Develop Reference

Android Studio shows wrong layout in layout preview (ActionBarOverlayLayout?!)

I have a nice FrameLayout as main container and some other views inside it's hierarchy.
But the preview shows a simple ActionBarOverlayLayout.
What is that? Why is it here?
I have Android Studio 3.0.0
I have tried:
Restart Android Studio. Refresh the preview by resizing. Changed the preview device, changed the SDK of the preview, changed the blueprint\design options, pressed "force refresh layout" Button.
XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:paddingLeft="8dp"
android:paddingRight="8dp"
android:paddingTop="8dp">
<com.makeramen.roundedimageview.RoundedImageView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="#dimen/walk_list_item_height"
android:adjustViewBounds="false"
android:cropToPadding="false"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
app:layout_heightPercent="25%"
app:layout_marginLeftPercent="0%"
app:layout_marginTopPercent="0%"
app:layout_widthPercent="100%"
app:riv_corner_radius="#dimen/corner_radius"
android:id="#+id/walk_iv" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="bottom"
android:background="#drawable/gradient"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:paddingBottom="16dp"
android:paddingTop="16dp">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/walk_name_tv"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:padding="16dp"
android:text="New Text"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:textColor="#fff" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:paddingRight="16dp">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/ic_duration_icon" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/duration_tv"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
android:gravity="center|left"
android:text="TextView"
android:textColor="#fff" />
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:srcCompat="#drawable/ic_marker"
android:layout_marginLeft="16dp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/stops_tv"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="TextView"
android:textColor="#fff" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</FrameLayout>

That is because there is a broken build in your earlier build. It is coming from the intermediate files which is because the files are not proper in your xml files. There might be a broken link or a - in the drawables names.
Until you resolve this you cannot proceed to see the layout of your app in the layout-editor.
Moreover Android Studio will not show you any error in the error log or any other terminal.
Start from the styles/themes of the app, it might contain something which is missing from the gradle or resources of the project. Due to the support library still in the project it partially showcases it as missing control of XML files, but it will not let you load the xml editor visually for the project.
You have see that by yourself, start first from drawables and then move to values folder, if not check your gradle and then come back to Java files for the error.

Had to raise
buildToolsVersion to 26.0.0
previous was bugged (25.0.2)

I faced the same problem and, In my case, it was simpler than that. I just received a warning message recommending to remove the explict reference to the BuildToolsVerison from build.gradle file so I just did it, then saved all file, Menu >> Run >> Make a project and it worked fine.

Unable to see completed view layout in Android Studio

I am creating a vertical LinearLayout that will be displayed in a vertical ScrollView. I can't find a way in Android Studio to see the portion of the LinearLayout that is below the bottom of the ScrollView. Is there any way to see the full layout rather than constraining it to the viewport provided by the renderer?

Like Drew said, creating a user defined device definition has been the only solution which worked for me. Below i show you the steps to follow:
Step 1)
Within the preview-pane, open the Virtual Device Selection drop-down and select Add Device Definition..
Step 2)
Within the Your Virtual Devices dialog click the Create Virtual Device button.
Step 3)
Within the Select Hardware dialog click the New Hardware Profile button.
Step 4)
Within the Configure Hardware Profile dialog specify (f.e.) a Resolution of 720 x 4000 px and a Screensize of 12 inch. Also setting the Screensize results in a density of xhdpi (thanks to Mete).
Step 5) Close all dialogs and restart Android Studio.
Step 6) Open the Virtual Device Selection drop-down. The new user defined hardware profile can be found under Generic Phones and Tablets.

I've just discovered how. You need to create a user defined device definition in Android AVD - I created one that was 480 x 4000 pixels. Exit and restart Android Studio and then you can select this device in the preview renderer and can see 4000 pixels worth of LinearLayout.

Found a easier solution, in your layout add something like below and adjust as you need:
android:layout_marginTop="-1500dp"

in new version of android studio (i don't know from which version, but i'm using latest 2.3.3 now) you can resize your preview layout by drag it

Android Studio will offer a toggleable full view, if the ScrollView is the root of the layout. I had put mine on top of the default RelativeLayout and had to manually fix that in the XML before the GUI would give me the full view.

