Develop Reference

How do I get a background image to scale in android studio?

So I am trying to import a custom image as the background of an android app however it does not fill in all of the edges. The option I have seen is to set a second layout to be a frame layout and then place an image view within it with additional coding along the lines of android:scaleType="centerCrop". This will not fill the entire screen up for me however, heres a screenshot of what ends up happening -
Heres the xml code being used:
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<ImageView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/backgroundImage"
android:background="#drawable/backgroundImgr"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
/>
</FrameLayout>
Another issue is that different users use different resolutions so the background image has to be able to accommodate them all without being cut off. I'm not sure how to do this.

Set ScaleType fitXY and add android:adjustViewBounds ="true"
Please use android:src="#drawable/ instead background .I hope it will helps you.

Android TextView has unwanted thin black lines above and below

I am using TextViews to render talk bubbles, which are formed from 9-patch .png images stretched to fit whatever a character says. The same TextView is programmatically reused, resized, and shifted to different places on the screen as the conversation occurs.
Everything looks good except sometimes there is a thin (probably 1 pixel) black line above and below, at the edges of the TextView space (the .png's themselves have a transparent background).
I've been searching online for a week, but found no one with this exact same complaint or any solutions based on anything even vaguely similar.
Any thoughts?
[added by request: .xml and screenshot (suddenly this morning my reputation went up to 11 -- woohoo!)]
<FrameLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".ActivityPreMomGirl"
android:background="#drawable/bg_pre_mom_girl"
android:id="#+id/mom_girl_cb" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/talk_chat"
android:background="#drawable/talk_chat"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:visibility="invisible" />
</FrameLayout>

Why are you using TextView? If you want to show text on some background why not to use ImageView.

In my case it was solved by adding "android:background="#android:color/transparent" to the EditText element

Fixed-width TextView with stretched compound drawable

I'm trying to achieve the following layout: a fixed width TextView aligned to the left of its parent, with the text inside it aligned to the right side of that TextView (that's why fixed width, can it be done other way?) and the rest of the parent is filled with a drawable (simple line). Like this:
It's a ListView containing 2 types of rows and the layout for the rows with lines is quite trivial - LinearLayout with TextView and ImageView (I can post the exact code later if needed). And I'm getting a warning that it could be replaced with a single TextView with compound drawable.
I'm all for optimization so I really tried to follow that advice. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the same result - the line is either constrained to TextView's width or text is aligned to the right side of the ListItem, now to fixed position.
Am I missing something?
Edit: Apparently it is not actually possible and since there are some other complications (the drawable is now a level-list drawable, which is not always a line and sometimes it has a non-fixed height that I have to set) I will leave it as it is now - linear layout, containing one TextView and one ImageView.

I don't think that you're missing anything. The TextView compound drawable features are not very customizable and in general are not worth the time you spend trying to get them to look right. Some lint warnings are a little overzealous and premature.

The optimization that the lint refers to is something that is better attributed for a fixed size image. In your case, the line has to stretch the rest of the screen length and as such it is not something that can be done with a textview with compound drawable. This kind of lint warning is more of a suggestion rather than something that MUST be done and is detected by just checking for a linear layout with only a textview and an imageview rather than checking what would need to go in the image view. If you already have it working the way you did it I think you should leave it alone.

Your view create from this -
<?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="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/time"
android:layout_width="#dimen/today_time_width"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="left"
android:gravity="right"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp" />
<ImageView
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:id="#+id/border"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="#dimen/today_current"
android:src="?attr/item_boundary" />
</LinearLayout>

There is no way to achive this using only standart TextView. If you really want to reduce view count you can create your custom TextView class, set layoutWidth to matchParent and draw line from text end to right border. But it's not worth to be doing. Some extra views won't slow your list.

I am not sure if you will be able to achieve what you really want to , but then you could change the linear layout in the link you posted to something like this:
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/relTrial"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtTime"
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:text="12:45 AM"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/lnrSep"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="1dp"
android:gravity="bottom"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#android:color/darker_gray"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/txtTime"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"></LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
This way the time text will be right aligned although being at the left side, and the line will also be visible.
Hope that helps.

If I got you right, you want to add bottom border to list view item?
What about to try this:
android:drawableBottom="#drawable/line"

How can I get an image button's dimensions to make sense in android?

First of all, can I just say, I find laying out android UI's to be a frustrating experience? I used to think the XML layouts were simple and clean and awesome but every time I try to make anything with it I spend hours trying to do the simplest things!
In this particular instance I'm trying to make a simple horizontal bar that contains an image button of fixed size on the right and to the left of it I want an ImageView that takes up the rest of the available width. I see similar constructs all the time in the UI: the search box that appears at the top of the screen when searching, the text area and send button for composing text/googletalk messages, etc.
I've tried both a horizontal linear layout and a relative layout, and I can't get the button to look right in either one. My latest attempt has the following layout code:
It looks like this:
Using the hiearchyviewer indicates that both the imageview and the button have the same height (45px). And it shows the view dimensions and positions to be exactly what I'm looking for. Same height (differing widths of course since the ImageView is much wider). And they butt right up next to each other, centered in the Relative Layout. However the button as drawn on screen is obviously not taking up the full ImageButton view. I'm thinking it's something weird about the android system 9patch drawable used for the ImageButton background. But what do I know? I can't get it to look right no matter what I try.

How did you set up your RelativeLayout? Try to set it up like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageButton android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignParentRight="true" android:id="#+id/imgButton"></ImageButton>
<ImageView android:id="#+id/imageView2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" android:src="#drawable/red_button" android:scaleType="fitXY" android:layout_alignBottom="#+id/imgButton" android:layout_alignTop="#+id/imgButton" android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/imgButton"></ImageView>
</RelativeLayout>
Hope this helps.

If dimensions are exactly how you are looking for , then in ImageButton and ImageView , use android:scaleType="fitXY" and check.
For simple case , I might use linearlayout with horizontal orientation with two buttons in it with proper weights.

Drawing a board (checkers) for an Android App

I am an Android Newbie trying to use my VB experience (8yrs ago) and design a UI. I am trying to create a checkers board which in VB would be a form on which I add multiple resizable panel widgets contiguously as needed in multiple rows. Since these are panels I can either add a small image (coin) on it (with the panel as background) or even add another small panel with a color that I can make visible and invisible to represent the coins. I know describing a VB UI is bad but VB is meant to make form designs easy and it really does and that is the only language I can think in for UI.
I notice that android SDK does not nearly have enough widgets for me to use. The best I could think of is using a TableLayout with multiple rows. The thing I don't get is what do I use to represent a square? Is there something analogous to a VB panel widget? I don't want to use an image because I want the board to be auto adjust to the screen dimensions.
Could some one help me with some hints?

You could define the layout in XML using a horizontal LinearLayout and fill it with 8 ImageViews (or any other container that can show an image/color) and copy it 7 times in a vertical LinearLayout, similar to this:
<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<ImageView android:id="#+id/square_1"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
<!-- Set image or background here --> />
<!-- Repeat the ImageView 7 times and change the id for every ImageView
you create -->
</LinearLayout>
<!-- Reapeat the LinearLayout 7 times too -->
</LinearLayout>
This will create 8 rows with 8 squares in each and all the squares will have the same size thanks to the weight property which indicates that they should all get equal space.
To use Java code to change image/background, you will have to use:
ImageView square_1 = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.square_1);
square_1.setBackground(Color.yellow);
Read more in the Android SDK Reference here:
ImageView: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/ImageView.html
LinearLayout: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/LinearLayout.html
Hope this helps you along the way!