RelativeLayout
The RelativeLayout lets you specify how child views are positioned relative to each other. Consider the following
main.xml
file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="@+id/RLayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
>
<TextView
android:id="@+id/lblComments"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Comments"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
/>
<EditText
android:id="@+id/txtComments"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="170px"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/lblComments"
android:layout_below="@+id/lblComments"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
/>
<Button
android:id="@+id/btnSave"
android:layout_width="125px"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Save"
android:layout_below="@+id/txtComments"
android:layout_alignRight="@+id/txtComments"
/>
<Button
android:id="@+id/btnCancel"
android:layout_width="124px"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Cancel"
android:layout_below="@+id/txtComments"
android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/txtComments"
/>
</RelativeLayout>
Notice that each view embedded within the
RelativeLayout
have attributes that allow them to align with another view. These attributes are:
layout_alignParentTop
layout_alignParentLeft
layout_alignLeft
layout_alignRight
layout_below
layout_centerHorizontal
The value for each of these attributes is the ID for the view that you are referencing. The above XML UI creates the screen shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Using RelativeLayout to layout views