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The bottom view is getting blocked by the top view

I have a really annoying problem with fitting two custom views to work together. I'm trying to display these two views in an android activity, but one of them takes the whole viewable space of the activity and the other is placed under it. The first view only uses a small part of the space and the rest is trasparent, but it only works when its width and height is at match_parent so the other view is displayed under it, but it is being blocked from receiving any touch events. here is how they looks like:
the xml code:
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/background_app" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<com.fortysevendeg.android.swipelistview.SwipeListView
xmlns:swipe="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/example_lv_list"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:listSelector="#00000000"
swipe:swipeActionLeft="dismiss"
swipe:swipeBackView="#+id/back"
swipe:swipeCloseAllItemsWhenMoveList="true"
swipe:swipeFrontView="#+id/front"
swipe:swipeMode="both"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"/>
</LinearLayout>
<com.touchmenotapps.widget.radialmenu.semicircularmenu.SemiCircularRadialMenu
android:id="#+id/radial_menu"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_gravity="bottom"
android:padding="1dip" />
</FrameLayout>
What I'm trying to do is to be able to touch the bottom where the top view is transparent, and be able to touch the top view where it's not transparent. I tried arranging the xml in a different way but it keeps crashing, this is the only way it worked, but this problem appeared.
Links to the custom Views:
Radial-Menu-Widget: github.com/strider2023/Radial-Menu-Widget-Android
SwipeListView library: github.com/47deg/android-swipelistview
SwipeListView sample: github.com/47deg/android-swipelistview-sample
What I'm trying to accomplish here is something similar to Catch Notes app. If there are other ways, or other libraries you can suggest, it would be much appreciated.

Ok try this: copy the source code of SemiCircularRadialMenu.class in your project and modify
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event)
Because this method always returns true and captures all touch events, so also the touch event for SwipeListView listener. I solved it in this way.

An old question, but others may find this answer helpful. Without modifying the source of your custom views, I don't think you can get the behavior you want. But getting the two custom views to work onto the same screen might be as simple as changing your root layout to a LinearLayout, adding weight to the inner layout, and setting the height of the second custom view to wrap_content. By having only one widget with a weight, it will get all the space left after the others are laid out. Here's your layout with the changes applied:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/background_app"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dip"
android:layout_weight="100" >
<com.fortysevendeg.android.swipelistview.SwipeListView
xmlns:swipe="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/example_lv_list"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
android:listSelector="#00000000"
swipe:swipeActionLeft="dismiss"
swipe:swipeBackView="#+id/back"
swipe:swipeCloseAllItemsWhenMoveList="true"
swipe:swipeFrontView="#+id/front"
swipe:swipeMode="both" />
</LinearLayout>
<com.touchmenotapps.widget.radialmenu.semicircularmenu.SemiCircularRadialMenu
android:id="#+id/radial_menu"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="bottom"
android:padding="1dip" />
</LinearLayout>
If you need to height of the second view to be more expandable, you can wrap it in another LinearLayout with a weight and adjust the two weights to apportion the screen height between them. The individual weight values aren't special; it's their value relative to the sum of all the weights that determines how much height each one gets. I like to make my total values add up to 100 so I can think of the weights as percentages.

Positioning a view with top expressed as a percentage of display height

I just know this is simple and in about 30 minutes time, I'll hate myself...
I have a splashscreen which consists of a static image which fills the screen. So I simply set the background attribute of whatever root view I use in my layout.
The image has a blank area over which I need to place an "I accept" button. To deal with different resolutions, I must position it using a percentage of the display height - 58% is the spot.
I can't use layout_weight because that sizes the button and absolutelayout (setting the y position in code) is deprecated.
How can I achieve this? I don't care what viewgroup is the parent and I'm fine with having "blank" views filling up space.
I am aiming to do this entirely in layout XML to keep my code clean...
Thanks!

You say you can't use layout_weight, but that's your only option if you want to do it purely in XML. I don't understand why you think you can't use it anyway. Here's an example of how you might do it:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#drawable/splash"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<View
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="58" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="42" >
<!-- Place buttons here -->
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

I don't see any other way that to use a layout_weight... Also the whole class AbsoluteLayout is deprecated, so try to avoid using it. I suggest to use an LinearLayout as your rootView with a given weight_sum of 1. add another Space-filling LinearLayout width a weight of 0.58 and below your Button with wrap_content attributes. Unfortunately I cannot tell you more unless you post your xml, so that I can see, what you try to achieve.
Kind of this should work:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#drawable/your_desired_background"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:weight_sum="1">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight=".58" />
<Button
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>

