout="#layout/header"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/view_name"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Business:"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/business_privacy"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Loading..."
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/think"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_marginTop ="5dp"
android:textColor="#color/light_best_blue"
android:paddingLeft="10px"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Fill out each section below"
/>
<ListView
android:id="#android:id/list"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#+id/label"
android:textSize="20px"
>
</ListView>
</LinearLayout>
What would be the way to make it easy for the user to be able to see both the text and the list even if the text takes up the whole screen? Can I make the text scrollable? It is especially bad in horizontal view so I think there must be some ux patters to make it play nicely.
Thanks for the advice!

1- Put textview which has a larger text in header of the list view so it get scroll with list...
or
2- put the textview in other scroll view with fixed size like 1/3 of the screen.

You could either make the content wrap, or wrap the content up using a HorizontalScrollView. Android docs on it can be found here.