Android Common Views¶

This chapter describes the common UI views used to compose your Xamarin.Android app. The views in Xamarin.Android are wrappers of the natives Android views.

Button¶

There are three standard types of buttons:

• Floating action button: A circular material button that lifts and displays an ink reaction on press.
• Raised button: A typically rectangular material button that lifts and displays ink reactions on press.
• Flat button: A button made of ink that displays ink reactions on press but does not lift.

To create a button with text, use the following XML :

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<Button
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="LOGIN" />

If we want the button's width to be the same as its parent, we would change the android:layout_height to match_parent.

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<Button
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="LOGIN" />

Drawables on buttons¶

A normal button can also have an image on the left or right, by using the android:drawableLeft and android:drawableRight attributes. Thses drawables have limited use as the images inside them can not be resized.

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<Button
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/button_text"
    android:drawableLeft="@drawable/button_icon"/>

Floating Action Button¶

The floating action action button is available as a support package. You need to the Android Support Design v7 package from from Nuget before you can use it in the project.

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<android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton
    android:id="@+id/fab"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="bottom|end"
    android:layout_margin="16dp"
    app:srcCompat="@android:drawable/ic_input_add" />

The floating action button is mostly used inside the CoordinatorLayout or FrameLayout. This layout is also included as part of the Android Support Design Package.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true">


    <android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton
        android:id="@+id/fab"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="bottom|end"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/fab_margin"
        app:srcCompat="@android:drawable/ic_input_add" />

</android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

FAB Properties¶

Borderless Button¶

A style is used to get the a borderless button. Note that the style does not use the android prefix.

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<Button
    style="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Button.Borderless"
    android:text="Borderless Button"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

You can also get a coloured borderless button. The default color used is the accent color from the theme.

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<Button
    style="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Button.Borderless.Colored"
    android:text="Borderless Button"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

EditText¶

Text fields allow users to input text, select text, and lookup data via auto-completion. Text fields usually appear in forms. Users may enter text, numbers, or mixed-format types of input. Touching a text field makes the two actions occur:

• Places the cursor there
• Displays the keyboard

Retrieving the Value¶

Getting the value of the text entered into an EditText is as follows:

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EditText etUsername = FindViewById<EditText>(Resource.Id.etUsername);
var username = etUsername.Text;

Text field anatomy¶

• 1. Labels describe the type of input requested in each field
• 1. Hint text is placeholder text that suggests the type of information requested, sometimes in the form of an example
• 1. Helper text appears below input fields to provide additional context

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<EditText
   android:id="@+id/album_description_view"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:hint="@string/album_description"
   android:inputType="textMultiLine" />

TextInputLayout¶

Traditionally, the EditText hides the hint message (explained above) after the user starts typing. In addition, any validation error messages had to be managed manually by the developer.

Starting with Android M the TextInputLayout can be used to setup a floating label to display hints and error messages. First, wrap the EditText in a TextInputLayout:

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<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
    android:id="@+id/input_layout_name"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/input_name"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:hint="@string/hint_name" />
</android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

Now the hint will automatically begin to float once the EditText takes focus as shown below:

We can also use the TextInputLayout to display error messages using the SetError and SetErrorEnabled properties in the activity at runtime.

Adding Character Counting¶

TextInputLayout since the announcement of support design library v23.1 also can expose a character counter for an EditText defined within it. The counter will be rendered below the EditText and can change colors of both the line and character counter if the maximum number of characters has been exceeded:

The TextInputLayout simply needs to define app:counterEnabled and app:CounterMaxLength in the XML attributes. These settings can also be defined dynamically through SetCounterEnabled() and SetCounterMaxLength():

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<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    app:counterEnabled="true"
    app:counterMaxLength="10"
    app:counterTextAppearance="@style/counterText"
    app:counterOverflowTextAppearance="@style/counterOverride">
    <EditText
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:hint="Username"
       android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
       android:layout_centerVertical="true"
       android:ems="10"
       android:hint="Username" />
</android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

Adding Password Visibility Toggles¶

NOTE: You must have support library 24.2.0 or higher to use this feature.

