Question

I am new to Android and am reading Wrox’s professional android 4 app dev book. In chapter 4 of the book it explains how to modify the existing text view. The problem i am facing is that the listview in my app hides the edit text box. Its hidden (can be seen in the background) but still works that is more stuff can be added to the list through it. Below is the code for my main activity xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/myEditText"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:contentDescription="@string/addItemContentDescription"
    android:hint="@string/addItemHint"
    />
<ListView
    android:id="@+id/myListView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</RelativeLayout>

and my todolist_item xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<com.example.wroxexample.ToDoListItemView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
android:padding="10dp"
android:scrollbars="vertical"
android:textColor="@color/notepad_text"
android:fadingEdge="vertical"
/>

Answer 1

The first option you have is to use a LinearLayout instead of a RelativeLayout.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/myEditText"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:contentDescription="@string/addItemContentDescription"
    android:hint="@string/addItemHint"
    />
<ListView
    android:id="@+id/myListView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</LinearLayout>

A RelativeLayout will allow you to position the elements relatively to the others.

On the other hand a LinearLayout will position the elements one below the other in the order they appear in the xml file.

The second option you have is to keep your RelativeLayout and just add the following tag to your ListView:

android:layout_below="@id/myEditText"

This will position the ListView below the EditText.