Question

I’m curious if there are any good Android Drawing Tutorials for drawing sprites. Specifically, I want to incorporate graphics and Android Views/Widgets into a single display. For example, I want to show a group of TextView views placed in different places on the screen (not just a simple linear layout) and then use Java to draw lines between the views as graphical “connectors.” I know I can just draw a .png and then try to place the TextViews relative to the .png but I would rather have java draw the connecting line graphics. Not talking about anything complicated, just paths mostly.

I come from a Flex background and there if I want to draw anything I can just attach to the DisplayObject graphics object and draw to my heart’s content. How does this work in Android? I’ve already read all the tutorials at android.com, but for some reason, they seem to want to make the documentation as confusing as possible.

Answer 1

I think you are looking for Canvas. It has drawPath() methods that should be able to do what you need.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Canvas.html

Canvas Tutorial part 1

Canvas Tutorial part 2

Edit: Nope only things that extend ViewGroup can hold other views. However there is nothing stopping you from putting other kinds of Views ontop, or below the canvas. Which would make it appear to the user as though the view is “inside” the canvas