Question

I’m creating a layout and have a header aligned on top, a footer aligned on bottom and want a View to take all the rest of the available space in the middle.

How do I do that without explicit passing the height attributes to each view?

My actual XML is:

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

     <ImageView 
         android:id="@+id/header" 
         android:layout_width="match_parent"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
         android:src="@drawable/library_header"
         android:scaleType="fitXY" />

     <ViewFlipper 
         android:id="@+id/content"
         android:layout_height="0dip" 
         android:layout_width="match_parent"
         android:layout_weight="1.0" />

     <LinearLayout 
         android:layout_width="match_parent"
         android:layout_height="44px" 
         android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
         android:background="@drawable/library_footer">

         <Button 
             android:id="@+id/l_coverflow" 
             android:layout_width="44px"
             android:layout_height="34px" 
             android:background="@drawable/library_coverflow_deselected"
             android:layout_gravity="center" android:layout_marginLeft="12px" />

         <Button 
              android:id="@+id/l_grid" 
              android:layout_width="36px"
              android:layout_height="32px" 
              android:background="@drawable/library_grid_deselected"
              android:layout_marginLeft="12px" 
              android:layout_gravity="center"
              android:paddingLeft="10px" />

         <Button 
              android:id="@+id/l_list"
              android:layout_width="40px"
              android:layout_height="32px" 
              android:background="@drawable/library_list_deselected"
              android:layout_marginLeft="12px" 
              android:layout_gravity="center" />
     </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

It’s very easy (I omitted the android: namespace prefix for brevity):

<LinearLayout
  orientation="vertical"
  layout_width="fill_parent"
  layout_height="fill_parent">

  <!-- Header goes here with height=wrap_content -->

  <MiddleView
    layout_width="fill_parent"
    layout_height="0dip"
    layout_weight="1.0" />

  <!-- Footer goes here with height=wrap_content -->

</LinearLayout>