If you use an EditText with an input password type, you can also enable an icon that can show or hide the entire text using the passwordToggleEnabled attribute. You can also change the default eye icon with passwordToggleDrawable attribute or the color hint using the passwordToggleTint attribute. See the TextInputLayout attributes for more details.

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<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
        android:id="@+id/username_text_input_layout"
        app:passwordToggleEnabled="true"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/etUsername"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            android:ems="10"
            android:inputType="textPassword"
            android:hint="Username" />

    </android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

Providing Auto-complete¶

Check out the official text fields guide for a step-by-step on how to setup autocomplete for the entry.

EditText Input Types¶

We can customize the soft keyboard based on the required input for the EditText. These can be changed with the android:inputType attribute. Here are the available input types

You can set multiple inputType attributes if needed (separated by '|')

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<EditText
  android:inputType="textCapSentences|textMultiline"
/>

More input types are available from the here

Further Entry Customization¶

We might want to limit the entry to a single-line of text (avoid newlines):

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<EditText
  android:singleLine="true"
  android:lines="1"
/>

You can limit the characters that can be entered into a field using the digits attribute:

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<EditText
  android:inputType="number"
  android:digits="01"
/>

This would restrict the digits entered to just "0" and "1". We might want to limit the total number of characters with:

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<EditText
  android:maxLength="5"
/>

Displaying Placeholder Hints¶

You may want to set the hint for the EditText control to prompt a user for specific input with:

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<EditText
    ...
    android:hint="@string/my_hint">
</EditText>

Changing the bottom line color¶

Assuming you are using the AppCompat library, you can override the styles colorControlNormal, colorControlActivated, and colorControlHighlight:

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<style name="Theme.App.Base" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="colorControlNormal">#d32f2f</item>
    <item name="colorControlActivated">#ff5722</item>
    <item name="colorControlHighlight">#f44336</item>
</style>

ImageView¶

Displays an image.This view takes care of the loading and optimizing of the image, freeing you to focus on app-specific details like the layout and content. Use the scaleType to control how the image resizes. Images are not clickable by default. You will need to enable android:clickable=true.

Note the scaleType attribute which defines how the images will be scaled to fit in your layout. In the example, using scaleType "center", the image will be displayed at its native resolution and centered in the view, regardless of how much space the view consumes.

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<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/photo_image_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:scaleType="center"
    android:src="@drawable/beach" />

Sizing ImageView Controls¶

By default, contents of an ImageView control are of a certain size -- usually the size of the image dimensions. They can also be bounded by their layout_width and layout_height attributes:

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<ImageView
    android:layout_width="50dp"
    android:layout_height="50dp"
    android:scaleType="fitXY"
    ...
/>

The scaleType above has been set to fitXY which sets the height and the width up or down to fit the maximum dimensions specified.

Fixing the width and height however means that the proportions of the width and height of the original image, known as the aspect ratio, will be altered. We can take advantage of the adjustViewBounds parameter to preserve this aspect ratio. However, we must either allow the height and/or width to be adjustable (i.e. by using maxWidth and using wrap_content for the dimension). Otherwise, the dimensions cannot be readjusted to meet the required aspect ratio.

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<ImageView
    android:layout_width="50dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:scaleType="fitXY"
    android:adjustViewBounds="true"
    ...
/>

Scale Types¶

An ImageView can display an image differently based on the scaleType provided. Above we discussed the fitXY type along with adjustViewBounds to match the aspect ratio of the drawable. The following is a list of all the most common types:

Note: The fitXY scale type allows you to set the exact size of the image in your layout. However, be mindful of potential distortions of the image due to scaling. If you’re creating a photo-viewing application, you will probably want to use the center or fitCenter scale types.

Refer to this ImageView ScaleType visual guide for additional reference. Remember that if you wish to match the aspect ratio of the actual drawable, adjustViewBounds=true must be declared along with not defining an explicit width and/or height.

