Develop Reference

there is some way to make my own item in xml?

i work on android-studio project, and my question is about if
there is some way i can define in xml type of some item that contain
few edit text and buttons, and open listview that contain the item i create?
somthing like :
<item
<Editext(some setting)/>
<Edittext 1(some setting)/>
<Button(some setting)/>
/>
and then some adapter that adjust or something like that, that i can add to ListView.
i saw in youtube some videos that try to explain that but i get stock.. i dno't really get this.

This took my a while to figure out, but it works.
Create your Layout file just however you want. Save it as res/layout/something.txt. Example:
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:text="hello"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="150dp"
android:id="#+id/text1"/>
<TextView
android:text="world"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="150dp"
android:id="#+id/text2"/>
</LinearLayout>
Use it in your code as follows:
LinearLayout mainLinearLayout = new LinearLayout(getApplicationContext());
// inflate your container
View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.something, null);
// you can make changes to the elements like this:
TextView txt1 = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.text1);
TextView txt2 = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.text2);
view.setTag(tag);
// add to main layout
mainLinearLayout.addView(view);
Where tag is an unique integer to identify the View. You don't need to set the tag if you're using the container only once.
I didn't use an Adapter when I made this. I just used a ScrollView to make a continous list of entries. Change this to your needs.

Inflated layout's children not showing

I am using a DraggableGridView from here.
What I did before was add a simple programmatically built ImageViews to the grid. That works perfectly fine.
I am now trying to add a Layout instead. I tried RelativeLayout, Framelayout, FrameLayout inside of a RelativeLayout.
Here is my code as of now:
/**
* Rebuild the grid view, e.g. after the adapter has been filled or a backup is restored
*/
private void renewGrid()
{
dgv.removeAllViews();
for(int i = 0; i < adapter.getCount(); i++)
{
LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)ctx.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
dgv = (DraggableGridView) inflater.inflate(R.layout.grid_item_layout, dgv);
FrameLayout fl = (FrameLayout) dgv.findViewById(R.id.grid_images);
ImageView icon = (ImageView) fl.findViewById(R.id.qstile);
icon.setImageDrawable(res.getDrawable(res.getIdentifier("qstile_" + adapter.getItem(i), "drawable", packagename)));
}
}
Following the grid_item_layout:
<?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"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/grid_images">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="32dp"
android:layout_height="32dp"
android:src="#drawable/icon_delete"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/qstile"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</FrameLayout>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/invisible_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:text=""
android:visibility="gone" />
</RelativeLayout>
The RelativeLayout gets inflated into the grid nicely. I can observe this via DDMS and the "Dump view hierachy" function. The tree shows all RelativeLayouts inside the grid, but each of it doesn't have any children.
BUT... That is not true. If I step through the code and observe the inflated layouts I can see the children. So they are set up, get added just like told in the XML, but don't get drawn.
The OnItemClick listener on the children of the grid also works...
Any hint about what I'm missing here? I already tried several ways, even creating the complete layout programmatically and then adding it to the grid as children. Still no luck. None of the children get added.
Is that maybe an issue with the used DraggableGridView?

After searching for another few hours I found a fix in this SO thread
Basically I now extend DraggableGridView from FrameLayout rather than ViewGroup. This hasn't had any noticeable side effects to me.

android:animateLayoutChanges won't work in parent layout

Suppose I have a layout file structured like this:
<LinearLayout android:id="#+id/main" android:orientation="vertical" android:animateLayoutChanges="true">
<EditText>
<TextView android:id="#+id/header1">
<LinearLayout android:id="#+id/insertionPoint" android:orientation="vertical" android:animateLayoutChanges="true">
</LinearLayout>
<TextView android:id="#+id/header2">
</LinearLayout>
I want to dynamically add text fields to the Layout insertionPoint and I would like to see an animation of the elements below it (in this case, header2) sliding down.
Using android:animateLayoutChanges only animates the elements in the layout insertionPoint, so there is no animation for header2. What should I do?
Just to be more clear: what I would like to do here is something like the animations that we can see in the People app in ICS when we add more fields, like telephone numbers, to a contact.
Thank you!

API 16 added the LayoutTransition.CHANGING animation type, however it is disabled by default.
To enable:
LinearLayout linearLayout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.main);
linearLayout.getLayoutTransition().enableTransitionType(LayoutTransition.CHANGING);
Nice DevBytes video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wLsaWpQ4g

RelativeLayout Visibility is not working when using View.GONE

I have a parent RelativeLayout, that have other Views and other Relative Layouts inside of it. When I try to make one of these RelativeLayouts have a GONE visibility, it just won't disappear. Any solution for this? I'll post the layout I want GONE.
<RelativeLayout android:id="#+id/relativeLayerA"
android:layout_width="315px"
android:layout_height="35px"
android:background="#drawable/bgnavyblue_abcd"
android:layout_below="#id/relativeConfig1"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/relativeRecipe"
android:layout_marginLeft="15px"
android:layout_marginTop="20px"
>
<ImageView android:id="#+id/imgIconA"
android:layout_width="33px"
android:layout_height="33px"
android:src="#drawable/icon_a"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" <!-- -->
/>
<TextView android:id="#+id/txtLayerA"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/layer_a_adjusts"
android:textSize="7pt"
android:textColor="#FEFEFE"
android:typeface="sans"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/imgIconA"
android:layout_marginLeft="5px"
android:layout_marginTop="8px"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
Here is the whole code: http://pastebin.com/VhpWSa6Z
Please, anyone know whats going on?
EDIT: Someone said that this might be happening because other View is using this View to position itself at the screen. So I tried to set GONE visibility to the RelativeLayerC. And it worked. I don't get it why it works with this View, and not with RelativeLayerA. Here you can see the RelativeConfig4 using RelativeLayerC as reference. http://pastebin.com/uHW6faPy

