Question

In my Android activity, I create a custom view that extends SurfaceView (using MonoDroid so slight variations in syntax):

class FriendsView : SurfaceView
{
    ...

    public FriendsView(Context context) : base(context)
    {

        ... create my custom view ...

    }


}

In my Activity class, I set the content view to the view:

protected override void OnCreate(Bundle bundle)
{

    base.OnCreate(bundle);

    ViewGroup.LayoutParams layoutParams = new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FillParent, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FillParent);

    FriendsView friendsView = new FriendsView(this);

    SetContentView(friendsView, layoutParams);

}

I want to add a button to the view, but cannot work out how to do this. Everything I have read starts from the point of view of the main.xml, but I don’t see how to use this to declare a button which is visible in my view. Equally, I cannot find a method in either Activity or View classes which lets me add a Button object programatically.

I feel sure I am missing something conceptually, but would welcome any help to get me going in the right direction.

Answer 1

If I understand correctly you see your friendsView just fine, but you want to add a button to it?
I don’t know what kind of View your FriendsView is, but assuming it is something you can add childs to (like a linearLayout or something), you should be able to do this (just from the top of my head)

 //assuming you have a friendsView object that is some sort of Layout.
 Button yourButton = new ImageButton(this);
 //do stuff like add text and listeners.

 friendsView.addView(yourButton);

If there is some other element in friendsView you want to add a child to, you can just find it using findViewById() (add ids to your elements if you want to find them like this)