Supporting Multiple Densities¶

Since Android has so many different screen sizes, resolutions and densities, there is a [[powerful system for selecting the correct image asset|Understanding-App-Resources#introducing-alternate-resources]] for the correct device. There are specific drawable folders for each device density category including: ldpi (low), mdpi (medium), hdpi (high), and xhdpi (extra high). Notice that every app has folders for image drawables such as drawable-mdpi which is for "medium dots per inch".

To create alternative bitmap drawables for different densities, you should follow the 3:4:6:8 scaling ratio between the four generalized densities. Refer to the chart below:

This means that if you generate a 100x100 for mdpi (1x baseline), then you should generate the same resource in 150x150 for hdpi (1.5x), 200x200 image for xhdpi devices (2.0x), 300x300 image for xxhdpi (3.0x) and a 75x75 image for ldpi devices (0.75x). See these density guidelines for additional details.

Mipmaps and Drawables¶

Starting with Android 4.3, there is now an option to use the res/mipmap folder to store "mipmap" images. Mipmaps are most commonly used for application icons such as the launcher icon. To learn more about the benefits of mipmaps be sure to check out the mipmapping for drawables post.

Mipmap image resources can then be accessed using the @mipmap/ic_launcher notation in place of @drawable. Placing icons in mipmap folders (rather than drawable) is considered a best practice because they can often be used at resolutions different from the device’s current density. For example, an xxxhdpi app icon might be used on the launcher for an xxhdpi device. Review this post about preparing for the Nexus 6 which explains in more detail.

Working with Bitmaps¶

We can change the bitmap displayed in an ImageView to a drawable resource with:

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var imageView = FindViewById<ImageView>(Resource.Id.imageView);
imageView.SetImageResource(Resource.Mipmap.Icon);

or to any arbitrary bitmap with:

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Bitmap bMap = BitmapFactory.DecodeFile("/sdcard/test2.png");
imageView.SetImageBitmap(bMap);

Setting an Image Resource from a string¶

Sometimes you have want to set an image drawable using its string filename but the problem is Android uses integer ids for the image names.

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var imageView = FindViewById<ImageView>(Resource.Id.imageView);
//imageView.SetImageResource(Resource.Mipmap.Icon);

var imageId = Resources.GetIdentifier("icon", "drawable", PackageName);
imageView.SetImageResource(imageId);

Scaling a Bitmap¶

If we need to resize a Bitmap, we can call the createScaledBitmap

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// Load a bitmap from the drawable folder
var bitmap = BitmapFactory.DecodeResource(Resources, Resource.Drawable.Icon);
// Resize the bitmap to 50x50 (width x height)
var scaledBitmap = Bitmap.CreateScaledBitmap(bitmap, 50, 50, false);
// Loads the resized Bitmap into an ImageView
imageView.SetImageBitmap(scaledBitmap);

Loading Images from the network¶

Loading images from the network is a challening task and the best way is to use libraries. The most popular libraries are :

• Picasso
• Glide

Install the libraries from Nuget and follow the getting started guide to start using them.

ImageButton¶

A button that displays an image and its clickable.

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<ImageButton
    android:id="@+id/photo_image_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:scaleType="centerCrop"
    android:src="@drawable/beach" />

RadioButton¶

Radio buttons allow the user to select one option from a set. You should use radio buttons for optional sets that are mutually exclusive if you think that the user needs to see all available options side-by-side. If it's not necessary to show all options side-by-side, use a spinner instead.

To create each radio button option, create a RadioButton in your layout. However, because radio buttons are mutually exclusive, you must group them together inside a RadioGroup. By grouping them together, the system ensures that only one radio button can be selected at a time.

