Question

I have written activities which used layouts which are entirely defined by xml, e.g:

setContentView(R.layout.my_layout_defined_by_xml);

I have also written activities which used layouts which are created entirely programatically, e.g.:

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    game_frame_layout = new FrameLayout(getApplicationContext());

    game_frame_layout.addView(some_view_I_made);

    setContentView(game_frame_layout);

But what I have never done, and don’t know how to do, is combine the two (can this even be done?) For example, say I want to have the whole screen filled with buttons and views defined in xml, but wish to programmatically add an extra button somewhere. Or conversely I may wish to have a programatically created layout include a sub-layout defined by xml.

I suspect it may actually be quite trivial, but one problem is that I don’t know how to translate a layoutResID, (like R.id.my_layout_defined_by_xml) into a layout.

Answer 1

you can create a View object from an xml file like that:

LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.your_layout_file_name, null);

and the other way around:
you can create a class that extends View, for example MyTextView, and when you want to include it in your xml files you do it like that:

<com.example.mypackage.MyTextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:clickable="false" />