Develop Reference

Margin dp unit not scale layout correctly in differents screens

I have simple tableLayout which show the problem with independent unit dp.
I suppose that with dp unit in my layout_margin attribute - layout will be resized without problem on any device.
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_margin="40dp"
>
<TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:text="#string/start_login_username"
android:id="#+id/start_login_username"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/start_login_EditTxt1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="textEmailAddress"
/>
</TableRow>
<TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:text="#string/start_login_password"
android:id="#+id/start_login_password"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
</TextView>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/start_login_EditTxt2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="textPassword"
/>
</TableRow>
<TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<Button android:text="#string/start_login_cancel"
android:id="#+id/start_login_cancel"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
>
</Button>
<Button
android:text="#string/start_login_login"
android:id="#+id/start_login_ButtonLogin"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
>
</Button>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
But, testing this layout, we can see that dp is not so independent in layout margin .
Here the screenshot in Samsung Nexus(Good scale):
Here the screenshot in LG Optimus GT 540(Bad scale):
Im looking the similar threads in StackOverflow, and possible solution, to have correct scale on any screen is:
Not use margin and padding at all, but use always tableLayout and add
moc Views with some weight, to add space between Views(not good because of
pollution of xml layouts. Anyway, its looks promising ).
Make my own calculation of independent unit, and rescale all programmatically (not good for me because I have all in xml's)
Use different layouts for differents screens (not good because Im too lazy to recreate the layout for each my view and supporting them)
Questions:
How can I solve the problem with scaling of my layout for all screens using the same layout ?
How I can make margin works correct on my screens ?
What you think about my two solutions. This is good practice ? (specially first one) ?
Thanks

Simply use linearlayout with weight attributes, remember to set width="0dp" if it is the width you want to be automatically adjusted.
Your xml should be something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:text="Your name"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<EditText
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:minWidth="80dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>

Picture is too big to see all views

I have a PizzaOverview.
XML:
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_tv" android:gravity="center_horizontal" android:textSize="15pt"></TextView>
<ImageView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_iv" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></ImageView>
<RatingBar android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_rb" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></RatingBar>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_date" android:gravity="center|center_horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></TextView>
<RelativeLayout android:id="#+id/relativeLayout2" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<Button android:text="close" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_bt" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></Button>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
If the picture is too big the date is invisible.

add scroll view to your layout or fix the size of imageview
add the scroll view to your layout
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<ScrollView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_tv" android:gravity="center_horizontal" android:textSize="15pt"></TextView>
<ImageView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_iv" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></ImageView>
<RatingBar android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_rb" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></RatingBar>
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="" android:id="#+id/pizza_date" android:gravity="center|center_horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></TextView>
<RelativeLayout android:id="#+id/relativeLayout2" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<Button android:text="close" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_bt" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></Button>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

Ensure that the images you supply to the activity are the correct resolution and size.
Also make sure that you have separate layouts for separate screen size categories.
Read this section of the android documentation for more details on layouts and managing different screen sizes. It tells you the basics you'll need.

You could place your image with the rating bar and the text below it in a RelativeLayout. Give a marginBottom to your RelativeLayout equal to the height of your Button. Then place your text, give it an id and add android:layout_alignParentBottom="true". Set the height of the image to fill_parent and add attribute android:layout:below="id_of_text".

You can as the other answer states make the screen scrollable. But if your content is dynamic (and depending on device it is arguable to say you content will ALWAYS by dynamic) you should make sure the that ImageView has it's bounds set correctly.
In the source code you have:
<ImageView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/pizza_iv" android:src="#drawable/icon" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"></ImageView>
You should instead have:
<ImageView android:layout_height="0dp"
android:weight="1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/pizza_iv"
android:src="#drawable/icon"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:scaleType="centerInside"/>
The extra attribute of weight will make your view fill any available space along the orientation set in the bounding LinearLayout. This is dependant on the weight of other views along that orientation (as the other views have no weight value in this case it will fill all space up until the edge of your fixed views).
The extra attribute of scaleType="centerInside" will make your image sit in the center of the bound's you have suggested (which are the width of the screen and all available space vertically) without ever growing large enough to overlap the bounding container.
When using ImageView you should keep in mind that the ImageView is a bounding container for an Image. It can be as large or as small as possible but is only a mechanism for telling the UI where to place an image. The scaleType attribute is what you use to say how you want the image placing within this bounding countainer. Using "wrap_content" on an ImageView isn't effective and can lead to trouble later in the design (especially when considering different devices).

