Develop Reference

Fix Layout issue

Scenario: I've four buttons arranged Relative Layout. These button's text varies through the app life which makes button shrink or expand according to text length. Using: RelativeLayout.getChildAt().setText();
Q1) But I require the each button to occupy 40% of screen width but with varying height.
Q2) And in particular my code requires to access buttons using getChildAt().
What Layout type should I use to replace RelativeLayout to set Button's width to 40% of screen width and in particular so I can access these Buttons using getChildAt()?
SomeLayout.getChildAt(); so that the Layout is immediate parent of Buttons.
<RelativeLayout android:id="#+id/buttonRelativeLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_margin="10dp">
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/optionButton1"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/optionButton2"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/optionButton3"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/optionButton4"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true" />
</RelativeLayout>

You are actually just in luck. Android just released a new percent support library. They don't have documentation yet, but here is a good sample project that you can use to see how to go about using the library. It basically allows you to size view widgets by percentage of the screen.
https://github.com/JulienGenoud/android-percent-support-lib-sample
And here are two articles talking about it as well:
http://www.androidauthority.com/using-the-android-percent-support-library-630715/
http://inthecheesefactory.com/blog/know-percent-support-library/en

Android percent support library does a awesome work of giving percentage ratio for android widgets on the screen there by replacing our traditional LinearLayout
Github demo Here !
<android.support.percent.PercentRelativeLayout
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="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/fifty_huntv"
android:background="#ff7acfff"
android:text="20% - 50%"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_heightPercent="20%"
app:layout_widthPercent="50%" />
<TextView
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/fifty_huntv"
android:background="#ffff5566"
android:text="80%-50%"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_heightPercent="80%"
app:layout_widthPercent="50%"
/>
</android.support.percent.PercentRelativeLayout>
Really awesome !!!

Right now I can't think of any layout element that will allow you to do that.
You can try this, on your code onCreate or on one of your init views/variables method, get the buttons and set the size to 40% of the screen, something like:
Display display = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
Point screenSize = new Point();
display.getSize(screenSize);
RelativeLayout rlParent = findViewById(R.id.<RELATIVE_LAYOUT_ID>);
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
View btn = rlParent.getChildAt(i);
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams params = (RelativeLayout.LayoutParams)btn.getLayoutParams();
params.width= screenSize.y * 0.4f;//40%
btn.setLayoutParams(params);
}

How to make buttons to take space and increase size of as much as they want with respect to the resolution?

I have a layout in which buttons placed on a screen, i want that if the screen has more space then buttons should be three per row, whatever the space they get, also their sizes should be adjusted with screen and i want maximum three buttons per row in the centre of the screen. Right now i have used linear layout for each row of two buttons, please guide me how to make adjustable buttons so if the screen size is big, it should display three buttons max, if size is very small it should display only two buttons per row with small button sizes and as explained on default screen it should display three buttons per row.
See my code example here
<LinearLayout android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingLeft="25dip"
android:paddingRight="25dip"
android:paddingTop="25dip"
android:layout_width="fill_parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="110dip"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:text="#string/car" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/Taxi"
android:layout_width="110dip"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:text="#string/taxi" />
</LinearLayout>

You can use layout_weight to set the width of the button automatically according to the width of LinearLayout.
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/wrapper"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingLeft="25dip"
android:paddingRight="25dip"
android:paddingTop="25dip"
android:layout_width="match_parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/car" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/Taxi"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/taxi" />
</LinearLayout>
However, I don't think you can set the LinearLayout to have three buttons depends on the width by XML. You can only achieve it programmatically.
if(getCurrentScreenWidth() > SPECIFIED_WIDTH_FOR_3_BUTTONS){
LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById("wrapper");
Button button = createNewButton();
layout.addView(button)
}
BUT the best practices will be to load different layout according to screen as described in android document

This is how I would do this.
For each of your buttons set width like:
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="110dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
android:text="#string/car" />
If you set the width to 0dp and the weight to 1 for each of your buttons then the buttons will expand to fill the space.

Using fix value for height and width may causes the problem with different screen. use below xml code to align button as per your requirement.
<?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="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:weightSum="3" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/Car"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/car" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/Taxi"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/taxi" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/bus"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="#string/bus" />
</LinearLayout>

scrollable linearlayout with weights bigger than screen in android

I am trying to create a vertical linearlayout with weights that has a size bigger than the screen. Let's say 2x the size of the screen. In order for this to work I would obviously need to be able to scroll through it. Unfortunately I can't figure out a way to do this. I tried using the layout weights, and setting the weight sum as half of the actual sum of the weights of all components (so if all components weights sum is 20 I set the weight sum as 10) and managed to make it work but unfortunately the scrolling is not working anymore for some reason.
Is there anything that I am missing?
this is the code that makes the linearlayout twice as big as the screen but the scroll is not working:
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:fillViewport="true">
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:weightSum="2">
<EditText android:id="#+id/id1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:textSize="25dp"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_weight="2"/>
<EditText android:id="#+id/id2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:textSize="25dp"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_weight="2"/>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