I hope the screenshot help you :

You can use scrollY attribute to scroll the ScrollView in the preview. Using scrollY attribute with tools namespace will only scroll the view in the display and not in the actual app. And make sure you use px as the unit with scrollY attribute.
tools:scrollY="150px"

Update: Now you can scroll a ScrollView directly inside preview panel
(I tested on Android studio version 2.3.2)
Short answer: Right click on your ScrollView and select Refactor > Extract > Layout.
Android-studio will extract your ScrollView into a new layout file and put tools:showIn="#layout/original_layout_file" attribute at root layout(your ScrollView).
Note: Android-studio will preview full layout if root layout is ScrollView.

In Android Studio version 3.2.1 you can select "Custom" device on preview panel and then resize preview to whatever height you need.

click on the scrollView in conponent tree (on the right)
click on the new button wich appears on the left (second row of toolbar)

Another quick alternative solution is to hide the layouts temporarily at the top so that the layouts at the bottom can appear in the visible window in Android Studio.
Put android:visibility="gone" on the layouts that you want to hide.
Example:
<HorizontalScrollView
android:visibility="gone"
android:id="#+id/hsv02"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignStart="#+id/ll24"
android:layout_below="#+id/ll199">
</HorizontalScrollView>

I might be late but it'll be a lot easier for you to just set the margins to negative to shift the scroll view to the left.
For example:
margin:
left: -100px
Now you can see and edit the scrollview however you like!

TABLE LAYOUT
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:stretchColumns="1">
<TableRow android:padding="5dip">
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Product Form"
android:typeface="serif"
android:layout_span="2"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:textSize="20dip" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Product Code:"
android:layout_column="0"/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/prod_code"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_column="1"/>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Product Name:"
android:layout_column="0"/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/prod_name"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:scrollHorizontally="true" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Product Price:" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/prod_price"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<Button
android:id="#+id/add_button"
android:text="Add Product"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/cancel_button"
android:text="Cancel"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
GridLAYOUT
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GridLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="#+id/GridLayout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:columnCount="3"
android:rowCount="2"
tools:context=".Main3Activity" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/button3"
android:layout_column="0"
android:layout_gravity="fill_horizontal"
android:layout_row="0"
android:text="Button"
/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_column="1"
android:layout_gravity="fill_horizontal"
android:layout_row="0"
android:text="Button" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_column="2"
android:layout_gravity="fill_vertical"
android:layout_row="0"
android:layout_rowSpan="2"
android:text="Button" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button4"
android:layout_column="0"
android:layout_columnSpan="2"
android:layout_gravity="fill_horizontal"
android:layout_row="1"
android:text="Button" />
</GridLayout>
ANOTHER TABLE LAYOUT
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.widget.TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:stretchColumns="1"
tools:context="com.example.dhanya.uitablelayout.MainActivity">
<TableRow
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<TextView
android:text="Time"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_column="0" />
<TextClock
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/textClock"
android:layout_column="1" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:text="First Name"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_column="0" />
<EditText
android:width="200px"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:text="Last Name"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_column="0" />
<EditText
android:width="100px"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<RatingBar
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_span="2"
android:id="#+id/ratingBar"
android:layout_column="0" />
</TableRow>
<TableRow
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>
<TableRow
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Submit"
android:layout_span="2"
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_column="0" />
</TableRow>
</android.widget.TableLayout>

The best I found is to set the device to custom. Then we can change the layout simply by dragging.

