Develop Reference

How to implement dialog that help users to know the app features?

I need to Implement the dialoges given in Image to introduce attributes of App, I couldn't find the way to implement it yet.
I have tried Firebase InAppMessaging but it's automatically being displayed just after the App starts. What I need is the Message dialog should display after a button gets clicked.
the code I putted in the button.OnclickListener
FirebaseInAppMessaging.getInstance().triggerEvent("CompaignId");
Link to Firebase InAppMessaging Docs from where I get the given code

You can use BubbleShowCase to achieve your dialog.
How to use it in the simplest way:
BubbleShowCaseBuilder(this) //Activity instance
.title("foo") //Any title for the bubble view
.targetView(view) //View to point out
.show() //Display the ShowCase
And if you will read more in the library page you can find info about making a custom dialog.

You can use full-screen dialog with transparent background and show whatever feature you have to show
e.g
Dialog dialog = new Dialog(context);
dialog.setContentView(R.layout.dialog_layout);
dialog.getWindow().setBackgroundDrawableResource(android.R.color.transparent);
dialog.getWindow().setLayout(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
dialog.show()

There's a lot of libraries out there, but if you want a google like showcase, you can use ShowCaseView
ShowcaseViewBuilder showcaseViewBuilder;
showcaseViewBuilder = ShowcaseViewBuilder.init(this)
.setTargetView(fab)
.setBackgroundOverlayColor(0xdd4d4d4d)
.setRingColor(0xcc8e8e8e)
.setRingWidth((int) TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 20, getResources().getDisplayMetrics()))
.setMarkerDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.arrow_up), Gravity.LEFT)
.addCustomView(R.layout.description_view, Gravity.TOP)
.addCustomView(R.layout.skip_layout)
.setCustomViewMargin((int) TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 70, getResources().getDisplayMetrics()));

Saving state of UI in Android

I'm making a to-do list app and after user presses the button I create a new GridLayout(and all the data about time and name of the task inside of it) and add it into my RelativeLayout. How do I save those GridLayouts in UI so after the activity is destroyed and launched again those layouts are there.
After pressing the button I trigger the Create Activity method
public void CreateActivity(String name,int hours, int minutes,int i)
{
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams relparams= new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
relparams.addRule(RelativeLayout.BELOW,i);
relparams.setMargins(0,50,0,100);
Glayouts.add(new GridLayout(this));
Glayouts.get(i+1).setBackgroundColor(Color.GRAY);
Glayouts.get(i+1).setMinimumWidth(relative.getWidth());
Glayouts.get(i+1).setId(i+1);
Glayouts.get(i+1).setPadding(10,0,0,0);
GridLayout.LayoutParams namee = new GridLayout.LayoutParams();
namee.columnSpec = GridLayout.spec(0);
namee.rowSpec = GridLayout.spec(0);
namee.setGravity(Gravity.LEFT);
final TextView Actname = new TextView(this);
Actname.setText(name);
GridLayout.LayoutParams checkbox = new GridLayout.LayoutParams();
checkbox.columnSpec = GridLayout.spec(1);
checkbox.rowSpec = GridLayout.spec(0);
checkbox.setGravity(Gravity.RIGHT);
CheckBox check = new CheckBox(this);
// ADDING TO LAYOUT
Glayouts.get(i+1).addView(Actname,namee);
Glayouts.get(i+1).addView(check,checkbox);
relative.addView(Glayouts.get(i+1),relparams);

Theoretically when you extends View, then you can also override onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState methods, where you must provide your own SavedState class that typically extends BaseSavedState. You can find info on that here
In your case, your layout is dynamic, therefore this doesn't really work. To tell you the truth, your layout probably shouldn't be constructed this way, you should be rendering the grid using a RecyclerView based on a "model" that describes this layout, render the items of the grid via the RecyclerView.Adapter, and you should persist either the "model", or the data you use to construct this model along with the user-inputted state so that you can re-construct the model that will be rendered via your RecyclerView.
You can read more about RecyclerView here.
You can read more about data persistence here.
You can read about using onSaveInstanceState to save data in Activities/Fragments across config change and process death (but not finishing then restarting the app) here.

You can’t. The best way to save state is to use some persistence mechanism, for example database (I’d recommend Room as it is officially supported by Google).
After clicking a button, you should put all the needed information (name, hours, minutes) in the database and when Activity is created, you can read all persisted data and - basing on it - create all needed layouts again.
Another option is storing data in SharedPreferences - it is much easier to setup, so you can also start with this solution. Please note, I'm suggesting it as a first step in the world of persistency in Android, not as a preferred solution for storing data.

Adding a xml to a LinearLayout item in android studio

I have xml layout which includes a avatar picture a name and a textbox. These are all in one xml file. I would like to add instances these programmically to a linear layout that is nested in a scoll view. Here is my code.
View v = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.include_message, null);
LinearLayout stallWall = (LinearLayout) v.findViewById(R.id.stallMessages);
R.layout.include_message = My xml
R.id.stallMessages = Linear Layout
I get no errors and i see no items being added.
I would like to read a array and put a include_message in for each message.