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<RadioGroup
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical">
    <RadioButton
        android:id="@+id/yes_radio_button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Yes"
        android:checked="true" />
    <RadioButton
        android:id="@+id/no_radio_button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="No"
        android:textAppearance="?android:textAppearanceMedium" />
    <RadioButton
        android:id="@+id/maybe_radio_button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Maybe"
        android:textAppearance="?android:textAppearanceSmall" />
</RadioGroup>

Attaching Click Event¶

The radio button have a Click event. We can attach the event to the buttons in code as follows :

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//Find the radio buttons in the layout file
var radioAttendingYes = FindViewById<RadioButton>(Resource.Id.rbn_attending_yes);
var radioAttendingNo = FindViewById<RadioButton>(Resource.Id.rbn_attending_no);
var radioAttendingMaybe = FindViewById<RadioButton>(Resource.Id.rbn_attending_maybe);

//Attach click event to the radio buttons
radioAttendingYes.Click += RadioButtonClick;
radioAttendingNo.Click += RadioButtonClick;
radioAttendingMaybe.Click += RadioButtonClick;

And then use a private method to handle the clicking of the radio buttons :

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//Define a private method to handle clicking of the Radio Button
private void RadioButtonClick(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    var radioButton = (RadioButton)sender;
    Console.WriteLine(radioButton.Text);
}

Changing the State¶

We can change the state of the radio button by using the Toggle method, or setting the Checked property.

View¶

A plain rectangle that can be used as a divider.

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<View
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="1dp"
    android:background="#CCC" />

Spinner¶

Spinners provide a quick way to select one value from a set. In the default state, a spinner shows its currently selected value. Touching the spinner displays a dropdown menu with all other available values, from which the user can select a new one.

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<Spinner
    android:id="@+id/sort_by_spinner"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

Populate Spinner with choices with XML¶

You can populate the Spinner using a string-array resource. Create a file the Resources\Values folder and call it array.xml

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string-array name="cities">
        <item>Home</item>
        <item>Work</item>
        <item>Other</item>
        <item>Custom</item>
    </string-array>
</resources>

Now you can populate the entries for the spinner using the data from the xml file.

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<Spinner
    android:entries="@array/cities"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

Spinner Mode¶

The spinner by default displays a dropdown, but it can be changed to show a dialog using the android:spinnerMode="dialog".

Populate Spinner with code¶

To populate the spinner in code, you will need to create a custom array adapter, then bind the array adapter to the spinner.

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var choices = new string[] { "Beach", "BBQ", "Family Dinner", "Party"};
var spinner = FindViewById<Spinner>(Resource.Id.sort_by_spinner);
var adapter = new ArrayAdapter<string>(this,Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleSpinnerDropDownItem, choices);
adapter.SetDropDownViewResource(Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleSpinnerDropDownItem);
spinner.Adapter = adapter;

spinner.ItemSelected += (sender, e) => { 
    Console.WriteLine(spinner.GetItemAtPosition(e.Position));
};

or create it using an existing xml file with a string array

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//Find the spinner from the layout
var spinner = FindViewById<Spinner>(Resource.Id.spinner);
//Create an ArrayAdapter with the xml resource file and dropdown layout
var arrayAdapter = ArrayAdapter.CreateFromResource(this, Resource.Array.places, Android.Resource.Layout.SimpleSpinnerDropDownItem);
//Bind the adapter to the spinner
spinner.Adapter = arrayAdapter;

Responding to Events¶

The spinner have an ItemSelected event. Use this to find out which of the options have been selected.

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//Find the spinner 
var spinner = FindViewById<Spinner>(Resource.Id.sort_by_spinner);
//Attach the ItemSelected event
spinner.ItemSelected += (sender, e) => { 
    Console.WriteLine(spinner.GetItemAtPosition(e.Position));
};

CheckBox¶

Checkboxes allow the user to select one or more options from a set. Typically, you should present each checkbox option in a vertical list.

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<CheckBox
    android:id="@+id/notify_me_checkbox"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/notify_me"
    android:textAppearance="?android:textAppearanceMedium" />

Responding to Events¶

The checkbox have a Click event that fires when the the checkbox state changes.

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//Find the checkbox in the layout 
CheckBox checkbox = FindViewById<CheckBox>(Resource.Id.checkbox);

//Attach the click event
checkbox.Click += (o, e) => {
    if (checkbox.Checked)
        Toast.MakeText (this, "Selected", ToastLength.Short).Show ();
    else
        Toast.MakeText (this, "Not selected", ToastLength.Short).Show ();
};

The state of the checkbox can also be changed using the Toggle method and the Checked property.

