Develop Reference

How to make background larger then screen and rotate it?

Want to make space background to my activity and begin to rotate it slowly, but i stuck with that:
screenshot (http://postimg.org/)
The effect I need need I can get if add in XML file
android:scaleY="2"
android:scaleX="2"
but it will not work, android scale pic down when app start.
Guys, really need your help, I in android for 4 day and have bad english
----ADDED---
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ImageView android:id="#+id/image"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:src="#drawable/backgroundd"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>

I have not tried this, and I am not sure it is the best solution, but could you set a negative android:layout_marginon the image?
android:layout_margin="-100dp"
See here for more: How to get a view larger than its parent?
Also, posting your full XML could help us know more about how you are setting up the layout.

Android nested layout

I am developing my first Android app. Although I have 15 years of Java software development experience, Android is new to me. My desired look is a background image with other images on top of it, as well as labels and phone numbers. It seems like the best way to accomplish this is a Linear Layout for the background image, with a nested layout for the other fields on top of that. I have searched online and cannot find any sample code on how to accomplish this. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

What are you using to develop? If you are you using Eclipse with the Android SDK this is super easy. Put the desired picture in the appropriate drawable folder, go to the graphical view of layout that corresponds to your activity, on the right side of the screen there is a list of all the properties, find background, then select your picture from drawables. You can also do this from the xml using android:background="#drawable/yourPic". This way you don't have to worry about having things layered on top of it.

I think you should go through followings:
1. http://phandroid.com/2011/05/11/10-tips-for-android-ui-design/
2. http://mobile.tutsplus.com/series/android-user-interface-design/
3. http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/06/30/designing-for-android/
4. http://android-developers.blogspot.in/2011/09/thinking-like-web-designer.html

If I got, something like this can work:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<stuff>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<stuff>
</RelativeLayout>
<stuff>
</RelativeLayout>
I used it in an app, and made the trick.

First of all, RelativeLayout is the best layout to use. It depends on your design.
If your design says to keep all the views either vertically OR horizontally, you can use LinearLayouts in between.
My suggested way:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<LinearLayout android:id="#+id/layout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_parent"
android:orientation="Horizontal">
<View1 />
<View2 />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout android:id="#+id/layout2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_parent"
android:orientation="Vertical"
android:layout_below="#id/layout1">
<View3 />
<View4 />
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
Which will yield you something like this

Selecting best Android layout

I am new to Android, and wish to do a layout as below:
A Logo on top.
Following with a Rectangle with Rounded corners
Within that Rectangle, I will have two EditText box for User ID and Password, plus one Login button
Below the Rectangle with Rounded corners (outside) I have a Html Link to Terms & Conditions
I have tried various ways of layout out
Using only layout. Different kinds of layouts. All seems to be very difficult to achieve what I need
Using Layout + Background. The background is not really a background, but is more like a template, it will affect your layout, and is very difficult to control where you wants your control located.
Using onDraw. Flexible but worried that it might have problem with different screen sizes.
So, someone please enlight which is the best way to achieve what I need?

No one can really tell you what is best, it depends on exactly what you want but I would suggest using a RelatvieLayout as they are typically the easiest and most efficient to use once you work with them a little, in my opinion. You can read Here to see how to do the rectangle. You basically will use shape drawable and adjust the radius of the corners.
As far as the logo on top, if it will be reused in other Activitys then you can put it in its own layout and use the include tag in your layouts to reuse the logo layout
If you are worried about different screen sizes then read the Docs and find what works for you.
Just start on it and adjust as you go. Don't be afraid to screw up and redo some of it. Hopefully this is enough information to get you started
Using a RelativeLayout will give you more flexibility and allow you to use less Layouts such as nested LinearLayouts and Layouts with only one child which can improve performance

this is how it should be done:
start with linear layout with vertical orientation :
<linearLayourt xmlns=............
android:orientation="vertical"
.....other stuffs goes here
......
.....
<LinearLayout ......this is the child linearlayout
.....other stuffs goes here like width and height
<ImageView ...this is where you are gonna put your logo in
/>
</LinearLayout> ....close your child linear layout
<RelativeLayout ...
.........other stuffs here
<EditText ....1st edit text
...you position your boxes here
/>
<EditText ....2nd edit text
...you position your boxes here
/>
</RelativeLayout>
<TextView
....
...
...put yout hyperlink for this text
/>
</LinearLayout> ...this is the parent linear layout