My layout is long and need to scroll layout even using the vertical long resolution and when I set the layout editor to high resolutions, the screen does not scroll completely and smoothly
By setting the layout to
3.2_HVGA_slider_ADP1_API_27, the screen scrolled and my problem was solved

Cannot resolve symbol 'container' - Android Studio

I just created a new projet, building some layouts, writing some code. Everything was fine except I got this error as shown in the picture below.
I tried to remove and type it again and when typing 'R.id.', there was no 'container' showing up in the list. So that means theres no problem with my R file, just that the 'container' word lost somewhere.
Those code above are actually default code in onCreate() method in your main activity everytime you create a new project in Android Studio. (I actually tried to create a new project to compare and yes it's the same, and without error as it's brand new.).
All I did was comment out the if statement block so the error goes away, and the application has run just fine on the emulator. I just don't know why I got that problem and how I can handle it as I may need to do that in the future. Thank you!
Edit after #Raghunandan has mentioned: Below is my xml.
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/provide_information"
android:id="#+id/provideInfoButton"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true" />
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/take_picture"
android:id="#+id/takePictureButton"
android:layout_below="#+id/provideInfoButton"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" />
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_below="#+id/takePictureButton"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="28dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:id="#+id/classNameTextView"
android:layout_above="#+id/personNametextView2"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginBottom="44dp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:layout_marginBottom="38dp"
android:layout_above="#+id/emailTextView"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/emailTextView"
android:id="#+id/personNameTextView" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:id="#+id/emailTextView"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/classNameTextView"
android:layout_marginBottom="82dp" />
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/send_button"
android:id="#+id/sendButton"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
</RelativeLayout>

The reason is that I changed the root layout to RelativeLayout (the default of Android Studio was FrameLayout which has an id of "container"). My bad :). Thanks for mentioning about posting the xml file. I have not noticed that as I'm not as familiar with Android Studio as with Eclipse yet.

Android XML error after updating eclipse

After recently updating eclipse i keep getting an error saying "Attribute name "android:tools" associated with an element type "RelativeLayout" must be followed by the ' = ' character.
It says it on line 9 but there isn't any android:tool there. I've tried cleaning and restarting eclipse and still no solution. I never changed any part of the file, and the funny thing is all my other activities are the same and don't have any errors. Any help would be appreciated thanks.
Edit... I fixed the problem by deleting the file and creating a new one. File must have been corrupt or something. Thanks for the input everyone, sorry for the run confusion.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#color/backtext"
tools:context=".Brakes"
android:screenOrientation="portrait" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:text="#string/brakes1"
android:textColor="#color/textviews"
android:textSize="15sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/textView2"
android:text="#string/brakes2"
android:textColor="#color/textviews"
android:textSize="15sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView4"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/textView3"
android:text="#string/brakes3"
android:textColor="#color/textviews"
android:textSize="15sp"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView5"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/textView4"
android:text="#string/brakes4"
android:textColor="#color/textviews"
android:textSize="15sp"/>
</RelativeLayout>
</ScrollView>

Try moving this line:
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
to your ScrollView instead of the RelativeLayout where it is now.
it looks like your RelativeLayout used to be your root view, and you added the ScrollView at some point later.

you are missing xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" in your root parent,please include it.

Remove xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" from your RelativeLayout. There should be only one of those at the layout root element.

Strange Output when Overlapping Views..?

Hi Everyone iam new to android and in my project requirement i need to create two LinearLayouts in same Position and they are animated later in the Java Code,For Testing Purpose initially i inserted image views on those layouts got succesfully after that i removed image views and Inserted EditTexts on the same layout but strange previous image is showing on one linear layout after executing which is not shown in preview
I tested all the options like cleaning the project ,uninstalling from device and reinstaling iam getting the same problem
<?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="fill_parent"
>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Animate Now"/>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/image_list_fragment"
android:layout_width="250dip"
android:layout_below="#+id/button1"
android:layout_height="200dip"
android:background="#FF00FF"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
>
<EditText
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="Please Enter some text here"
android:singleLine="false"
/>
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="200dip"
android:layout_height="300dip"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_below="#+id/button1"
android:visibility="visible"
android:background="#32FFFF"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:id="#+id/image_details_fragment"
>
<EditText
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="Please Enter some text here"
android:singleLine="true"
/>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
Here is the output the preview in Eclipse and output in Emulator After running

Please check your backend java file(activity class) once or paste it here. You might be setting an imageview with that background somewhere at runtime.