Switch¶

On/off switch that can you drag to the right or left or just tap to toggle. SwitchCompat is a version of the Switch widget which runs on devices back to API 7

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<Switch
    android:id="@+id/backup_photos_switch"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/auto_backup_photos"
    android:textAppearance="?android:textAppearanceSmall" />

For backwards compatibility use SwitchCompat. On older devices, the control is called a Togglebutton.

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<android.support.v7.widget.SwitchCompat
    android:checked="true"
    android:id="@+id/backup_photos_switch"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Backup photos automatically to the cloud when on wifi"
    android:textAppearance="?android:textAppearanceSmall" />

Responding to events¶

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var backupPhotosSwitch = FindViewById<Switch>(Resource.Id.backup_photos_switch);
backupPhotosSwitch.CheckedChange +=  (object sender, CompoundButton.CheckedChangeEventArgs e) => { 
    Console.WriteLine($"Switch is {e.IsChecked}");
};

SeekBar¶

Displays progress and allows you to drag the handle anywhere in the bar e.g for music or video.

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<SeekBar
    android:id="@+id/seek_bar"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:max="100"
    android:progress="20" />

SeekBar Events¶

You handle the Progress event to get notified when the progress of the SeekBar changes.

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var seekBar = FindViewById<SeekBar>(Resource.Id.seek_bar);
seekBar.ProgressChanged += (object sender, SeekBar.ProgressChangedEventArgs e) => { 
    Console.WriteLine($"Progress is now {e.Progress}");
};

RatingBar¶

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<RatingBar
    android:id="@+id/rating_bar"
    style="?android:attr/ratingBarStyleSmall"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:numStars="5"
    android:rating="2.5"
    android:stepSize="0.5" />

RatingBar Events¶

You can use the RatingBarChange event to subscribe to changes in the RatingBar

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var ratingBar = FindViewById<RatingBar>(Resource.Id.rating_bar);
ratingBar.RatingBarChange += (object sender, RatingBar.RatingBarChangeEventArgs e) => { 
    Console.WriteLine($"Rating is {e.Rating}");
};

ProgressBar¶

Loading spinner, used to show that something is running.

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<ProgressBar
    android:id="@+id/loading_spinner"
    style="?android:progressBarStyle"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

Can also change the style to use a horizontal progressbar, use the style style="?android:progressBarStyleHorizontal"

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<ProgressBar
    android:id="@+id/progress_bar"
    style="?android:progressBarStyleHorizontal"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:indeterminate="false"
    android:max="100"
    android:progress="40"/>

SearchView¶

A search view that you type a query into.

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    <SearchView
        android:id="@+id/search_viewer"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:iconifiedByDefault="true"
        android:queryHint="Search photos" />

TextView¶

Displays text to the user and optionally allows them to edit it. 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.

Typeface¶

As stated in the overview, there are three different default typefaces which are known as the Droid family of fonts: sans, monospace and serif. You can specify any one of them as the value for the android:typeface attribute in the XML:

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="This is a 'sans' demo!"
    android:typeface="sans"
/>

Here's how they look:

In addition to the above, there is another attribute value named "normal" which defaults to the sans typeface.

Text Style¶

The android:textStyle attribute can be used to put emphasis on the text. The possible values are: normal, bold, italic. You can also specify bold|italic.

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="This is bold!"
    android:textStyle="bold"
/>

A sampling of styles can be seen below:

Text Size¶

android:textSize specifies the font size. Its value must consist of two parts: a floating-point number followed by a unit. It is generally a good practice to use the sp unit so the size can scale depending on user settings.

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="14sp is the 'normal' size."
    android:textSize="14sp"
/>

A sampling of styles can be seen below:

Too many type sizes and styles at once can wreck any layout. The basic set of styles are based on a typographic scale of 12, 14, 16, 20, and 34. Refer to this typography styles guide for more details.

