Question

How do i position a button in xml. Im using Eclipse with android sdk, i just used margins to put the buttons in positions. But how can i do it through the postion function?

Answer 1

Placing a button on the screen using xml is going to very depending on what you use for your root view group.

There isn’t a position function like what you are probably thinking where you would set the X and Y position of the button and for good reason. Because of the hardware fragmentation of android devices it would be difficult to write portable UI if you were relying on hardcoded X and Y coords (regardless of portrait vs landscape).

As an example if i wanted to put a button in the bottom right of the screen and I had a relative layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
     android:orientation="vertical"
     android:layout_width="fill_parent"
     android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<Button  
     android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
     android:text="@string/hello"
     android:layout_alignParentBottom = "true"
     android:layout_alignParentRight = "true"/>
 </RelativeLayout>

This will put a button on the button right of the screen regardless of screen pixel density/resolution or even landscape VS portrait