How to lay out Views in RelativeLayout programmatically?

Question

I\'m trying to achieve the following programmatically (rather than declaratively via XML):

Answer 1

This approach with ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams worked for me:

RelativeLayout myLayout = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.my_layout);

TextView someTextView = ...

int leftMargin = Util.getXPos();
int topMargin = Util.getYPos();

RelativeLayout.LayoutParams lp = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(
    new ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams(
        RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
        RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));

lp.setMargins(leftMargin, topMargin, 0, 0);

myLayout.addView(someTextView, lp);

Answer 2

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        //setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        final RelativeLayout relativeLayout = new RelativeLayout(this);
        final TextView tv1 = new TextView(this);
        tv1.setText("tv1 is here");
        // Setting an ID is mandatory.
        tv1.setId(View.generateViewId());
        relativeLayout.addView(tv1);


        final TextView tv2 = new TextView(this);
        tv2.setText("tv2 is here");

        // We are defining layout params for tv2 which will be added to its  parent relativelayout.
        // The type of the LayoutParams depends on the parent type.
        RelativeLayout.LayoutParams tv2LayoutParams = new  RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(
            RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
            RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

        //Also, we want tv2 to appear below tv1, so we are adding rule to tv2LayoutParams.
        tv2LayoutParams.addRule(RelativeLayout.BELOW, tv1.getId());

        //Now, adding the child view tv2 to relativelayout, and setting tv2LayoutParams to be set on view tv2.
        relativeLayout.addView(tv2);
        tv2.setLayoutParams(tv2LayoutParams);
        //Or we can combined the above two steps in one line of code
        //relativeLayout.addView(tv2, tv2LayoutParams);

        this.setContentView(relativeLayout);
    }

}

Answer 3

If you really want to layout manually, i'd suggest not to use a standard layout at all. Do it all on your own, here a kotlin example:

class ProgrammaticalLayout @JvmOverloads constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet? = null, defStyleAttr: Int = 0) : ViewGroup(context, attrs, defStyleAttr) { 
    private val firstTextView = TextView(context).apply {
        test = "First Text"
    }

    private val secondTextView = TextView(context).apply {
        text = "Second Text"
    }

    init {
        addView(firstTextView)
        addView(secondTextView)
    }

    override fun onLayout(changed: Boolean, left: Int, top: Int, right: Int, bottom: Int) {
        // center the views verticaly and horizontaly
        val firstTextLeft = (measuredWidth - firstTextView.measuredWidth) / 2
        val firstTextTop = (measuredHeight - (firstTextView.measuredHeight + secondTextView.measuredHeight)) / 2
        firstTextView.layout(firstTextLeft,firstTextTop, firstTextLeft + firstTextView.measuredWidth,firstTextTop + firstTextView.measuredHeight)

        val secondTextLeft = (measuredWidth - secondTextView.measuredWidth) / 2
        val secondTextTop = firstTextView.bottom
        secondTextView.layout(secondTextLeft,secondTextTop, secondTextLeft + secondTextView.measuredWidth,secondTextTop + secondTextView.measuredHeight)
    }

    override fun onMeasure(widthMeasureSpec: Int, heightMeasureSpec: Int) { 
        // just assume we`re getting measured exactly by the parent
        val measuredWidth = MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec)
        val measuredHeight = MeasureSpec.getSize(heightMeasureSpec)

        firstTextView.measures(MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(meeasuredWidth, MeasureSpec.AT_MOST), MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED))
        secondTextView.measures(MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(meeasuredWidth, MeasureSpec.AT_MOST), MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED))

        setMeasuredDimension(measuredWidth, measuredHeight)
    }
}

This might give you an idea how this could work

Answer 4

Cut the long story short: With relative layout you position elements inside the layout.

1. create a new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams

   RelativeLayout.LayoutParams lp = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(...)
   

   (whatever... fill parent or wrap content, absolute numbers if you must, or reference to an XML resource)

2. Add rules: Rules refer to the parent or to other "brothers" in the hierarchy.

   lp.addRule(RelativeLayout.BELOW, someOtherView.getId())
   lp.addRule(RelativeLayout.ALIGN_PARENT_LEFT)
   

3. Just apply the layout params: The most 'healthy' way to do that is:

   parentLayout.addView(myView, lp)
   

Watch out: Don't change layout from the layout callbacks. It is tempting to do so because this is when views get their actual sizes. However, in that case, unexpected results are expected.

Answer 5

Android 22 minimal runnable example

Source:

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.RelativeLayout;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class Main extends Activity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        final RelativeLayout relativeLayout = new RelativeLayout(this);

        final TextView tv1;
        tv1 = new TextView(this);
        tv1.setText("tv1");
        // Setting an ID is mandatory.
        tv1.setId(View.generateViewId());
        relativeLayout.addView(tv1);

        // tv2.
        final TextView tv2;
        tv2 = new TextView(this);
        tv2.setText("tv2");
        RelativeLayout.LayoutParams lp = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(
                ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
                ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);
        lp.addRule(RelativeLayout.BELOW, tv1.getId());
        relativeLayout.addView(tv2, lp);

        // tv3.
        final TextView tv3;
        tv3 = new TextView(this);
        tv3.setText("tv3");
        RelativeLayout.LayoutParams lp2 = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(
            ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
            ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT
        );
        lp2.addRule(RelativeLayout.BELOW, tv2.getId());
        relativeLayout.addView(tv3, lp2);

        this.setContentView(relativeLayout);
    }
}

Works with the default project generated by android create project .... GitHub repository with minimal build code.

Answer 6

call

tv1.setId(1) 

after

tv1.setText("A");