Develop Reference

Android ListView items: image and text too small

I'm working on a ListView where each item has an image and some text. On my older phone, HTC Evo 4G, things came up exactly as expected. Image is nicely sized and text looks fine. Then I loaded the same app on my new phone, HTC One, and the images are so tiny they are useless. I know the HTC One has a significantly higher resolution, but I cannot figure out how to make each item in the ListView larger.
I'm not sure what to post, but I think the layout xml files are the issue.
Here's activity_main.xml:
<?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="vertical">
<LinearLayout android:id="#+id/LinearLayout01"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginTop="2dip" android:background="#669900">
<!--
Use layout_weight to stretch the EditText and compress the button.
To avoid text wrap, the editable text is forced to occupy only one
line
-->
<EditText android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:typeface="normal"
android:layout_weight="1" android:lines="1" android:ellipsize="middle"
android:hint="#string/hint" android:id="#+id/search_key" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:maxLines="1"></EditText>
<ImageButton android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:src="#drawable/ic_menu_search" android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:layout_weight="0" android:id="#+id/btn_ok" android:layout_height="wrap_content"></ImageButton>
</LinearLayout>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/tweet_header"
android:gravity="right" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:paddingRight="4dp"
android:background="#99cc33" android:textColor="#000000" android:textSize="21dp"></TextView>
<ListView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/tweet_list"></ListView>
</LinearLayout>
And the ListView is made up of this item.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/itemImage"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="15dp"
android:scaleType="fitCenter"
android:src="#drawable/ic_launcher" />
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/created_at"
android:text="now"
android:textSize="10sp"
android:layout_below="#id/itemImage"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:textStyle="italic"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"></TextView>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/itemURL"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:text="itemURL"
android:visibility="invisible" />
</RelativeLayout>
So the app does this: It taps ebay for car data and presents the search results as line 1 with a picture, line 2 with the ebay item title. A hidden value is the URL so users can tap the ListView line and launch a web browser.

Looks like the wrap_content setting for the ImageView's layout_width and layout_height are the issue. When I switched that to numerical values, suddenly I saw it change size. Finally setting it to 100dp made the images viewable.
As an aside, I had a terrible time with ADS and the emulator. It consistently failed to re-load my updated app. Often complaining about the Package Manager and suggesting the some process was running. I little idea what was running and how to fix it. When I switched to loading the app straight to the phone, then it worked fine.
So, I think now I need to create a system that is proportional, and takes in to consideration the displaying devices resolution.

Problem is the Relative Layout width being wrap_content. Try changing that to match parent. then you would not have to go thru this ordeal

Lockscreen Widget is too Small

I'm having a lot of trouble finding references for lockscreen widgets that were introduced in Android 4.2.
I've created a widget that works fine on the launcher and it is sized as I expect. However I've enabled this widget to be on the lockscreen and it doesn't size properly, vertically.
According to http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/appwidgets/index.html#lockscreen it will take up the size available vertically if you set android:resizeMode="vertical"
If the widget marks itself as vertically resizable, then the widget
height shows up as "small" on portrait phones displaying an unlock UI.
In all other cases, the widget sizes to fill the available height.
Also I used the sizing described at http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/widget_design.html
Tiles > Size
1 > 40dp
2 > 110dp
3 > 180dp
4 > 250dp
… > …
n > 70 × n − 30
I've set this and at appears to be even smaller than a "small" widget. Basically, does anyone know what is wrong with the widget in image 1 that it won't expand? My code is below.
1) What it looks like in its default state.
2) What it looks like when expanded on another screen.
xml/clock_widget.xml
<appwidget-provider xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:initialKeyguardLayout="#layout/clock_widget"
android:initialLayout="#layout/clock_widget"
android:minHeight="110dp"
android:minWidth="180dp"
android:resizeMode="vertical"
android:updatePeriodMillis="1000"
android:widgetCategory="keyguard|home_screen" >
</appwidget-provider>
layout/clock_widget.xml
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/clock_widget"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/widget_hour"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text=""
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textSize="36sp" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text=":"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textSize="36sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/widget_minute"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text=""
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textSize="36sp" />
</LinearLayout>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/widget_date"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text=""
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
</LinearLayout>

Looks like this only happens in the emulator. Testing on real hardware works fine.

Android ScrollView is not working

This is my .xml file where I have used two scrollview,in Input Edittext and onether in output TextView. What is wrong here...It is not working in android device.
Another problem is that when I turn my device it only shows the input text area. The output text area goes down.I want to see the half screen of input and half screen of output area.
How to fix it??
Thanks
<?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="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="35dp"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/test"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/test" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/rdf"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/rdf" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/load"
android:layout_width="75dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/load" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/clear"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/clear" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/close"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:text="#string/close" />
</LinearLayout>
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scrollView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/input"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="175dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:background="#fff"
android:ems="10"
android:gravity="top|left"
android:textSize="14dp"
android:inputType="textMultiLine" >
<requestFocus />
</EditText>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
<Button
android:id="#+id/run"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/run" />
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scrollView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/output"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="225dp"
android:background="#fff"
android:text="#string/output"
android:textColor="#1e90ff" />
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

Try setting layout_weight=1 and layout_height=0dp for the two scroll views instead of their
contents.