Text Truncation¶

There are a few ways to truncate text within a TextView. First, to restrict the total number of lines of text we can use android:maxLines and android:minLines:

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:minLines="1"
    android:maxLines="2"
/>

In addition, we can use android:ellipsize to begin truncating text

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<TextView
    ...
    android:ellipsize="end"
    android:singleLine="true"
/>

Following values are available for ellipsize: start for ...bccc, end for aaab..., middle for aa...cc, and marquee for aaabbbccc sliding from left to right. Example:

Text Color¶

The android:textColor and android:textColorLink attribute values are hexadecimal RGB values with an optional alpha channel, similar to what's found in CSS:

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="A light blue color."
    android:textColor="#00ccff"
    android:textColorLink="#8DE67F"
/>

The android:textColorLink attribute controls the highlighting for [[hyperlinks embedded within the TextView|Working-with-the-TextView#inserting-html-formatting]]. This results in:

Text Shadow¶

You can use three different attributes to customize the appearance of your text shadow:

• android:shadowColor - Shadow color in the same format as textColor.
• android:shadowRadius - Radius of the shadow specified as a floating point number.
• android:shadowDx - The shadow's horizontal offset specified as a floating point number.
• android:shadowDy - The shadow's vertical offset specified as a floating point number.

The floating point numbers don't have a specific unit - they are merely arbitrary factors.

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="A light blue shadow."
    android:shadowColor="#00ccff"
    android:shadowRadius="2"
    android:shadowDx="1"
    android:shadowDy="1"
/>

This results in:

Various Text Properties¶

There are many other text properties including android:lineSpacingMultiplier, android:letterSpacing, android:textAllCaps, android:includeFontPadding and many others:

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<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:lineSpacingMultiplier="1.1"
    android:textAllCaps="true"
/>

android:includeFontPadding removes the extra padding around large fonts. android:lineSpacingMultiplier governs the spacing between lines with a default of "1".

Inserting HTML Formatting¶

TextView natively supports HTML by translating HTML tags to spannable sections within the view. To apply basic HTML formatting to text, add text to the TextView with:

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TextView view = (TextView)FindViewById(Resource.Id.sampleText);
//Htmlformatted text
String formattedText = "This <i>is</i> a <b>test</b> of <a href='http://foo.com'>html</a>";
//Check which build we running on and use the appropriate method
if (Build.VERSION.SdkInt >= BuildVersionCodes.N)
{
    view.Text = (Html.FromHtml(formattedText, FromHtmlOptions.ModeLegacy));
}
else { 
    view.Text = (Html.FromHtml(formattedText));
}

This results in:

Note that all tags are not supported. See this article for a more detailed look at supported tags and usages

Setting Font Colors¶

For setting font colors, we can use the <font> tag as shown:

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Html.FromHtml("Nice! <font color='#c5c5c5'>This text has a color</font>. This doesn't"); 

And you should be all set.

Storing Long HTML Strings¶

If you want to store your HTML text within res/values/strings.xml, you have to use CDATA to escape such as:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<string name="htmlFormattedText">
    <![CDATA[
        Please <a href="http://highlight.com">let us know</a> if you have <b>feedback on this</b> or if 
        you would like to log in with <i>another identity service</i>. Thanks!   
    ]]>
</string>

and access the content with getString(R.string.htmlFormattedText) to load this within the TextView.

For more advanced cases, you can also check out the html-textview library which adds support for almost any HTML tag within this third-party TextView.

Autolinking URLs¶

TextView has native support for automatically locating URLs within the their text content and making them clickable links which can be opened in the browser. To do this, enable the android:autolink property:

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<TextView
     android:id="@+id/custom_font"
     android:layout_width="match_parent"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:autoLink="all"
     android:linksClickable="true"
/>

This results in:

Displaying Images within a TextView¶

A TextView is actually surprisingly powerful and actually supports having images displayed as a part of it's content area. Any images stored in the "drawable" folders can actually be embedded within a TextView at several key locations in relation to the text using the android:drawableRight and the android:drawablePadding property. For example:

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<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"     
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@string/my_contacts"
    android:drawableRight="@drawable/ic_action_add_group"
    android:drawablePadding="8dp"
/>

Which results in:

In Android, many views inherit from TextView such as Buttons, EditTexts, RadioButtons which means that all of these views support the same functionality. For example, we can also do:

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<EditText
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="@string/user_name"
    android:drawableLeft="@drawable/ic_action_person"
    android:drawablePadding="8dp"
/>

Which results in:

The relevant attributes here are drawableLeft, drawableRight, drawableTop and drawableBottom along with drawablePadding. Check out this TextView article for a more detailed look at how to use this functionality.

