How to automatically resize an EditText widget (with some attributes) in a TableLayout

Question

Hi everyone,

I have a layout issue. What I do is this:

1. create TableLayout in xml with zero children:
   <TableLayout android:id="@+id/t_layout_contents" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_below="@id/l_layout_tags" android:stretchColumns="1" android:paddingLeft="5dip" android:paddingRight="5dip" />
2. Insert first row programmatically in onCreate():
   TableLayout tLayoutContents = (TableLayout)findViewById(R.id.t_layout_contents);
NoteElement nr_1 = new NoteElement(this);
tLayoutContents.addView(nr_1);

Class "NoteElement" extends TableRow. The 1st row just consists of a blank ImageView as a placeholder and an EditText to enter text. NoteElement's constructor looks like this:

public NoteElement(Context c) {  
    super(c);  
    this.context = c;  
    defaultText = c.getResources().getString(R.string.create_note_help_text);  

    imageView = new ImageView(context);
    imageView.setImageResource(android.R.color.transparent);

    LayoutParams params = new LayoutParams(0);
    imageView.setLayoutParams(params);

    addView(imageView);
    addView(addTextField());
}

Method addTextField() specifies the attributes for the EditText widget:

private EditText addTextField() {  
    editText = new EditText(context);  
    editText.setImeOptions(EditorInfo.IME_ACTION_DONE);  
    editText.setMinLines(4);  
    editText.setRawInputType(InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_MULTI_LINE);
    editText.setHint(R.string.create_note_et_blank_text);
    editText.setAutoLinkMask(Linkify.ALL);
    editText.setPadding(5, 0, 0, 0);
    editText.setGravity(Gravity.TOP);
    editText.setVerticalScrollBarEnabled(true);

    LayoutParams params = new LayoutParams(1);
    editText.setLayoutParams(params);

    return editText;
}

So far, so good. But my problem occurs as soon as the available space for the chars is depleted. The EditText does not resize itself but switches to a single line EditText. I am desperatly looking for a way in which the EditText resizes itself in its height dynamically, being dependant on the inserted text length.

Does anyone have a hint on this?
Thanks & regards,
steff

Answer 1

Okay, I got it. This seems to be an issue of TableLayout in general. I reimplemented the Layout with a simple LinearLayout. I severs the purpose equally and the EditText is displayed properly. In fact I don't see a reason to use a TableLayout and right now I can't think of a situation in which one would actually need it, i.e. a LinearLayout would be insufficient.
So I recommend using other Layouts like LinearLayout or RelativeLayout whenever possible. But note that these are just my two cents...

Answer 2

I just took another look at TableLayout (for an entirely different purpose) and stumbled upon setColumnShrinkable(int columnIndex, boolean isShrinkable) which should have helped me out on my former issue. See the documentation for details:
http://developer.android.com/intl/fr/reference/android/widget/TableLayout.html#setColumnShrinkable%28int,%20boolean%29
Please note that I haven't tested this.