Question

I have a layout that uses an EditText to let users search a database and populate a ListView. The EditText is about 2/3 of the way from the top of the screen (positioned over an ImageView, and followed by some intro text.)

The problem is that the soft keyboard hides the EditText, so the user can’t see what he’s typing. (I disabled the auto-suggest.)

I’ve tried LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, paddings, and different alignments/centerings, but I still can’t get it to work right. The EditText is either hidden, gets pushed off the top of the screen, or get “squished” and distorted.

Suggestions???

One possible workaround is to move the EditText to the top of the screen. However, this deviates from the graphic design that I was given.

Another possible workaround is for me to make the soft keyboard open in full screen (not sure how, though). This will still hide the EditText, but then I can re-enable the auto-suggestion so the user can see what he’s typing… sort of… because he can only see the suggestions for what he’s typing.

Here’s my latest attempt. See “introFrame”.

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

 <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/titleContainer"
  android:orientation="horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content">
  <TextView android:text="@string/title_string"
   android:textSize="15sp" android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
   android:textStyle="bold" android:paddingLeft="5dp"
   android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_width="wrap_content" />
 </LinearLayout>

 <FrameLayout 
 android:id="@+id/introFrame"
 android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
 android:gravity="center_horizontal" >
 <ImageView 
  android:src="@drawable/main_search_image"
  android:scaleType="center"
  android:layout_gravity="center"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"/>
 <LinearLayout
  android:orientation="vertical"
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:layout_gravity="center"
  android:paddingTop="140dp" >
  <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/introSearchContainer"
   android:orientation="horizontal" 
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:layout_gravity="center_vertical" >
   <LinearLayout 
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight="1" >
    <EditText android:id="@+id/intro_search_box" 
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:hint="     Enter keyword     " 
     android:imeOptions="actionGo"   
     android:inputType="textFilter" 
     android:maxLines="1" />
   </LinearLayout>
   <LinearLayout 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
    <Button android:id="@+id/intro_search_button" 
     android:background="@drawable/custom_button_go"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    </LinearLayout>
  </LinearLayout>
  <TextView
   android:text="@string/search_intro"
   android:textSize="15sp"
   android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent" /> 
 </LinearLayout>
 </FrameLayout>

 <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/listContainer"
  android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent">
  <ListView android:id="@+id/itemlist" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:cacheColorHint="#00000000" />
  <TextView android:text="No data found" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:gravity="center"
   android:textSize="16sp" android:textColor="#FFFFFF" android:id="@+id/android:empty" />
 </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

What you’re looking for is the Activity’s windowSoftInputMode attribute. You set this in your AndroidManifest.xml file, and give it a value such as:

• adjustResize: “The activity’s main window is always resized to make room for the soft keyboard on screen.”
• adjustPan: “The activity’s main window is not resized to make room for the soft keyboard. Rather, the contents of the window are automatically panned so that the current focus is never obscured by the keyboard and users can always see what they are typing. This is generally less desirable than resizing, because the user may need to close the soft keyboard to get at and interact with obscured parts of the window.”

adjustResize will probably work for you, as long as you wrap the layout in a ScrollView. It may have negative effects if you have a bitmap image in the background, as it will be resized as well, in which case you may want to use adjustPan instead.

<activity android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize" />

or

<activity android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan" />

More information is available at the above link.