Question

I’m trying to make an Android layout: 3 components inside a vertical LinearLayout. The center component is a ScrollView that contains a TextView. When the TextView contains a significant amount of text (more than can fit on the screen), the ScrollView grows all the way to the bottom of the screen, shows scrollbars, and pushes the last component, a LinearLayout with a Button inside, off the screen.

If the text inside the TextView inside the ScrollView is short enough, the button at the bottom of the screen is positioned perfectly.

The layout I’m trying to achieve is:

The XML for the layout I’ve written is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
            android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
            android:layout_marginRight="10dip"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dip"
            android:layout_marginBottom="10dip"
            android:text="Title />

    <ScrollView
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <TextView android:id="@+id/text"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:autoLink="web"
                android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
                android:background="#444444"
                android:padding="10dip" />

    </ScrollView>

    <LinearLayout
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1">

        <LinearLayout
                android:orientation="horizontal"
                android:layout_width="0dip"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="1"/>

        <Button android:id="@+id/login_button"
                android:layout_width="0dip"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_gravity="bottom"
                android:layout_weight="1"
                android:text="@string/next_button"/>

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

The scrollview is the second view object and is set to wrap_content, which is more than the screen.

I recommend a RelativeLayout. Top textview first with android:alignParentTop="true", the bottom LinearLayout next with android:alignParentBottom="true" and the scrollview listed last in the xml with the value android:alignBelow="@id/whatYouCallTheHeader.

This will align the bottom bar at the bottom of the screen, and the header at the top, no matter the size. Then the scrollview will have its own place, after the header and footer have been placed.