my layout won't layout right

I have a TableLayout that won't behave and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or not doing right
Here is my layout file
<TableLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#drawable/wall_paper"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<TableRow
android:layout_weight="1"
android:paddingTop="25dp">
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/name"
android:textColor="#color/nb_text"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dip"/>
<EditText android:id="#+id/name"
android:layout_width="150dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
<TableRow android:layout_weight="1">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<Button android:id="#+id/chgPhoto"
android:text="#string/newphoto"
android:background="#drawable/camera"
android:layout_height="40dp"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dip"
android:layout_gravity="left"
android:gravity="left" ></Button>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/StuPhoto"
android:src="#drawable/person_icon"
android:layout_width="100dip"
android:layout_height="80dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="25dip" ></ImageView>
</LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
I want the person icon and resulting photo to be much bigger and shifted farther to the right but nothing I do seems to help. In fact, when I increase the layout_width/height of the photo, it simply shifts the icon with that space like so:
Any ideas on how to make this behave? Be kind - I readily admit layouts have me confused.

try adding stretchColumns="*" to your tablelayout and why don't you set a layout_gravity for the picture you're trying to move to the right?

I ended up going the opposite route with this - rather than scale the drawables, which maybe of various sizes, to the layout I want, I went to the images themselves and scaled them to what I want.
Then I can use "wrap_parent" or whatever without having to scale the image. Seems a hard way to go
as I might want larger or smaller drawbles on another device. But specifying the size jacked things up to no end

How to guarantee space for an ImageView, keep it from shrinking?

I need to create an XML with the following content:
* Two TextViews with varying text (1- 3 rows), one TextView below the other.
* One ImageView to the right of the 2 TextViews, centered vertically, 30x30 px.
One major limitation is that it can't take the whole screen when inflated into a PopupWindow, which means that I cannot use the attributes fill_parent in many places.
I tried a lot of different layouts, but the ImageView keeps getting pushed away by the TextViews when the text is long. When the text is "half long" the image gets tiny but is still visible. I want it to always be 30x30 px, the text can wrap and use another line instead.
I tried to specify values for width and minWidth. Also tried layout_weight="1" for the ImageView. Also tried wrapping the ImageView into a LinearLayout and give that the layout_weight="1" parameter. Nothing works.
Here's an example of what is not working:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView android:id="#+id/popupTitle" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/popupContent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</LinearLayout>
<ImageView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="#drawable/img_30x30_px" />
</LinearLayout>

I've had a similar problem and i found that the TableView layout worked for me. It took a while but you can play with the stretch and strink columns proeprties to change the behaviour of how the columns expand to match there content.
Note that you should be able to set the linearLayout of your text to fill_parent (to fill the column space).
Read this on how TableRow works http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-tablelayout.html
<TableRow>
<!-- Column 1 -->
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
android:layout_column="1"
android:text="Open..."
android:padding="3dip" />
<TextView
android:text="Ctrl-O"
android:gravity="right"
android:padding="3dip" />
</LinearLayout>
<!-- Column 2 -->
<ImageView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="#drawable/img_30x30_px" />
</TableRow>
(Afraid i'm not on a machine with Android so i couldn't test the above code).

Thank you so much Emile! It works! You made my weekend! :)
I had to try it right away (althought it's friday evening), and here's what my xml now looks like:
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:shrinkColumns="0">
<TableRow>
<!-- Column 1 -->
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView android:id="#+id/popupTitle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/popupContent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>
<!-- Column 2 -->
<ImageView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical" android:src="#drawable/img_30x30_px" />
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>

How to create column-like layout for ListView rows?

I have a relative layout which looks like this:
Here is the code:
<?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"
>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/nameText"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="5dip"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:text="Symbol"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/priceText"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="5dip"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/nameText"
android:gravity="right"
android:text="100"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/changeText"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="5dip"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/priceText"
android:gravity="right"
android:text="1.3"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
How can I get the company name to line up next to the number 1.3?

Following up on Mayra's answer, here's one way to do it using layout_weight:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
>
<TableRow>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/left_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="left|center_vertical"
android:padding="5dip"
android:layout_weight="0"
android:text="Code"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/middle_text"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right|center_vertical"
android:padding="5dip"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Name of Company"
/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/right_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:padding="5dip"
android:gravity="right|center_vertical"
android:layout_weight="0"
android:text="1.3"
/>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>

It's not clear exactly what you want to have happen, but here are a few options:
If you want columns to be aligned across rows, you might consider using a TableLayout.
You can also use the "weight" atribute to affect what percentage of the screen each TextView takes up. If you assign a value of 1 on the left-most text view, and 0 on the other 2, this will cause the left text view to take up all the extra space, and thus push the middle text view to the right. This will probably cause the middle text view to look right aligned though. You could instead give the left one 20%, the middle one 50% and the right one 30% by assign 2, 5 and 3.
You could also just set an explicit size for the text views (in dpi), but this might be problamatic with different sized screens.

I agree with Mayra! Use the TableView, you'll get the formatting your looking for as well as keep almost all functionality of a ListView (scolling, and list oriented functionality)