Android Dev: Placing layouts

Question

I'm new to android development... while making my application layout i want a button to remain at the very bottom of the screen while a scroll view is placed above it. I am unable to do this i was using the size of the scroll view as 430dp so that it works but when i change the orientation of the screen this does not work as 400dp is bigger than the screen. how do i make it so that the button stays at the bottom irresepective of the screen orientation ? :/

Answer 1

You could go with this

android:gravity="bottom"

This should always push your element to the bottom of its container.

But it'd more helpful if you'd post up your layout XML.

Answer 2

Set the ScrollView's layout_height to fill_parrent and layout_weight to 1 and the Button's height to wrap_content.

Answer 3

Here's a real world example of precisely what you're asking. In this layout, I have a header at the top, a list view taking all the space below it and a button to clear (cancelled, failed, finished) elements of the list view, then right at the bottom I have a custom control showing a toolbar.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><LinearLayout android:id="@+id/layout" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">

<LinearLayout android:id="@+id/browsePeerHeader"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="70sp"
    android:layout_marginBottom="2sp"
    android:layout_gravity="top"
    android:background="@drawable/background_barbed_wire"
    >


    <ImageButton
        android:id="@+id/frostwire_sphere"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/icon"
        android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
        android:layout_margin="3sp" 
        android:background="#00000000"/>

    <TextView android:id="@+id/browsePeerTitle" android:textSize="30sp"
        android:text="Downloads"
        android:textColor="#ffffffff" android:textStyle="bold" 
        android:shadowColor="#ff000000"
        android:shadowDx="1.0"
        android:shadowDy="1.0"
        android:shadowRadius="4.0"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingTop="10sp"
        android:gravity="left|center_vertical"/>
</LinearLayout>


<ListView android:id="@+id/ListViewTransfers"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginTop="2sp" 
            android:layout_marginBottom="2sp"
    android:layout_weight="1"></ListView>

<Button android:id="@+id/ButtonClearFinished" margin="2sp"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
 />

     <com.frostwire.android.views.FrostWireStatusBar
    android:id="@+id/FrostWireStatusBar" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="bottom" /></LinearLayout>

Here's a screenshot

The trick is basically to have the list view use all the space left in the layout that contains it, you don't even have to tell it to fill_parent, just with android:layout_weight="1 it should work.