Develop Reference

Make layout aware whether keyboard is visible or not

I'm trying to make a layout aware whether the softkeyboard is visible or not since it covers part of the UI. Moving the UI up when the keyboard comes up and making it scrollable would be preferable.
Is this possible to do, and if so, how?
Image of view without keyboard:
nokeyboard
Image of view with keyboard:
with keyboard
XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="#dimen/dialog_min_width"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="#dimen/spacing_l"
android:background="#color/white"
android:minWidth="#dimen/dialog_min_width"
android:orientation="vertical">
<ScrollView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:nestedScrollingEnabled="false">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/dialog_content"
style="#style/DialogContent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/dialog_title"
style="#style/DialogTitle"
android:text="#string/label_start_round"
/>
<TextView
style="#style/InputLabel"
android:text="#string/label_player_name"
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/player_name"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.EditText"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="textAutoCorrect"
/>
<TextView
style="#style/InputLabel"
android:text="#string/label_player_handicap"
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/player_handicap"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.EditText"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="numberDecimal"
/>
<TextView
style="#style/InputLabel"
android:text="#string/label_gender"
/>
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/spinner_gender"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Spinner.Underlined"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<TextView
style="#style/InputLabel"
android:text="#string/label_selected_tee"
/>
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/player_tee"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Spinner.Underlined"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/dialog_footer"
style="#style/DialogFooter">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/button_cancel"
style="#style/DialogButton"
android:text="#string/label_cancel"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/button_start"
style="#style/DialogButton"
android:text="#string/label_start"
/>
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

You need to look at the android:windowSoftInputMode setting in your manifest.
The adjustment made to the activity's main window — whether it is
resized smaller to make room for the soft keyboard or whether its
contents pan to make the current focus visible when part of the window
is covered by the soft keyboard.

The android:windowSoftInputMode did not work for me since I was using a LinearLayout (overlapping the RelativeLayout in the background, however this wasn't show in the question). What I had to do was:
Change the outermost LinearLayout to a RelativeLayout
Put both inner LinearLayouts within the ScrollView (and make the lower LinearLayout a RelativeLayout to fix some layout issues related to the move)
Add getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode((WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_ADJUST_RESIZE)); to the fragments onCreateView
The manifest could remain unchanged using this solution.

Using RelativeLayout, LinearLayout and layout_weight at the same time - weird behaviour

I've got an activity layout specified in an XML file - activity_intro.xml - and I'm trying to create another one that is similar but slightly different - that's going to be activity_instructions.xml.
The Intro activity has a 9patch image at the bottom of the screen that is supposed to stay there and only adjust to different widths of the screens.
The Instructions activity is supposed to contain the same image but above 2 more buttons - all three of these views need to be always located at the bottom of the screen.
activity_intro.xml:
<?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:orientation="vertical" >
<ScrollView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:background="#drawable/home_background" >
<LinearLayout
style="#style/Activity"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/introAnimationImageView"
android:layout_width="152dip"
android:layout_height="176dip"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:contentDescription="#string/intro_animation_content_description"
android:src="#drawable/animation_intro01" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/introTextViewTitle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/intro_title"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/introTextViewSubtitle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/intro_subtitle"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/introButtonLoginSignup"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:text="#string/intro_button_label_login_signup" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/introButtonInstructions"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/introButtonLoginSignup"
android:text="#string/intro_button_label_instructions" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/introButtonReportAnonymously"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/introButtonLoginSignup"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="#string/intro_button_label_report_anonymously" />
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
<ImageView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0"
android:contentDescription="#null"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:src="#drawable/footer_cityscape" />
</LinearLayout>
Result:
Since I've got working code for Intro, I wanted to make Instructions follow its example but the layout_weight property isn't behaving as expected. First of all, I was only trying to put in the 2 buttons and leave out the image:
<?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:orientation="vertical" >
<ScrollView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="0.1"
android:background="#drawable/home_background" >
<LinearLayout
style="#style/Activity"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/instructionsTextViewTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="#string/instructions_title_1"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:textStyle="bold" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/instructionsImageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:contentDescription="#string/instructions_image_content_description"
android:src="#drawable/forms" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/instructionsTextViewDescription"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/instructions_description_1"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/instructionsButtonPrevious"
style="#style/ButtonPrevious"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:text="#string/instructions_button_label_previous" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/instructionsButtonNext"
style="#style/ButtonNext"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:text="#string/instructions_button_label_next" />
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
This only worked when I set the layout_weight of the bottom RelativeLayout to 1 (instead of 0) and for the ScrollView 0.1 (instead of 1). If I used the original values the RelativeLayout would take up all the screen. Could anyone explain to me why that is?
I also tried googling the issue and noticed people would suggest to set layout_height to 0dip which I tried but it also didn't work as expected.
Secondly, I tried adding the already mentioned ImageView to the bottom RelativeLayout. This, however, basically displays only the ImageView and not the buttons - or one of the buttons is on top of the image (hiding it). Why is that? Don't I specifically set the buttons to be placed below it?
What should the code look like in order for it to be doing what I expect it?
Further explanation:
Below are images that should help indicate what exactly I want to achieve. The green bits are the ScrollViews - I added them because Android devices tend to have diverse screen sizes. Their purpose is to present the content properly independently of the screen size, i.e. if the screen is small, the user will be able to scroll that part to read the entire text and view the image.
The red bit on the left (Intro) shows the ImageView that is supposed to always be at the bottom of the screen; it'll always be there, visible, and it's the green bit above it that will be movable.
If you take a look at the red bit on the right (Instructions), there's a Next button that's covering the image with the lorry/truck that was visible in the Intro screenshot. Now that's wrong - there should be 2 buttons BELOW the image, as seen on the last screenshot (the 2 blue rectangles).

