If you want to become a good Android Developer??
Then you must learn basics well, better you understand the fundamentals, easier to learn the advanced concepts.
So today I am talking about Android layout, the word you already heard and a basic concept.
So let’s start here,
What is Android layout?
In Android, the layout describes the appearance of the app. Layouts are just resourced files. The instructions or content in layout decides to position your widget and make your user interface.
The layout contains View, ViewGroup objects and <merge> tag. Just like HTML, It must have a root element. It can contain more GUI widgets like Button, TextView, etc. Nested elements are also supported.
An app can have more than one screens based on developer needs. So you can have many layouts as you want.
Layout resource names must contain only lowercase a-z, 0-9, or underscore otherwise, you might end with an error.
Different types of Android layouts
For user convenience, Android engineers developed many layouts.
- LinearLayout – Arrange Android widgets vertically or horizontally.
- RelativeLayout – Organize widgets relative to each other.
- WebView – It displays webpages
- ListView – Make list like layout
- GridView – Arranges elements in grid manner
How to create android layout?
- Using XML
You can use XML straightforward vocabulary to specify your UI. For beginners, you can check it out drag and drop feature. It helps us to drag a view which you want and drop it wherever you want in layout design. The XML code will automatically complete by android studio.
For localization (translating strings into different languages), XML layout would be a better idea.
Note: You must put xmlns:android attribute with android namespace inside the root element.
For an example: assume LinearLayout as your root element.
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
.....
....
/>- How to create Android layout Programmatically at runtime
It’s not generally recommended for beginners. There may be occasions to make your layout at runtime. But it mixes up UI code and code that controlling app behavior. So it may become difficult to tweak and refine user interface.
Where is layout files located at?
Android studio automatically creates a directory to hold your layout files – layout subdirectory.
In your project structure
app->res->layout .
all resource files stored in res (resources folder).
How to create a layout file in android studio?
Right Click on your default layout subdirectory
New -> Layout resource file -> Enter layout Name and click OK.
Also give details of the root element, source set, Directory name, and other available qualifiers.
How to rename layout file in android studio?
Right click on your layout file which wants to rename
Refactor -> Rename -> give new file name -> Refactor. You can use shift + F6 key also.
Conclusion
There are some set of words may confuse developers when they start Android apps Development. One of them I think is layout. Better you learn each term in any language, better programmer you will be. In this post, you learned about layout. The layout defines the appearance of the app or It says how should User Interface elements get arranged. You can define layout in an easy and difficult way, Through XML and programmatically. There are different types of layouts, using them you can accomplish an awesome user interface. If you got anything useful, please share it.
Reference :Layouts | Android Developers