Note that if you want to be able to better control the size or scale of the drawables, check out this handy TextView extension or this bitmap drawable approach. You can also make calls to setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds on the TextView.

Using Custom Fonts¶

We can actually use any custom font that we'd like within our applications. Check out fontsquirrel for an easy source of free fonts. For example, we can download Chantelli Antiqua as an example.

Fonts are stored in the "assets" folder. In Android Studio, File > New > folder > Assets Folder. Now download any font and place the TTF file in the assets/fonts directory:

We're going to use a basic layout file with a TextView, marked with an id of "custom_font" so we can access it in our code.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              android:orientation="vertical"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
            android:id="@+id/custom_font"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="This is the Chantelli Antiqua font."
    />
</LinearLayout>

To set the custom font manually, open your activity file and insert this into the onCreate() method:

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// Get access to our TextView
TextView txt = (TextView) FindViewById(R.id.custom_font);
// Create the TypeFace from the TTF asset
Typeface typeface = Typeface.CreateFromAsset(Assets, "fonts/Chantelli_Antiqua.ttf");
//Assign the typeface
view.SetTypeface(typeface, TypefaceStyle.Normal);

Alternatively, you can use the third-party calligraphy library:

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<TextView fontPath="fonts/Chantelli_Antiqua.ttf"/>

Either method will will result in:

You'll also want to keep an eye on the total size of your custom fonts, as this can grow quite large if you're using a lot of different typefaces.

Using Spans to Style Sections of Text¶

Spans come in really handy when we want to apply styles to portions of text within the same TextView. We can change the text color, change the typeface, add an underline, etc, and apply these to only certain portions of the text. The full list of spans shows all the available options.

As an example, let's say we have a single TextView where we want the first word to show up in red and the second word to have a strikethrough:

We can accomplish this with spans using the code below:

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TextView textView = (TextView)FindViewById(Resource.Id.textView);
var firstWord = "Hello";
var secondWord = "World";

var redForegroundColorSpan = new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.Red);

// Use a SpannableStringBuilder so that both the text and the spans are mutable
SpannableStringBuilder ssb = new SpannableStringBuilder(firstWord);

// Apply the color span
ssb.SetSpan(
        redForegroundColorSpan,             // the span to add
        0,                                  // the start of the span (inclusive)
        ssb.Length(),                       // the end of the span (exclusive)
        SpanTypes.ExclusiveExclusive);      // behavior when text is later inserted into the SpannableStringBuilder
                                            // SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE means to not extend the span when additional
                                            // text is added in later

// Add a blank space
ssb.Append(" ");

// Create a span that will strikethrough the text
StrikethroughSpan strikethroughSpan = new StrikethroughSpan();

// Add the secondWord and apply the strikethrough span to only the second word
ssb.Append(secondWord);
ssb.SetSpan(
        strikethroughSpan,
    ssb.Length() - secondWord.Length,
        ssb.Length(),
    SpanTypes.ExclusiveExclusive);

// Set the TextView text and denote that it is Editable
// since it's a SpannableStringBuilder
textView.SetText(ssb, TextView.BufferType.Editable);

Note: There are 3 different classes that can be used to represent text that has markup attached. SpannableStringBuilder (used above) is the one to use when dealing with mutable spans and mutable text. SpannableString is for mutable spans, but immutable text. And SpannedString is for immutable spans and immutable text.

References¶

• http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/controls/text.html
• http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/android-user-interface-design-edittext-controls--mobile-7183
• http://www.codeofaninja.com/2012/01/android-edittext-example.html
• http://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/android_edittext_control.htm
• http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/EditText.html
• http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2015/10/android-support-library-231.html?linkId=17977963