In an app I'm developing, I need to layout 2 to 5 buttons as if on the edge of a circle. The app starts with 5 buttons, but buttons gradually disappear (based on user input) until there are 2 of them.
I thought I would use an AbsoluteLayout control, and set the position of each button in code (taking into account the screen size). However, it says more or less everywhere that AbsoluteLayout should not be used. Since I'm targeting this app to Android 2.2 and up, I can't use the fancier layouts introduced with ICS.
I know I can use a RelativeLayout and play with the margins, but this seems less intuitive, and just as error prone, as using AbsoluteLayout.
Do I have any reasonable alternative?
I think, you dont have many alternatives. Except relative layout you mentioned, you could of course use FrameLayout and set left and bottom margin to position your buttons correctly.
Related
Image of XML code and Design Differnce
In this there is a space left right of the image in AVD but in preview, space is fully covered for ImangeView
Same in case if TextView
I want the AVD design same as Preview. Is there any solution of the problem please help
You have to set the layout_centerOrizontal in "true" for each graphical component. It will solve the question of horizontal align issue. But, the preview cannot show all the devices, have this in mind. So, you have to predict somehow to achieve better performance for differents functions and diffents devices.
In your case, with your example, you have to make the all components be on the center (i'm guessing that is what you want). You can work with padding too. So in order to fill the space in a better way (not too empty, like the space below the images on the first image), you can use margin and padding settings that can bring a better looking.
I am trying to create an android app where I have a single relatively big button in the middle (the light blue in the picture) and it is surrounded by other smaller buttons as shown in the picture (some of small buttons might be visible or invisible based on some criteria).
I started with the RelativLayout setting the big on in the center and making the rest placed in relation to it, but it is a miss and the central button get shifted and doesn't stay in the center. I tried placing them in FrameLayout and used margin to adjust their locations, that worked the best however, the spacing changes on different screen resolutions.
So what is the best way to achieve such layout that will look consistent on any device?
Android's Percent Support Library allows you to use proportions to lay out your views, which may allow you to get closer to your goal.
http://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/features.html#percent
I am wondering how I would design a calculator with graphics similar to the following: Design help for Calculator App or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.Appsys.PanecalST.
The key requirements:
The buttons must be squared (it can pop out etc. but squares are more aesthetically pleasing than rectangles).
It must be device compatible and retain square buttons upon orientation change
My problem is that Relative formatting (as I attempted) disorients the layout in different devices and is not as nice as I hoped. (i.e. trying to design the button to harbor no empty space in one device using relative instructions. One idea I fancy is putting a center button and orienting the others above left etc. so at the very least, no empty space is in the center.
Below is the designs I made:
I prefer the first image but I neglected 0 (only buttons for 1-9). How would attempt at transforming these designs to code?
*I think I may use ImageButtons. I will include images based on density but how would I account for different screen sizes?
First of all, for your calculator, use LinearLayout.
Link: Documentation will be found here
Secondly, To Support multiple screen,
This documentation will help, documentation1, documentation2
What would I do in this situation?
First of all, I would use the LinearLayout as my primary layout and give it an orientation > Vertical instead of RelativeLayout. This LinearLayout is for the whole screen (The output, the numbers and other functions). Then for each line, say for the output screen, I would put it in another LinearLayout (Orientation Horizontal) inside the previous LinearLayout (NestedLayout). For numbers in each row, I would use a new LinearLayout.
For the second problem of yours, I would use buttons instead of images as images take large space in perspective of buttons which will unnecessary increase the app size. To support my button for multiple screen, I would use Weight option in android for buttons. This stackoverflow answer has a nice description.
I hope it helps.
Cheers mate!
I have a design that I need to follow in my app. In it there are several buttons, images and textviews placed all over the screen (some are aligned to the left, some to the right, some are centered etc). What I need to do is make all those elements appear EXACTLY as they are in the design image. The problem is, if I try to do this using dp, it can be wider or narrower than the design image specifies, and it depends on the properties of the screen. (I've had an app where I did it all in dp, and on my high-res phone it works perfectly, but on my friend's older phone it cuts away the edges of the activity)
My question is, what elements do I use for this? I've heard of using weight in Linear Layouts, but how to make items different width and height and position them all across the screen how I see fit? How to make sure it looks exactly the same on all screen sizes?
Thanks in advance! :)
Edit:
The point is, I need the buttons to be just as they are on the screen (this will be a listview element, I'm trying to make an xml for it). The distance, proportion, everything, it needs to scale to the width of the screen and be this size and distribution. And, I'm not just looking for a solution to THIS particular problem, I want to learn how to do it in general...
You don't. For very large and very small screens, you use separate layouts that scale the sizes, completely drop parts of the UI, or lays it out in a different manner. It's absolutely silly to think you can fit all the stuff on a 10 inch tablet and a 3.5 inch phone. If your designer expects that, tell him he's an idiot and he needs to get back to work.
For a more general answer on the best way of laying things out- it depends on the effect you're trying to get. You should never use pixel counts, and dp should only be used for small things- a bit of padding between 2 fields. Most things should be done via layout, either by using a linear layout and getting things in rows/columns, or a RelativeLayout and describing how to layout views relative to their siblings. But even with these tools you will not be able to fit on all screens and look good.
Hey Im new to android developing and I have a quick question. Is there a way to place buttons where I want them on the view? Right now they only seem to be placed where there is specific spots for them. Why cant i drag and place them where ever I want like in the iphone sdk for example?
Is there a way to do so or does this functionality not exist? thanks.
Android (eg. similar to Qt) uses a concept of layouts. This is especially useful when you're creating UIs that can be displayed on different devices with different DPIs, different screen resolutions, etc.
So instead placing your buttons at pixel coordinates you put them, independent of device screen resolution, into layouts.
Read more in User Interface documentation. Using Eclipse ADT plugin you can visually create layouts. You can even embed one layout into other, creating eg. LinearLayout in RelativeLayout. This gives much more possibilities of creating screen scalable applications (one app on phone and tablet for example).
There is AbsoluteLayout, but that class is deprecated. The recommended strategy is to use a RelativeLayout (you can control the position of views by setting layout margins) or build your own custom layout class.
An android UI screen is build for various screen sizes , due to which you can not specify an exact location for the UI component .
Android instead uses the concepts of Layouts where each layout has a different behavior. Here are a few of them.
LinearLayout aligns all children in a single direction — vertically or horizontally, depending on how you define the orientation attribute
TableLayout positions its children into rows and columns
RelativeLayout , one of the most used layouts , lets child views specify their position relative to the parent view or to each other (specified by ID).
Android uses layouts to design the UI. For example, a vertical linear layout stacks one element on top of the other.
AbsoluteLayout is the most precise, but it's also harder to maintain and can get messy.
I recommend RelativeLayout. It positions UI elements relative to other elements.
If you don't really need that much precision, one more option is nesting layouts within layouts. But doing that too much gets messy and RelativeLayout becomes the better option.
A UI element's position is determined by the layout you choose. See this link.