How to achieve this kind of layout in Android

I'm new to Android development and I'm trying to achieve a layout for my app that is capable of handling different screen resolutions/ratios.
I've been reading a lot of the documentation and questions on this site to try to understand the basics and concepts.
First I went through:
developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
And questions like:
stackoverflow.com/questions/6403619/how-to-support-all-the-different-resolutions-of-android-products
I've got a pretty basic idea on how to handle things out. But still, its pretty difficult for a starter to get going, and I found myself stucked trying to achieve the solution I came up with.
I designed my app to a target resolution of 480x800, and set it up to always show in portrait mode.
This is how it looks like and how I understand it should work (I used Waldo for the sake of example haha):
(sorry for the link, I need 10 rep to post images)
http://i.imgur.com/KXTAXir.jpg
My root Layout is a LinearLayout, wich contains 3 other Layouts being A and C set up to a weight of 0.8 while B is at 8.4. This is all fine, but the contents of B are set up to DP units at the moment just to be able to test.
B consists of a frame Layout who has 3 other Layouts inside, where 2 of them are working fine, and shown only when needed. The problem is that I need B to be able to adapt based on the contents of it first child: a LinearLayout wich contains 2 ImageView and 1 ProgressBar. I need that those ImageView always keep their ratio.
Here is an example of how it should work:
http://i.imgur.com/cH7fUze.jpg
Imagine those 4 are real screens, wich vary in ratio and size. So my app should only adapt B (from my first image) to keep the images original ratio.
Here is the layout code:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/darkgray"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.8"
android:background="#666666" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_name"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="LEVEL"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_score"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="SCORE"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_clock"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="01:59"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />
</RelativeLayout>
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="8.4" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="200dp"
android:adjustViewBounds="true" />
<ProgressBar
android:id="#+id/progressBar1"
style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleHorizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:max="1000"
android:progress="0" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="200dp"
android:adjustViewBounds="true" />
</LinearLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/pauseMask"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#000000"
android:visibility="gone" >
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/gameoverMask"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#FFFFFF"
android:visibility="gone" >
</RelativeLayout>
</FrameLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.8"
android:background="#666666" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_status"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="0/0"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="Button"
android:onClick="useHint" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/button1"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="Button"
android:onClick="toggleSound" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button3"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/button2"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="Button"
android:onClick="togglePause" />
</RelativeLayout>
The last thing that stays unclear to me is how to handle the text and button sizes. Should I set them in DPs? How do I get them to scale accordingly like it can be seen on the bottom of my second picture.
Thank you for your help, I also want this to serve as an example to others that are having trouble to understand how to handle this kind of scenarios.

I'm not sure, if I got your question right.
However, you can specify different layouts for different screen sizes and orientations, as described here: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
Just give the respective suffix in the name of your layout XML file.

