Develop Reference

Android ui how to assign image buttons properly?

I am developing a application i am trying to assign image buttons properly but depending on screen they are changing i have added images of low density,high density and midium density images in low high and midium drawable folders.
here is my code and screen shot.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/ScrollView01"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:stretchColumns="1"
android:gravity="center"
android:paddingLeft="20dip"
android:paddingRight="20dip" >
<TableRow>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/aboutus"
android:scaleType="fitCenter"
android:src="#drawable/aboutus"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="2dp"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
/>
<TextView
android:text="About Us"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip"
android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/services"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:padding="2dp"
android:src="#drawable/services123" />
<TextView
android:text="Services"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip" android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/courses"
android:src="#drawable/services"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="2dp"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
/>
<TextView
android:text="Courses"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip" android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/contactus"
android:src="#drawable/services"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="2dp"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
/>
<TextView
android:text="contact us"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip" android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/syllabus"
android:src="#drawable/services"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="2dp"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
/>
<TextView
android:text="Syllabus"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip"
android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/pingtoupdates"
android:src="#drawable/services"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="2dp"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
/>
<TextView
android:text="Ping To Updates"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip" android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>

There are two much of variations in layout_width and height from one table row item to the other. In some LinearLayout you have used fill_parent,fill_parent and in some wrap_content, wrap_content. First you need to correct this as you'r requirement says that each row items should be of same dimensions.
For you case better approach would be to use a GridView. You just need to create one layout file(XML) for the row item and then you can use this for all the row items.
Here is a sample code for grid item:
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/aboutus"
android:src="#drawable/aboutus"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="2dp"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"/>
<TextView
android:text="About Us"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip"
android:textColor="#ffffff" />
</LinearLayout>
If you are new to GridView follow this link
After you are done with this then you should try multiple device support.
You can follow this link for multiple device support.
You can also have a look at this stackoverflow post.

I believe using a GridView would be the best as you can fix your layout there and specify the size of each image in the grid irrespective of their sizes.
Check this sample tutorial.
If you need more sample codes, you can find another nice tutorial on GridView here and this one explains how to handle item selection from the grid, i.e. what happens when you click on any image on the grid.
Hope this helps!

dynamic textview display in android

In my application I am showing list of datas from database in a list view.For that listview i have 1 header with 4 text views arranged horizontally..But i want this to be arranged with some space exactly between and also it should fit into every screen. Please help me.Thanks in advance.By the following code it is arranging 1 after the other without space.
My code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#ffffffff">
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdate"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Date"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdateasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdes"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Item"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdritemasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrprice"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Price"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrpriceasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#000000"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrtot"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Total"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrtotasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#000000"
/>
</LinearLayout>

You can use layout margin for spacing between view like
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
To fit them on the screen you can use layout_weight.Give every view weight 1 so all will be equal.You already use fill_parent for the width of your LinearLayout.
android:layout_weight="1" for every view

try this use android:layout_weight="1"in all TextView
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#ffffffff">
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdate"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:textColor="#ff00ff00"
android:text="Date"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdateasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="gffgfg"
android:textColor="#ffff0000"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdes"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:textColor="#FF4500"
android:text="Item"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdritemasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="gdgdfgsg"
android:textColor="#ff0000ff"
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrprice"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#ff00ff00"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Price"
/>
</LinearLayout>

Instead of wrap_content for widht you should use weight on your textview and weightsum on linear layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#ffffffff"
android:weightSum="100.0">
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdate"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="100/number of text views"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="2dp"
android:layout_marginRight="2dp"
android:text="Date"/>
....
</LinearLayout>
If you do not want to use exact values for your margins you should add some blank text views and set the weight smaller than the one of the ones in which you have text.

Here is the code,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#ffffffff">
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdate"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Date"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdateasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrdes"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Item"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdritemasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrprice"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Price"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrpriceasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#000000" />
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrtot"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Total"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/hdrtotasc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#000000" />
</LinearLayout>

How to correctly set layout_width and layout_weight of textview horizontally?