Based on your comment, here is a programmatic way of achieving what you're looking for. I do not believe there is a way to accomplish this in pure layout XML.
Layout:
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:background="#000000"
android:fillViewport="true" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#FFFFFF"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/id1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#DCDCDC"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="ONE ONE ONE"
android:textIsSelectable="false"
android:textSize="45sp" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/id2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#AAAAAA"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="TWO TWO TWO"
android:textIsSelectable="false"
android:textSize="45sp" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/id3"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#777777"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="THREE THREE THREE"
android:textIsSelectable="false"
android:textSize="45sp" />
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
Activity:
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
// Get display size -- API L13 and up. Otherwise use getResources().getDisplayMetrics();
Display display = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
Point size = new Point();
display.getSize(size);
// You want size to be 50% per EditText, so divide available height by 2.
// Note: this is absolute height, does not take into consideration window decoration!
int editTextHeight = size.y / 2;
// Get a handle to your EditTexts
EditText t1 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.id1);
EditText t2 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.id2);
EditText t3 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.id3);
// Set height to 50% of screen size each
t1.setHeight(editTextHeight);
t2.setHeight(editTextHeight);
t3.setHeight(editTextHeight);
}
That'll do it. End result:

You declared height of your LinearLayout "match_parent" that is equal to its parents height. It will never scroll as long as the content is bigger then ScrollView. First of all you have to give a fixed height like (50dp) or wrap_content or you have to set Its height programmatically(like 2x screen height as you mention).
weightSum and weight will always force your items to fit in your LinearLayouts current size so try not to use it.
I hope this helps.

The problem here is your use of layout_weight and weightSum is invalid. It's important to remember that android:layout_weight can only use the remaining space available in the view; anything exceeding that boundary is automatically cropped.
Therefore, in your example, your first EditText is taking up the entirety of the screen, and your second one is entirely excluded from the view. Because the second EditText is cropped, the LinearLayout has taken the entire screen and there's nothing for the ScrollView to do.
I'm not entirely sure what your end goal is; are you trying to have text inputs that grow with user entry, and the ScrollView handles the overflow?
If so, this will work:
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:background="#000000"
android:fillViewport="true" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#FFFFFF"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/id1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#DCDCDC"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="ONE ONE ONE"
android:textIsSelectable="false"
android:textSize="45sp" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/id2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#AAAAAA"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="TWO TWO TWO"
android:textIsSelectable="false"
android:textSize="45sp" />
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
I've included some basic background colors so that you can see where each item begins & ends in layout preview. Typing in the first EditText will correctly push the second one down, producing a scroll bar.
Also note that you should use sp instead of dp for textSize values.
Edit: I should also note, for clarification, that weightSum will also take away space when necessary. To test this, set the weightSum of your LinearLayout to 2, and then add android:layout_weight="1" to each of the EditText controls. The end result will be a 50/50 split when the view loads, and then as you start typing in the first control, the 2nd space will shrink accordingly. Adding text to the second control will result in a scrollbar appearing.

Proper way to divide into 4 pieces an android layout

what I want to achieve is, divide the rows layout described in picture below. what should I do to achieve dividing the row into 3 exactly same size and 1 unknown size? X are same size and i dont know and dont want to specify if its not necessary...
EDIT: buttons are on the left , center, and right.

Use a LinearLayout inside a RelativeLayout. Put 3 items inside the LinearLayout and give them the same weight. Put the unknown item to the right of the LinearLayout with the help of RelativeLayout.
Left elements will align themselves according to the right-one's width.
Here's the code: https://gist.github.com/3772838
And here 2 screenshots with different sized right most elements:
http://goo.gl/Nezmn
http://goo.gl/XbQwL
Kolay gelsin =)

You can use android:layout_weight to distribute extra space proportionally. You want the three left buttons to absorb all the extra width, so the right (fourth) button should have the default weight of 0. Since you also want them to have the same width, the easiest is to assign them a width of 0dp and give them all the same weight:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>

Does your extreme left size has a minimum width ?
If so, you should use a LinearLayout with horizontal orientation.
It could contains 2 LinearLayout, one which contains 3 Views (your Buttons) with 0 width and with 1 weight each and the other LinearLayout has a minimumWidth set.
Instead of the marginRight, you could specify a width for the first layout.
Ted Hopp get it right ;)

<?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"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/rlayoutParent">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/rlayoutButtons" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Button" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Button" android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/button1"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Button" android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/button2"/>
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rlayoutOther"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/rlayoutButtons" android:gravity="right">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button4"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Button" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

you cab use the layout_weight attribute. give all the x layout the same weight and the question mark a diffrent weight until the screen will devide as u like

How does one create Buttons with Equal Widths?

