Question

There are two numbers constantly displayed in my UI. I need the user to be able to specify those numbers. In a desktop app I simply use 2 spinbuttons, and can beat it (I guess). However, there are problems with this in Android (I am targeting Android 3-based tablets).

First of all, I’ve tried NumberPicker widget, but it simply does not show itself properly (I’ve asked a question about it, but no response so far).
Then I’ve tried some 3rd-party numberpicker implementations one cand find on the Web, but for various reason didn’t like neither of them. Some of them are too large to fit the side panel I’m squeezing controls into, some are just ugly (and too small, probably), and all of them automatically grab input focus causing the keyboard to show every time I open this side panel.
There is another option – only show the uneditable label with a number on the panel, and show popup window with some numberpickers in it. Apart from me not knowing how to implement such a popup (just learning), how do I decorate the label so that the user understands he can tap it to edit?

Perhaps, there are better solutions for this problem? I took a look at some apps from Google Market, and they all seem to either use huge NumberPickers at the center of the screen (and I need as much of the screen as possible clear), or a popup with the same huge Numberpickers I don’t particularly like.

Can you suggest anything else? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

There are two different issues in your question:
For the number picker for eaxmple in my case I have created a simple tool. You can just put a button with the text “-” then a textview and then a button with “+”. You put it in a linear layout and t can be vertical or horizontal. If you want it you can make it very small. For example here is what I have wrote but you can try playing with the options to see which is better for you.

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

<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical" android:id="@+id/linearLayout1"   
 android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="1" 
 android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <Button android:id="@+id/button22" android:layout_gravity="center" 
 android:layout_weight="1" android:text="+" android:gravity="center"      
 android:layout_width="30dip" android:layout_height="30dip"></Button>
    <Button android:id="@+id/button11" 
    android:layout_gravity="center" 
    android:layout_weight="1" android:text="-" 
    android:gravity="center" android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" android:layout_height="30dip" android:layout_width="30dip"></Button>
</LinearLayout>
    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/linearLayout2" 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_weight="1" android:orientation="vertical">
        <Button android:layout_weight="1" 
        android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_width="30dip"
        android:text="0" android:id="@+id/quantidad"></Button>
    </LinearLayout>

then you can add onClick listeners on the buttons and setup to increase or decrase the text displayed in the text view.

As for the keyboard well if you use that example you not need it but if you use an edittext then you can setup an option for the keyboard to be hidden in the manifest: you can see the option here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html