Develop Reference

Border Lines for cells in GridLayout, TableLayout, or GridView?

I am trying to create a table/grid for some items within my app and I would like to have a border around each cell to divide the items up and have a coherent association of the setting with the item. This app will be used in an industrial setting where there may be people unfamiliar with Android that need to use this, thus trying to make it as easy as possible.
The table/grid will contain TextView, EditText, Spinner, and Button, and will also be scrollable (via ScrollView parent).
I read about the GridView and found that it (seems) to only be able to get items programmatically, please correct me if I am wrong. I felt that this was unnecessary since I know what items I want and where. Also, I have not tried adding items to a layout programmatically yet so I figured I would try the other options first. Also, the GridView documentation does not say one way or the other if border lines are automatically shown, or if you can have them shown at all.
I started with a TableLayout and was able to get everything except the border lines to work. I tried android:divider to get the lines but that didn't work. One thought I had was to create a bunch of TextViews with black backgrounds and ~2dp widths/heights to make my own border lines. This feels like a huge waste though. Then I also read the TableLayout documentation and found this: "TableLayout containers do not display border lines for their rows, columns, or cells."
I then tried the GridLayout and had the same results as the TableLayout. I tried padding and margins, neither worked. Also, the GridLayout documentation states: "The grid is composed of a set of infinitely thin lines that separate the viewing area into cells."
My questions are:
Is there an attirbute that I missed in TableLayout or GridLayout that will give me border lines via the xml?
If no, then will the GridView give me the lines I want?
Will I be able to add all the perviously mentioned items I want to the GridView?

I was actually able to achieve the desired look by setting the android:background="#000000" within the GridLayout view and then in the child items I set the android:background="#8CDD81" (just some green color) and combined with android:layout_margin="2dp" I was able to get the "grid" lines that I wanted. Thanks to CommonsWare though for getting me thinking in a new direction that turned into a solution.
EDIT:
This does not work quite as anticipated. You need the android:layout_alignLeft/Right which are only available via RelativeLayout in order to get just the right width on the child items. Haven't tested this yet using this idea, child items within RelativeLayout within GridLayout.

Is there an attirbute that I missed in TableLayout or GridLayout that will give me border lines via the xml?
No.
If no, then will the GridView give me the lines I want?
No.
Will I be able to add all the perviously mentioned items I want to the GridView?
Yes, though how well something like a Spinner will work, I can't say.
The simplest way, off the top of my head, to give you the lines you seek is to have each cell of the TableLayout or GridLayout be some container containing the widget(s) for that cell, where you give the container a background that is your line. A ShapeDrawable could be defined in XML for that background, which will be nicely resizeable based upon the actual requirements of the cell.

For future visiters this is how I did it with TableLayout:
table.xml
<TableLayout android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#969696">
<!-- table heading -->
<TableRow>
<Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Name"
android:background="#d2d2d2"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
/>
<Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Address"
android:background="#d2d2d2"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
/>
</TableRow>
<!-- table data -->
<TableRow>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Ahtisham"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
android:background="#f1f1f1"
/>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Kashmir"
android:layout_margin="1dp"
android:background="#f1f1f1"
/>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>

Selecting best Android layout

I am new to Android, and wish to do a layout as below:
A Logo on top.
Following with a Rectangle with Rounded corners
Within that Rectangle, I will have two EditText box for User ID and Password, plus one Login button
Below the Rectangle with Rounded corners (outside) I have a Html Link to Terms & Conditions
I have tried various ways of layout out
Using only layout. Different kinds of layouts. All seems to be very difficult to achieve what I need
Using Layout + Background. The background is not really a background, but is more like a template, it will affect your layout, and is very difficult to control where you wants your control located.
Using onDraw. Flexible but worried that it might have problem with different screen sizes.
So, someone please enlight which is the best way to achieve what I need?

No one can really tell you what is best, it depends on exactly what you want but I would suggest using a RelatvieLayout as they are typically the easiest and most efficient to use once you work with them a little, in my opinion. You can read Here to see how to do the rectangle. You basically will use shape drawable and adjust the radius of the corners.
As far as the logo on top, if it will be reused in other Activitys then you can put it in its own layout and use the include tag in your layouts to reuse the logo layout
If you are worried about different screen sizes then read the Docs and find what works for you.
Just start on it and adjust as you go. Don't be afraid to screw up and redo some of it. Hopefully this is enough information to get you started
Using a RelativeLayout will give you more flexibility and allow you to use less Layouts such as nested LinearLayouts and Layouts with only one child which can improve performance

this is how it should be done:
start with linear layout with vertical orientation :
<linearLayourt xmlns=............
android:orientation="vertical"
.....other stuffs goes here
......
.....
<LinearLayout ......this is the child linearlayout
.....other stuffs goes here like width and height
<ImageView ...this is where you are gonna put your logo in
/>
</LinearLayout> ....close your child linear layout
<RelativeLayout ...
.........other stuffs here
<EditText ....1st edit text
...you position your boxes here
/>
<EditText ....2nd edit text
...you position your boxes here
/>
</RelativeLayout>
<TextView
....
...
...put yout hyperlink for this text
/>
</LinearLayout> ...this is the parent linear layout

For your case of creating a Log in screen it's not really matter as it is a relatively easy screen to design. I personally like to use XML to design my layouts and never seen it done using the onDraw method.
My suggestion to you as #codeMagic said is to learn how to use and manipulated RelativeLayouts,as those will prevent you from creating cascaded layouts that are really not recommended and take long time to load.
When I started to program for Android I found LinearLayout to be the easiest to understand and use but using it would bring me to many LinearLayouts inside of a LinearLayouts on complex screen designz, later with the use of RelativeLayout I realized that in most cases one RelativeLayout can replace many cascaded Linear ones.
in your case you could do some thing like that:
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:src="#drawable/drop_down_icon" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/imageView1" >
</EditText>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/editText1" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="Button" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/button1"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="TextView" />
</RelativeLayout>
All what left is to add the desired padings and margins.