What is wrong here...It is not working in android device.
That's pretty vague. What were your expectations? What isn't working? In other words, please be a little more specific.
However, based on the layout code given, here are some recommendations:
Avoid hardcoding the size of views. You cannot make assumptions about screen size with the large variety of screen sizes, densities and devices out there. Also, even if you're able to make the layout look nice in portrait mode, it'll probably be not even close to that in landscape.
If you're going to put just a single View in a ScrollView, there's no need to wrap it in a ViewGroup container; just set the View directly, without nesting it again and added an extra layer of complexity to the view hierarchy.
There's no need to wrap a TextView or EditText with a ScrollView, as both views are scrollable by itself.
Regarding your second question: you can prevent Android from extracting all UI components when there's little layout estate left with the keyboard popped up. You'll need to set the IME_FLAG_NO_EXTRACT_UI flag on the EditText, or in xml: android:imeOptions="flagNoExtractUi".
I do like to point out that there's a reason Android has this behaviour by default. In most cases it hardly makes sense to force a tiny part of the UI to be visible, even more as whatever is being typed by the user is probably what really matters.

Button Alignment Right of Center - Android

I'm having some trouble getting my button text to align correctly in my Android application. Currently, my button text is aligning with the left of the text on the center of the button, as shown:
|Whitespace|Text Here|
I have tried using gravity ="center_horizontal|center_vertical" to no avail. I have tried adding a new button to a completely separate project and this still holds. Also it does this in LinearLayouts and RelativeLayouts.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Here is one of the layout files. However it is doing it in all of them including in other projects. Also, all 3 of the buttons on this layout have the same issue.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/history_delete_record"
android:id="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"></Button>
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:id="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:text="#string/history_open_record"></Button>
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/History_Cancel"
android:text="#string/cancel"
android:layout_below="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:layout_marginTop="19dp">
</Button>
</RelativeLayout>

Here is a simple implementation of a button with centered text:
<Button xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/myBtn"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
android:text="Button text!" />
The problem with your code is that you are setting the width in pixels, when you should be using the xml attribute android:layout_width="wrap_content", which will wrap the button text to fit the view accordingly.
Also note that you should never set a view's width in pixels as this will not work well across different screen sizes and densities. Instead of using "px", specify the width in "dp", a density-independent unit of value. For more information on this topic, see this post.
EDIT
Here is my suggested xml code that you use for your layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="#string/history_delete_record" >
</Button>
<Button
android:id="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:layout_below="#+id/History_Delete_Record"
android:text="#string/history_open_record" >
</Button>
<Button
android:id="#+id/History_Cancel"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:layout_below="#+id/History_Open_Details"
android:text="#string/cancel" >
</Button>
</RelativeLayout>

Android 4x2 widget

Looking at the Facebook widget I realized its a 4x2 cell and this isn't one of the standard sizes. I have tried to re-create a widget of this size (either as 320x200 or 294x146 px) however the widget doesn't look good on all devices. The widget layout is :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Portrait -->
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/widget"
android:background="#drawable/widget_bg"
>
<TextView android:id="#+id/widget_title"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="60dip"
android:layout_marginTop="1dip"
android:textSize="20.0sp"
android:maxLines="3"
android:textColor="#000"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_marginRight="10dip"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
/>
<ImageView android:id="#+id/widget_thumb"
android:layout_width="304dip"
android:layout_height="90dip"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_marginLeft="7dip"
android:src="#drawable/thumb_placeholder_large"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/widget_title"
android:background="#000"
/>
<!-- previous button -->
<Button
android:id="#+id/widget_previous"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="35dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:background="#drawable/left_button"/>
<!-- Next Button -->
<Button
android:id="#+id/widget_next"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="35dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:background="#drawable/right_button" />
<!-- Indicator -->
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/widget_progressbar"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_marginBottom="33dp"
android:layout_marginRight="50dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true">
<!-- ProgressBar throws exception when it's set invisible from RemoteViews use a layout wrapper instead -->
<ProgressBar
android:layout_width="15dp"
android:layout_height="15dp">
</ProgressBar>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
On the Motorola Droid this layout fits properly, however on other devices the ImageView sits way below. Any help/suggestions are appreciated.
The drawable_bg.png is 294x146px.
Sandeep

The actual size of the widget depends on
the display resolution (pixels) of the device
the used home application (they have different notification bars and bottom bars)
the Android OS version (different versions also have different home apps)
So better make your layout "fill_parent" and your background image a "ninepatch" image.
Also use different background images for different display resolution (dpi) to make the background image look perfect.

i think you should consider creating more layouts for different screen sizes , and test them so you could make sure your widget looks good on all screen sizes .