Is it possible to use a ViewGroup for Empty ListView?

Question

I have a ListActivity whose layout looks like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
  <ListView android:id="@android:id/list" android:cacheColorHint="@color/transparent" style="@style/FullWidth.NoteList" />
  <LinearLayout android:id="@android:id/empty" style="@style/FillParent">
    <ImageView style="@style/NoNotesImage" />
    <TextView android:text="@string/no_notes" style="@style/Shadowed.NoNotesText" />
    <Button android:id="@+id/note_add" android:text="@string/note_add" style="@style/Shadowed.Button.Blue"/>
  </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

The styles relevant here.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<style name="Shadowed">
  <item name="android:shadowDx">1.1</item>
  <item name="android:shadowDy">1.1</item>
  <item name="android:shadowRadius">1.1</item>
</style>
<style name="NoNotesImage">
  <item name="android:layout_width">fill_parent</item>
  <item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
  <item name="android:gravity">center</item>
  <item name="android:layout_marginTop">80.5dip</item>
  <item name="android:layout_marginLeft">20dip</item>
  <item name="android:src">@drawable/bg_no_notes</item>
</style>
<style name="Shadowed.NoNotesText">
  <item name="android:layout_width">fill_parent</item>
  <item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
  <item name="android:gravity">center</item>
  <item name="android:textSize">10sp</item>
  <item name="android:textColor">@color/no_notes_text</item>
  <item name="android:shadowColor">@color/no_notes_shadow</item>
</style>
<style name="FillParent">
  <item name="android:layout_width">fill_parent</item>
  <item name="android:layout_height">fill_parent</item>
</style>

However, my empty list view consist only of the ImageView listed first inside the nested LinearLayout.

This seems like a reasonable thing to do but I don't completely understand Android's layout rules yet.

Answer 1

Well, I'm going to take a shot in the dark. The LinearLayout should work but I'm guessing that you're accidentally pushing Views off the screen. I bet that LinearLayout's android:orientation is accidentally being set to "horizontal" and the ImageView's layout_width is "fill_parent"; doing that will block the TextView and the Button. You probably just need to change the LinearLayout's android:orientation to "vertical" and it will work as expected.