Android Layout - Weighting

I have spent hours trying to work this out, and spent a long time looking through other answers.
I'm evidently missing something simple, but really have been trying.
I cut my code down to the very basics to find the problem.
A layout has a backround, the top half of which is nice graphics, below the top half I am hoping to have the buttons.
The background is on the top, first linearlayout ( vertical ).
Then, inside this, are two vertical linear layouts.
The top vertical layout, has a weight of 1.
The bottom vertical layout, has a weight of 1.
This means to me, that the top layout should take up HALF of the screen. The buttons then going in the second layout should be ok to take up the rest of the screen.
However, when I start adding to the second layout, it no longer takes up half of the screen, but starts taking up space on the top half.
All I want to do, is to add four imagebuttons to the bottom half of the screen, centralised horizontally.
here is my code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:background="#drawable/menubackground"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<!-- Layout 1, the top half -->
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/linearLayout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="vertical" >
</LinearLayout>
<!-- Layout 2, the bottom half, containing buttons -->
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/linearLayout2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/imageButton1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:src="#drawable/playbtnimg" android:layout_weight="1"/>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/imageButton2"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:src="#drawable/achievementsbtnimg" android:layout_weight="1"/>
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Those two buttons, are now starting to take up around 2/3rd of the vertical space. They should not be going into the top half of the screen.
I'm trying to use layouts in this way so it will work on different screen sizes.
I would like the images to scale to fit within their linear layout cell, and not be cut off at the top of sides.
Any help is much appreciated.

Add a weightsum attribute to your root element ie the parent LinearLayout
here is what it would look like
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:background="#drawable/menubackground"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:weightSum="2"
android:orientation="vertical">
same would be for the LinearLayout having buttons
This would help further you can read more in android documentation

Try adding this code where you are using ImageButtons as backgrounds.
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
Fixed a similar issue I was having.
Hope it works and happy coding.

Positioning ListViews inside FrameLayout

So I'm trying to create a screen which has a ListView and over that I need to be able to float another custom horizontal ListView, right at the bottom edge of the screen. When the user scrolls on the vertical listview, the horizontal one would go invisible and reappear when the scrolling stops. I figured FrameLayout would be my best bet for overlapping views. But I can't seem to make this work. The Horizontal listview seems to occupy the whole screen space. Any ideas? Is this even the right approach? I wish to have something similar to a fixed div in HTML.
Here's my XML:
UPDATE-1: Used RelativeLayout as suggested, but still a no-go. The HorizontalListView still seems to be occupying the whole screen. I'm using the HorizintalListView from here
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<ListView
android:id="#+id/messages"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_marginTop="5dip" />
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" >
<test.ui.app.HorizontalListView
android:id="#+id/folders"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#FFFFFF" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

I got it to work by setting the height of the inner Relative Layout myself instead of using 'wrap_content'.
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<ListView
android:id="#+id/messages"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" />
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="80dip"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" >
<test.ui.app.HorizontalListView
android:id="#+id/folders"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#FFFFFF" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

You cannot adjust the views inaide FrameLayout.So it will be better for you to go for RelativeLayout.
Or you can put your listviews inside RelativeLayout or linearlayout and then you can adjust.
Hope this will help you. :)

Like the other answerer said, you could use a RelativeLayout:
set android:layout_alignParentLeft|Right|Top|Bottom="true" for the vertical list view
set android:layout_alignParentLeft|Right|Bottom="true" for the horizontal list view (and height to "wrap_content" or fixed size)
Or if you reeeeaaaally want to stick with FrameLayout (maybe for performance reasons...), you could somply add a huge android:layout_marginTop to the horizontal list view. But this solution is uglier, since you need to set exact values. For example if the whole screen is 320dp height, and you want the horizontal list view to be 80dp height, you need to set the top margin to 240dp. However if you run this on a screen with different aspect ratio, the horizontal list view will be ugly.

Using a nested LinearLayout

SOLVED: The layout_height parameter was set to Match_parent in the buttonbar definition. Changed to wrap_content.
I'm currently working on a new App which has a series of buttons at the top of the main screen. the "buttonBar" XML defines a linearLayout and is later nested within another linearLayout.
The buttons appear fine and work however if I then put a text view beneath the include statement the text does not appear. I think that it is actually appearing behind the buttons. I assumed that because it was within a parent linearLayout that it would appear after the included (nested) nested layout.
please could someone explain why this is not occurring and point me in the right direction to solve it.
much appreciated,
M
<?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 layout="#layout/buttonheader"/>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TextView"
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:textColor="#ffffff">
</TextView>
</LinearLayout>

Set height and width of the included layout buttonheader
SO that you can see this included layout in your layout