I want to display three buttons in the middle of a screen, and have the three buttons all be the same width, though they will have text labels of different lengths.
Just adding three buttons with text labels of different lengths produces buttons of different widths.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:gravity="center">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_1"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="ABCDEF" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_2"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="GHI" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_3"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="JKLM" />
</LinearLayout>
default button width wraps contents:
--
Setting the layout_weight to 1 and the layout_width to 0dip on all the buttons causes them to stretch equally to fill the entire screen width. For what I want, such buttons are simply too big, especially on large screens.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:gravity="center">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_1"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="ABCDEF" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_2"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="GHI" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_3"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="JKLM" />
</LinearLayout>
layout weight 1 buttons fill screen width:
--
Setting different values for weightSum in the parent LinearLayout can be used to stop the buttons from filling the entire screen, but I don't think this is the path I want to take, because I don't want the buttons to occupy a large portion of the screen on large screen devices. To clarify, using weightSum, I could, for example, set the three buttons to collectively occupy half the screen width, which may look OK on small screens, but on a large screen, the buttons would still occupy half the screen width, and the buttons would simply be much larger than what I want. Perhaps the final solution will be to simply have different layout files for different screens, but I'd rather not go down this path.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:gravity="center"
android:weightSum="5">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_1"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="ABCDEF" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_2"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="GHI" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_3"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="JKLM" />
</LinearLayout>
weight sum 5 small screen:
weight sum 5 large screen:
--
I also tried many things with TableLayout, but didn't get anything better than just using LinearLayout.
GridView is extra-clumsy to use, and I haven't tried it, yet.
So, how does one create buttons with equal widths, preferrably where they are only as wide as necessary to fit the contents of the button with the longest label?
Any advice is appreciated.
(I did search and find this question asked and answered many times, but none of the answers I found resolved what I'm trying to achieve.)

Perhaps the final solution will be to simply have different layout files for different screens, but I'd rather not go down this path.
Many programmers will use res/layout/ and res/layout-large/ for handling situations like this. In the limited case of the three buttons, you might have alternatives, but usually user interfaces aren't quite that simplistic.
So, how does one create buttons with equal widths, preferrably where they are only as wide as necessary to fit the contents of the button with the longest label?
To accomplish your "preferrably" [sic] requirement, you would need to create a custom layout class for that. Here is one related to it, for the dashboard pattern, that you might use as a starting point.

If you know in advance what your widest button text will be you can use the android:ems attribute to set your buttons to that width.
<Button
android:id="#+id/my_button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:minEms="5"
android:text="#string/my_button" />
It's not perfect but it's the easiest way that I've found to achieve this look without endlessly fiddling around with layouts.

use Dashboard Fragment class
http://code.google.com/p/iosched/source/browse/android/src/com/google/android/apps/iosched/ui/DashboardFragment.java

Just one additional note from my side!
If you will need to set the width (or height) for the buttons (or any other views with a simple changes of code) that are added at runtime, you can use the code below (it does not depend on orientation):
public void AlignButtons(){
llModules = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.llModules);
ViewTreeObserver viewTree = llModules.getViewTreeObserver();
viewTree.addOnPreDrawListener(new ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener() {
public boolean onPreDraw() {
int childcount = llModules.getChildCount();
int maxWidth = 0; //int maxHeight = 0;
String fontPath = "fonts/Isabella-Decor.ttf";
Typeface tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), fontPath);
for (int i = 0; i < childcount; i++) {
LinearLayout v = (LinearLayout)llModules.getChildAt(i);
View vv = v.getChildAt(0);
if (vv instanceof Button) {
int width = vv.getMeasuredWidth();
maxWidth = (maxWidth > width) ? maxWidth : width;
//int height = vv.getMeasuredHeight();
//maxHeight = (maxHeight > height) ? maxHeight : height;
}
}
for (int i = 0; i < childcount; i++) {
LinearLayout v = (LinearLayout)llModules.getChildAt(i);
View vv = v.getChildAt(0);
if (vv instanceof Button) {
LayoutParams params = ((Button) vv).getLayoutParams();
params.width = maxWidth;
//params.height = maxHeight;
((Button) vv).setLayoutParams(params);
// Applying font
((Button) vv).setTypeface(tf);
}
vv = v.getChildAt(1);
if (vv instanceof TextView) {
// Applying font
((TextView) vv).setTypeface(tf);
}
}
return true;
}
});
}
Here, in my case:
llModule - some layout containing another layout with what we need to align(v.getChildAt(0);) and other(v.getChildAt(1);).
LinearLayout v = (LinearLayout)llModules.getChildAt(i); - obtain layout of buttons to align.
Other parts are clear to understand.
Two cycles in this code are quite identical, but I still can't imagine how to combine them (to speed up the execution time).

Use this proper code this will help you.
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:weightSum="3">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Get the Time"
android:onClick="showNewDate" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Get the Time"
android:onClick="showNewDate" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button3"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Get the Time"
android:onClick="showNewDate" />

Keep the individual buttons under its own RelativeLayout.
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="1">
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:text="Button1"/>
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="1">
<Button
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:text="Button2"/>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Reading this thread, then doing some trial-and-error and noticed that android:layout_width="180px" is an accepted parameter. Now as said, I just stumbled on this, didn't try to use this to solve your three button scenario.
It could well be that things changed since you originally posted. Although I tried this while building for version 1.5. That's old enough... :-)
Here is the complete main.xml:
<?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">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/dateText"
android:text="\n\nClick for Date\n\n"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_width="180px"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:text="Get the Time"
android:onClick="showNewDate" />
</LinearLayout>