First, I would not recommend using x = y = z = a and so on.
It may be working but it's not easy to read and understand.
as codeMagic said, you should use addView() method to achieve this.
here's an example http://androidexample.com/Dynamically_Create_View_Elements__-_Android_Example/index.php?view=article_discription&aid=115&aaid=137
If you are trying to use a layout defined in an xml file, you can user LayoutInflater like this:
View view = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.yourfile, null);
layout.addView(view);

Programmatically generated text field is not showing up in Android app

I'm trying to programmatically generate some UI elements onto an android app with Java. I have a ScrollView created in the XML file, and I'm trying to create and add a bunch of UI elements to that ScrollView. All of the UI elements make up 1 bounding box that looks like this:
The bounding box is just a linear layout with an image background, and some text boxes and labels sitting on top of it. I want my code to be modular, so I'm making a class called BoundingBox which should create and add a bounding box to the app every time I instantiate the BoundingBox class.
Here's what I have so far for the BoundingBox class (it's not complete, all it adds so far is a textview with text on it).
public class BoundingBox {
//Instantiate the main app activity.
MainActivity theMainActivity = new MainActivity();
//Create Scrollview object and set it to the XML GUI scrollview
ScrollView sv = (ScrollView) theMainActivity.findViewById(R.id.theMainScrollView);
public BoundingBox(){
//Create linear layout that will sit in the scrollview.
LinearLayout mainLinearLayout = new LinearLayout(theMainActivity);
TextView exerciseName = new TextView(theMainActivity);
TextView repBox1 = new TextView(theMainActivity);
TextView repBox2 = new TextView(theMainActivity);
TextView repBox3 = new TextView(theMainActivity);
TextView repBox4 = new TextView(theMainActivity);
//Add the Linear Layout to the existing scroll view.
sv.addView(mainLinearLayout);
//Add text box to linear layout
mainLinearLayout.addView(exerciseName);
exerciseName.setText("This doesn't work.");
}
}
Here's how I instantiate it in my main Activity:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
BoundingBox sc = new BoundingBox();
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
return true;
}
The code compiles successfully but no text shows up in my Android app. If I instantiated the class then it should have already ran the code in the BoundingBox constructor, which should have created a text view. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, and since the code compiles successfully logcat doesn't tell me anything. If I instantiate the bounding box class in the onCreate() function, the app crashes when starting it. If I instantiate it in the onCreateOptionsMenu function, it runs but it doesn't create a text view.

Your code is so messed up it isn't even close to working.
1)You should never create an activity via new. Ever. It isn't valid.
2)You create a LinearLayout programmatically. But you add it nowhere. If it isn't added to anywhere, where would you expect it to show?
3)Why would you ever want to create a view in options menu code? And once again, you're creating the box but not doing anything with the views it creates. Also, if you want to create a class that holds a bunch of views, it really ought to derive from ViewGroup.
4)Even if 1 was valid (it isn't), doign a findViewById there would return null, because onCreate wasn't called so no contentView was set. But that isn't valid anyway, so don't try to just call it. Instead you want to either pass in the parent view via constructor, or better yet make BoundingBox a ViewGroup subclass and add it to the parent directly.

android java layout + source code confusion

I'm a new to android programming. I'm having issues with the layout in my activity. My menu appears like this:
and I've done all the layout work directly through the source code:
enterNameTxt.setText("Enter User Name");
enterNameTxt.setY(200);
enterNameTxt.setX(-600);
userNameTxt.setY(300);
userNameTxt.setX(100);
userNameTxt.setWidth(200);
enterSpeedTxt.setText("Enter Speed");
enterSpeedTxt.setX(-500);
enterSpeedTxt.setY(100);
userSpeedTxt.setX(-400);
userSpeedTxt.setY(700);
userSpeedTxt.setWidth(200);
configButton.setWidth(400);
configButton.setText("Back to Game");
configButton.setY(1000);
and as you can see the speed option doesn't even show up on the screen. And I keep playing with setX, setY, setWidth options but it keeps getting messy.
Is it wrong to do the layout directly through the source code?
I have a two activities but only a layout xml file for one of them. Am I supposed to create another xml file in res/layout section for the menu activity?
I just don't understand when I use the source code and when I should use the layout...
Thanks in advance

Is it wrong to do the layout directly through the source code?
No it's not. But you are strongly advised to use xml layout because it gives you a visual presentation of what you are trying before runtime.
I have a two activities but only a layout xml file for one of them. Am I supposed to create another xml file in res/layout section for the menu activity?
Yes. You have to create an xml file for every activity in your app.
I just don't understand when I use the source code and when I should use the layout...
You should use xml as much as you can. You should only use Java code to set layout attributes when it has to change at runtime. E.g populating a ListView with text from an database or a web service.

Use this code in you java file
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
RelativeLayout rl = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.rl);
LinearLayout ll = new LinearLayout(this);
LinearLayout.LayoutParams layout_params = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
LinearLayout.LayoutParams box_params = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, 40);
LinearLayout.LayoutParams btn_params = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(120, 40);
ll.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
EditText et1 = new EditText(MainActivity.this);
et1.setHint("Enter User name");
EditText et2 = new EditText(MainActivity.this);
et2.setHint("Enter speed");
Button btn= new Button(MainActivity.this);
btn.setText("Back to Game");
btn.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);
ll.addView(et1, box_params);
ll.addView(et2, box_params);
ll.addView(btn, btn_params);
ll.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
rl.addView(ll,layout_params );
}
}
You will get required output but it is prefer to use xml file until you don't need dynamic changes in your UI. It is easy to maintain code and design screens using xml files and if there is no need of large dynamic changes you should use xml files. Through Xml files you can check you code on different resolution through graphical representation of code. You can create a xml file in layout folder and can link it to your activity. It is easy, time saving and provide you more accurate designs... :) Please check screen shot for dynamic creation of your required design.
Happy Coding !!!