I have faced the same problem.. I think it's a bug.. :(
You can bypass it though.. try this to make the RelativeLayout invisible.
RelativeLayout rLayout=(RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.//your relativeLayout id);
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams rParams = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(
0, // its height... set it 0 to make it invisible..
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT // and its width
);
rLayout.setLayoutParams(rParams);
This to make it visible.
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams rParams = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);
rLayout.setLayoutParams(rParams);
Here are the correct parameters for RelativeLayout in xml.
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/rLayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:background="#AA000000" >
Remember! dont use this.
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
or left, right.. otherwise it will not work..!
Hope that helps.

Android overlay a view ontop of everything?

Can you overlay a view on top of everything in android?
In iPhone I would get the new view set its frame.origin to (0,0) and its width and height to the width and height of self.view. Adding it to self.view would then cause it to act as an overlay, covering the content behind (or if it had a transparent background then showing the view behind).
Is there a similar technique in android? I realise that the views are slightly different (there are three types (or more...) relativelayout, linearlayout and framelayout) but is there any way to just overlay a view on top of everything indiscriminately?

Simply use RelativeLayout or FrameLayout. The last child view will overlay everything else.
Android supports a pattern which Cocoa Touch SDK doesn't: Layout management.
Layout for iPhone means to position everything absolute (besides some strech factors). Layout in android means that children will be placed in relation to eachother.
Example (second EditText will completely cover the first one):
<FrameLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:id="#+id/root_view">
<EditText
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
</EditText>
<EditText
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:id="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<requestFocus></requestFocus>
</EditText>
</FrameLayout>
FrameLayout is some kind of view stack. Made for special cases.
RelativeLayout is pretty powerful. You can define rules like View A has to align parent layout bottom, View B has to align A bottom to top, etc
Update based on comment
Usually you set the content with setContentView(R.layout.your_layout) in onCreate (it will inflate the layout for you). You can do that manually and call setContentView(inflatedView), there's no difference.
The view itself might be a single view (like TextView) or a complex layout hierarchy (nested layouts, since all layouts are views themselves).
After calling setContentView your activity knows what its content looks like and you can use (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.root_view) to retrieve any view int this hierarchy (General pattern (ClassOfTheViewWithThisId) findViewById(R.id.declared_id_of_view)).

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/root_view"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:id = "#+id/Everything"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<!-- other actual layout stuff here EVERYTHING HERE -->
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/overlay"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="right" >
</LinearLayout>
Now any view you add under LinearLayout with android:id = "#+id/overlay" will appear as overlay with gravity = right on Linear Layout with android:id="#+id/Everything"

You can use bringToFront:
View view=findViewById(R.id.btnStartGame);
view.bringToFront();

The best way is ViewOverlay , You can add any drawable as overlay to any view as its overlay since Android JellyBeanMR2(Api 18).
Add mMyDrawable to mMyView as its overlay:
mMyDrawable.setBounds(0, 0, mMyView.getMeasuredWidth(), mMyView.getMeasuredHeight())
mMyView.getOverlay().add(mMyDrawable)

I have just made a solution for it. I made a library for this to do that in a reusable way that's why you don't need to recode in your XML. Here is documentation on how to use it in Java and Kotlin. First, initialize it from an activity from where you want to show the overlay-
AppWaterMarkBuilder.doConfigure()
.setAppCompatActivity(MainActivity.this)
.setWatermarkProperty(R.layout.layout_water_mark)
.showWatermarkAfterConfig();
Then you can hide and show it from anywhere in your app -
/* For hiding the watermark*/
AppWaterMarkBuilder.hideWatermark()
/* For showing the watermark*/
AppWaterMarkBuilder.showWatermark()
Gif preview -

I have tried the awnsers before but this did not work.
Now I jsut used a LinearLayout instead of a TextureView, now it is working without any problem. Hope it helps some others who have the same problem. :)
view = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.view); //this is initialized in the constructor
openWindowOnButtonClick();
public void openWindowOnButtonClick()
{
view.setAlpha((float)0.5);
FloatingActionButton fb = (FloatingActionButton) findViewById(R.id.floatingActionButton);
final InputMethodManager keyboard = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(getBaseContext().INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
fb.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener()
{
#Override
public void onClick(View v)
{
// check if the Overlay should be visible. If this value is false, it is not shown -> show it.
if(view.getVisibility() == View.INVISIBLE)
{
view.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
keyboard.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT, 0);
Log.d("Overlay", "Klick");
}
else if(view.getVisibility() == View.VISIBLE)
{
view.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
keyboard.toggleSoftInput(0, InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY);
}

bringToFront() is super easy for programmatic adjustments, as stated above. I had some trouble getting that to work with button z order because of stateListAnimator. If you end up needing to programmatically adjust view overlays, and those views happen to be buttons, make sure to set stateListAnimator to null in your xml layout file. stateListAnimator is android's under-the-hood process to adjust translationZ of buttons when they are clicked, so the button that is clicked ends up visible on top. This is not always what you want... for full Z order control, do this: