Develop Reference

Letting the user press an image to open the keyboard and set the text of a TextView

My problem is that I want to be able to press an image which will open the standard Android keyboard and let the user enter some text. I then want to put this text and set it as the text of a textView.
Here is my xml for the imageView and textView
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="135dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="8dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
android:clickable="true"
android:onClick="addDescription"
android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:srcCompat="#mipmap/ic_launcher" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/descriptionText"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0.19"
android:text="Click to add description" />
Here is the method I tried to use to get the image to open the keyboard, however this causes the app to crash when pressing the image.
public void openKeyboard(){
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED,0);
}

The TextView class is not made to allow user editing. From the makers of Android: A TextView is a complete text editor, however the basic class is configured to not allow editing; see EditText for a subclass that configures the text view for editing.
The only one brief kind of editing you can enable in a textView is to allow the copy of it's contents (i.e., your user will be able to copy textView's contents).

Android adding image to button

I am trying to add an image to a button(image button or normal button) but not in a specific res/drawable folder.
I want this image as a ImageView object or drawable object etc, but I couldn't.

You can set an icon for Button by adding following attribute in XML for Button like this:
android:drawableLeft="#drawable/button_icon"
If you want to know how to do it programmatically, follow this article:
How to programmatically set drawableLeft on Android button?
Or just add 'background':
<Button
android:id="#+id/imageButton1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#drawable/qrcode"/>
But i think it's better if you use ImageButton, see this example:
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/searchImageButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#android:drawable/your_image_drawable" />

Use ImageButton and add src in your background:
<ImageButton
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#android:drawable/yourImageNameHere"

Android - Button covering TextView in RelativeLayout only in version 5.0+

The target I need to achieve: 2 lines of text and 1 straight line in between should always be on top of Button. So in such a case, setting text in Button's attribute is not applicable according to my knowledge. Therefore I use TextView and View aligning on top of Button to achieve it.
Problem: A strange UI appearance I have come across of Android 5.0+ is that when the Button is enabled, it covers TextView and View even it comes before TextView in RelativeLayout xml file. (according to my knowledge, this means that TextView should on top of Button) The following is my xml code:
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rl_daily_check_in_button_container"
android:layout_width="140dp"
android:layout_height="140dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="4dp"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_above="#+id/textview_check_in_days_in_row">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_daily_check_in"
android:layout_width="140dp"
android:layout_height="140dp"
android:background="#drawable/daily_checkin_button" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textview_check_in"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_above="#+id/view_line"
android:layout_marginBottom="4dp"
android:text="#string/title_not_yet_daily_check_in"
android:textColor="#color/text_gray"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:textSize="36sp" />
<View
android:id="#+id/view_line"
android:layout_width="94dp"
android:layout_height="1dp"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_above="#+id/textview_check_in_points"
android:layout_marginBottom="6dp"
android:background="#color/text_gray" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textview_check_in_points"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="32dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="#string/points_can_get_daily_check_in_placeholder"
android:textColor="#color/text_gray"
android:textSize="14sp" />
</RelativeLayout>
But when the app is in Android 5.0-, say 4.4.2, the UI is exactly what I expect. I have tried to set android:elevation="xxdp" attribute, it success until I set the background of Button programatically. Can anyone explain the reason and how the Andoird 5.0+ render its UI? Many Thanks!
Button on Andoird 5.0+:
Button on Android 5.0-:

From Android Lollipop (5.0), the Button has a default StateListAnimator. It has set the default android:elevation and android:translationZ attributes to the Button. Since the Button has default elevation set to it, it appears above the other Views that doesn't have elevation set (Views that has elevation less than the Button, to be precise). i.e. The Views that has higher elevation set to it will appear above the Views that has lower elevation set.
So that's why, when you changed the Button to ImageView, the problem is solved, because ImageView has no default elevation set.

AlertDialog style buttons for an Activity

I have an activity with a Save and Cancel button at the bottom.
In AlertDialog, the buttons are displayed inside a styled container view of some sort.
How could I give the buttons in my Activity that same appearance? Specifically, how could I apply the style of the button container view in the AlertDialog to say a LinearLayout in my Activity containing the buttons?
Thanks

There are solutions given elsewhere that work. In short, you can simply use style attributes in your xml to achieve this. For instance, style="?android:attr/buttonBarStyle" and style="?android:attr/buttonBarButtonStyle" will do the job (for API 11+). Here is an example of two buttons horizontally put together.
<LinearLayout
style="?android:attr/buttonBarStyle"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:measureWithLargestChild="true"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:paddingTop="0dip" >
<Button
style="?android:attr/buttonBarButtonStyle"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text= "Ok" />
<Button
style="?android:attr/buttonBarButtonStyle"
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Cancel" />
</LinearLayout>
The only thing that remains, is that there is a horizontal line right above the buttons in an alertDialog, which the above code will not create. If you want to have that horizontal line, it should be added manually in the xml, above the LinearLayout. This will give you the horizontal line:
<View
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="1dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="0dp"
android:background="?android:attr/dividerVertical" />

I do some thing like this:
LinearLayout dialogLayout = (LinearLayout) ((LayoutInflater) getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE)).inflate(R.layout.dialog_addeditrecord, null);
I then use the dialogLayout to call findViewById() to pull in the buttons and other views and setup OnClickListeners and such...
then to show the dialog:
builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
builder.setView(dialogLayout);
builder.create().show();

how can i have a list of icons in my android app;

can any one suggest how can i have a list of icons like browser icon,email icon and contacts icon upon clicking on those it should lead to android browser,email and contacts apps respectively...right now i have done it, upon clicking buttons. Now i want icons(with image and text) instead of buttons...

Check this out:
http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-formstuff.html#CustomButton
This will show you had to put the images you want in res/drawable/ and then load them up as buttons in your app.

There is no widget icon.
You can do it yourself using a LinearLayout an ImageView and a TextView.
The xml should be something like this:
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical">
<ImageView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/your_image"/>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/your_icon_text"/>
</LinearLayout>

You can use Android Image Button and set its property "Clickable=true" and do the required work on its click event listener

I thought you want to have ImageButton , clicking on that you want to open particular application/browser/contact list.
ImageButton - Displays a button with an image (instead of text) that can be pressed or clicked by the user
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/ImageButton01"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/icon/>
If you wants ImageButton with Background button then set android:background attribute, as below:
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/ImageButton01"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/icon"
android:background="#drawable/background_image"/>

If you want an image and text in your button, the way I do it is create a 9 patch, so I can define where the text will go using the padding and stretchable areas. Then follow the same instructions as for the Custom Button already mentioned, but use a standard button, not an Image Button.