I ended up creating a custom View for my images. The view calculates the space thats left on its parent, scales the images manually and then resizes itself to the same size of the resulting image.
To resize the progress bar to have the same width as the images, I used a custom listener that gets triggered when my custom views get resized. Then I resize the progressbar to match their width.
With this I achieved what I wanted, a layout that will work perfectly in all screen sizes.

Making EditText and Button same height in Android

I have an EditText and a Button in my LinearLayout and I want to align them closely together so they see seem to belong together (edittext + micButton for speech input).
Now they don't have the same height and they aren't really aligned well (Button seems to be a little lower than the EditText). I know I can apply a negative margin like -5dp to make them come closer together, but is there perhaps a better way to do this?
Set them in a specific container/layout so that they will automatically have the same height and no margin between them?

Using relative layout you can stretch a view depending upon another views size without knowing the exact size of the other view.
Here is the code :
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
>
<Button
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="100dp"
android:text="button"
android:id="#+id/but"/>
<EditText
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/but"
android:layout_alignBottom="#id/but"
android:layout_alignTop="#id/but"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
Check this link for reducing space between views :
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/android-developers/RNfAxbqbTIk

Hmm, don't know why people bother so much with tables. Since the both Views are within a LinearLayout (presumable orientation=Horizontal), this command should center both within the layout:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<EditText
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical" />
</LinearLayout>
Note: Since EditTexts and Buttons may orient their text slightly differently, you may have to do some tweaking (by changing margins or padding) to get the text to align properly.

I hope this solution might help for your scenario...Here is the code..
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rlLayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="15dp"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:padding="3dp" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/etId"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="50dip"
android:background="#c8c8c8"
android:hint="Edittext"
android:paddingLeft="20dip"
android:paddingRight="10dip"
android:textColor="#000000" />
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rlLayoutid"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/etId" >
<Button
android:layout_width="30dp"
android:layout_height="30dp"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_marginRight="14dp"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:background="#drawable/calender" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

# Daniel Here You can use layout weight and weight sum
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:gravity="center"
android:weight_sum=2
>
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight=1
android:text="button"
android:id="#+id/but"/>
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight=1
/>
</LinearLayout>

Android tries to automatically level everything off of the text and not the buttons themselves.
Took me forever to finally figure it out. Its really simple. Should fix it.
myButton.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL);
or if they are in a row.. attach the buttons to a table row, then.
myTableRow.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL);

Android: Forcing a WebView to a certain height (or triggering scrolling for a div)

I am building an app which contains an input form and a WebView.
The project is available at http://code.google.com/p/android-sap-note-viewer/
The WebView will render a website based on the input and this page has a DIV with the main contents (could be hundreds of lines). I have no control of the contents on the website.
Android WebKit doesn't seem to do any scrolling in a DIV, ref http://www.gregbugaj.com/?p=147. Therefore, only parts of the DIV is shown to the user, with no method of retrieving the rest of the text. My challenge is to find a way that all the text of the DIV is shown.
My view is defined as the following:
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/lblNote" />
<EditText android:id="#+id/txtNote"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:numeric="decimal"
android:maxLength="10"
/>
<Button android:id="#+id/bView"
android:text="#string/bView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</LinearLayout>
<WebView
android:id="#+id/webview"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:isScrollContainer="false"
android:keepScreenOn="false"
android:minHeight="4096px"
/>
</LinearLayout>
Here I've tried to hardcode the WebView to a large height in order to make sure the DIV is stretched out and shows all the text, and also force the LinearLayout to do the scrolling.
However, the WebView is always adapting to the screen size (which would be good in most cases, but not this).
Any ideas on how to solve this problem?
(only solution I see now is to fetch the HTML myself, remove the DIV and send it to the WebView)

I think you are wanting to use weights for this. I am a little confused by your xml code because you have an extra LinearLayout tag, but I think you are looking for something like this:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android: orientation="vertical">
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/lblNote" />
<EditText android:id="#+id/txtNote"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:numeric="decimal"
android:maxLength="10"
/>
<Button android:id="#+id/bView"
android:text="#string/bView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</LinearLayout>
<WebView
android:id="#+id/webview"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
</LinearLayout>
Here the Webview will fill the rest of the screen that the inner LinearLayout does not use, since only the webview has a weight attribute. Hope this helps.

I think, you can put a ScrollView outside the LinearLayout