For your case of creating a Log in screen it's not really matter as it is a relatively easy screen to design. I personally like to use XML to design my layouts and never seen it done using the onDraw method.
My suggestion to you as #codeMagic said is to learn how to use and manipulated RelativeLayouts,as those will prevent you from creating cascaded layouts that are really not recommended and take long time to load.
When I started to program for Android I found LinearLayout to be the easiest to understand and use but using it would bring me to many LinearLayouts inside of a LinearLayouts on complex screen designz, later with the use of RelativeLayout I realized that in most cases one RelativeLayout can replace many cascaded Linear ones.
in your case you could do some thing like that:
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:src="#drawable/drop_down_icon" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/imageView1" >
</EditText>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/editText1" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="Button" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/button1"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="TextView" />
</RelativeLayout>
All what left is to add the desired padings and margins.

Change Images in ImageView with gestures

I'm trying to implement something to change between images in ImageView, like a image gallery.
I have this XML to show the ImageView
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<HorizontalScrollView
android:id="#+id/hsv_ScrollImage"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:scrollbars="none">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/id_imgFinal"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</HorizontalScrollView>
</LinearLayout>
My app show images that are in landscape mode, and this is the reason which I am using the HorizontalScrollView. Now I have the problem, I would try to implement something to change to other Image with some kind of gesture, but i don't know if the HorizontalScrollView is a problem for this. Can somebody help me with this? Which method is the most frequently used for this Activities?
Thanks.

Here there is a nice tutorial with a ViewPager. You could even integrate with Gesture-ImageView to add zoom capabilities to the gallery.
Ah! don't forget to add this patch to Gesture-ImageView to better integration.

How about using the Gallery UI widget? It's exactly for scenarios like this. Here's a tutorial for it and the reference.

Draw an Image beside an Edit text in android

I want to draw an image on the left of an EditText. I don't want the image appear insde the EditText though.
I use this:
<EditText
android:id="#+id/firstNameTxt"
style="#style/UserInfoInputs"
android:drawablePadding="20dp"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/first_name" >
</EditText>
It displays the image inside of the EditText. However I use this on TextView and it works fine:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/positionValue"
style="#style/userInfo"
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/position" />
How this can be done for an EditText?

try this
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/go_image"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/icon"
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/url"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:lines="1"
android:layout_weight="1.0" />
</LinearLayout>
let me know if this works.

The difference between the two use-cases you describe are simple. There is no difference. With an EditText, there are lines that are easily discernible. With a TextView there is not. Try setting the background property of the textview, and you'll see that the drawable is, in fact, drawn on the left side, but still 'inside', the TextView.
The simplest way to accomplish your task (as described) is to utilize an ImageView. Depending on what ViewGroup (LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, etc) you're using, the code may be a bit different; so, update your question with the appropriate info and I'll make my answer a bit more specific.
I should note that, another method you could use is to create your own custom component, which is really very easy to do. See this article Custom Components | Android Developer, be sure to scroll down to the Compound Controls heading title "Compound Controls". This would be especially helpful when this is a 'common' format of controls that you'll use often (I.E. you have an image next to a TextView throughout your app).

That is because the background part of the EditText stretches behind the entire contents of the view, including the drawables.
If you are using a RelativeLayout you can just add a separate ImageView:
<ImageView
layout_width="wrap_content"
layout_height="wrap_content"
layout_toLeftOf="#+id/firstNameTxt"
src="#drawable/first_name"
other imageview attributes as neccessary...
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/firstNameTxt"
style="#style/UserInfoInputs"
/>
Or if you use another kind of layout, create a LinearLayout-wrapper:
<LinearLayout
layout_width="wrap_content"
layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
layout_width="wrap_content"
layout_height="wrap_content"
layout_toLeftOf="#+id/firstNameTxt"
src="#drawable/first_name"
other imageview attributes as neccessary...
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/firstNameTxt"
style="#style/UserInfoInputs"
/>
</LinearLayout>