I want to have a listview and there are header.xml and row.xml file in my app.
Both of them are linear layout and with 6 children textviews.
The first textview is ID and I would like to minimize it(still visible) because it is not important to the user.
Code(header.xml):
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingBottom="6dip"
android:paddingTop="4dip" >
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:text="ID"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Date"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="time"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Food"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Rating2"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Rating"
android:textSize="12dp" />
</LinearLayout>
the problem is that now the ID textview became completely disappeared. I supposed the higher the layout_weight is , the smaller the view get(in the case of width= fill_parent).
Any help is appreciated.

<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:text="ID"
android:textSize="12dp"
android:visibility="invisible"/>
So add android:visibility="invisible"

Don't allow to TextView fill the entire Column

I'm developing an Android app.
I have this layout:
I don't want to let a textview fill a entire column. As you can see on previous image there is a TextView surrounded with a blue rectangle (in fact is selected). This is the XML code that creates that TableRow:
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtFactLoc"
android:layout_span="2"
android:gravity="center_vertical|right"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="#string/layout_fac_location"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/factLocVal"
android:layout_span="4"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/textview_background"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtConFactLoc"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="#string/layout_confirm"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<RadioGroup
android:id="#+id/rGroupFactLoc"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<RadioButton
android:id="#+id/rFactLocYes"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:checked="true"
android:text="#string/layout_yes" />
<RadioButton
android:id="#+id/rFactLocNo"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/layout_no" />
</RadioGroup>
</TableRow>
Is inside a TableLayout with eight columns. This is the beginning for TableLayout:
<TableLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:shrinkColumns="*"
android:stretchColumns="*">
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtPONo"
android:layout_weight=".125"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/layout_po_no"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pONoVal"
android:layout_weight=".125"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/textview_background"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtIndNo"
android:layout_weight=".125"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/layout_ind_no"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/indNoVal"
android:layout_weight=".125"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/textview_background"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtTimeIn"
android:layout_weight=".1"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/layout_time_in"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/timeInVal"
android:layout_weight=".15"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/textview_background"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtTimeOut"
android:layout_weight=".1"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/layout_time_out"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/timeOutVal"
android:layout_weight=".15"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:paddingLeft="10dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/textview_background"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
</TableRow>
Some textViews have a background color. As you can see all of them fill its columns and I don't want that because this form looks very ugly.
How can I change TextView width? If I have set android:layout_span="2" I can't change its width.

With android:stretchColumns, you can decide which columns are allowed to be streched (put it in the TableLayout tag).
android:stretchColumns="0"
android:stretchColumns="0,1,2"
android:stretchColumns="*"

issue on Screen design with table layout under scroll layout.

I have seen an issue while designing dashboard screen,
I had one layout : say Linearlayout1 and having scroll layout: say scrollLayout1 as child of Linearlayout1, and havinf Table layout under this scroll layout,
i added table rows which contains buttons with drawables.
now the question is> I can see, table layout height is bit more than the scroll layout which is child of scroll layout. how child layout can have more height then parent layout. (I set table layout height as matchparent or fill parent).

If you are building a dashboard, then use the DashboardLayout from Google IO open source app.
That is the best way to do it. If you are planning to do something manually, it may not be possible to test on all the screen sizes, densities.
I used it in 3 of my projects, which just works.
Check this answer on stackoverflow.

Try This it may helps you
<?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"
>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/toplayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="50dip">
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TopBar"/>
</RelativeLayout>
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scrolllayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="150dip"
android:padding="5dip"
>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal">
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:stretchColumns="1"
android:padding="5dip"
android:background="#android:color/darker_gray">
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:layout_column="1"
android:text="Open..."
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Ctrl-O"
android:gravity="right"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:layout_column="1"
android:text="Save..."
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Ctrl-S"
android:gravity="right"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:layout_column="1"
android:text="Save As..."
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Ctrl-Shift-S"
android:gravity="right"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
</TableRow>
<View
android:layout_height="2dip"
android:background="#FF909090" />
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:text="X"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Import..."
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:text="X"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Export..."
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Ctrl-E"
android:gravity="right"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:padding="3dip" />
</TableRow>
<View
android:layout_height="2dip"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:background="#FF909090" />
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:layout_column="1"
android:text="Quit"
android:padding="3dip" />
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>