Can't Align ImageView in Table Cell in Android

OK, here's ANOTHER question about positioning objects in tables in Android, but nothing I've found on Stack has helped.
I want the ImageView in the XML below to be left aligned in its cell. No matter what I've tried, though, it won't do this (it's always centered). The layout_width and layout_weight are set as they are to control the position and sizes of the cells themselves. Maybe these settings are making it impossible to left align the ImageView in its cell, though.
android:layout_gravity="left" and android:gravity="left" didn't work in either the ImageView tag or the TableRow tag. One kind of kludgy solution that seems to work is to add a blank TextView in a third column, to force the 2nd column holding the ImageView to be exactly the width of the ImageView's bitmap. However, I'd prefer not to have to do this, especially since different rows may contain bitmaps of different widths.
<TableLayout
android:id="#+id/scoreTable"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" >
<TableRow
android:id="#+id/thisWeek"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/thisWeekText"
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="30dp"
android:layout_weight="35"
android:gravity="right"
android:paddingRight="30px"
android:text="#string/thisWeek"
android:textStyle="bold" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/chevron1"
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="20dp"
android:layout_weight="65"
android:layout_marginLeft="0px"
android:src="#drawable/doser_scale4a"
android:visibility="visible" />
</TableRow>

I replaced the TextViews with ImageViews, using bitmaps of the text that was in the TextViews. This was OK for me because that text won't be changing, though I guess if it did I could create images for all possible text and switch between those images.
This was not an ideal solution, since I assume using bitmaps instead of text uses more memory, and making bitmaps for my text required a little time and effort and some sacrifice of ease and flexibility of changing the text, if that is desired at some point, but I couldn't figure out how to make this work with TextViews. Android definitely seems limited in this way, since it shouldn't be that difficult to align text any way you want in a table cell, should it?

Each "cell" of the TableRow is a View, so you could put a LinearLayout (with your preferred gravity) and put inside this LinearLayour your image.

Draw an Image beside an Edit text in android

I want to draw an image on the left of an EditText. I don't want the image appear insde the EditText though.
I use this:
<EditText
android:id="#+id/firstNameTxt"
style="#style/UserInfoInputs"
android:drawablePadding="20dp"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/first_name" >
</EditText>
It displays the image inside of the EditText. However I use this on TextView and it works fine:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/positionValue"
style="#style/userInfo"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/position" />
How this can be done for an EditText?

try this
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/go_image"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/icon"
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/url"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:lines="1"
android:layout_weight="1.0" />
</LinearLayout>
let me know if this works.

The difference between the two use-cases you describe are simple. There is no difference. With an EditText, there are lines that are easily discernible. With a TextView there is not. Try setting the background property of the textview, and you'll see that the drawable is, in fact, drawn on the left side, but still 'inside', the TextView.
The simplest way to accomplish your task (as described) is to utilize an ImageView. Depending on what ViewGroup (LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, etc) you're using, the code may be a bit different; so, update your question with the appropriate info and I'll make my answer a bit more specific.
I should note that, another method you could use is to create your own custom component, which is really very easy to do. See this article Custom Components | Android Developer, be sure to scroll down to the Compound Controls heading title "Compound Controls". This would be especially helpful when this is a 'common' format of controls that you'll use often (I.E. you have an image next to a TextView throughout your app).

That is because the background part of the EditText stretches behind the entire contents of the view, including the drawables.
If you are using a RelativeLayout you can just add a separate ImageView:
<ImageView
layout_width="wrap_content"
layout_height="wrap_content"
layout_toLeftOf="#+id/firstNameTxt"
src="#drawable/first_name"
other imageview attributes as neccessary...
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/firstNameTxt"
style="#style/UserInfoInputs"
/>
Or if you use another kind of layout, create a LinearLayout-wrapper:
<LinearLayout
layout_width="wrap_content"
layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
layout_width="wrap_content"
layout_height="wrap_content"
layout_toLeftOf="#+id/firstNameTxt"
src="#drawable/first_name"
other imageview attributes as neccessary...
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/firstNameTxt"
style="#style/UserInfoInputs"
/>
</LinearLayout>

Split button text into two sections

I am trying to port my WP7 app to android.
Does anyone know how I can layout the text on a single button so that some text appears aligned left and other text appears aligned right? (See below). I need access to be able to dynamically change the percentage number on the right side using code but the text on the right is just static.
Anyone know the answer to this?
The image is here:
http://i.imgur.com/zW7YV.png

Yes you could make it two buttons.
Remove all padding and margin from between them.
Set the same background drawable.
And just ensure when the left is clicked it invokes the right's onPress method (so it looks as if they depress together).
Or wrap the buttons/imageviews/textviews in a layout and perform the onClick on that.

I would use a RelativeLayout for this.
<RelativeLayout
android:width="fill_parent"
android:height="wrap_content"
android:clickable="true"
android:background="#18a2e7"
android:padding="10dip">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Something" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_align_parentRight="true"
android:text="0%" />
</RelativeLayout>