How can I get a ListView and TextView to scroll as one unit when content is taller than the screen height?

Question

Hi,

I have a main menu screen with a simple ListView that contains "links" to further screens in my app (Browse, Bookmarks, Settings, About, etc.). Underneath the ListView there is a TextView (more accurately, a TextSwitcher that rotates TextViews) that changes every 10 seconds to display a new "tip".

In portrait mode, this works fine. There are my five list items in the ListView , and my tip label underneath. However, when I switch to landscape mode, the ListView is taller than the screen. The ListView scrolls normally, but I cannot scroll past the end of the ListView to see the TextView underneath.

I have tried every possible combination of Layouts, wrappers, ScrollViews, and layout_height parameters and I simply cannot get it to behave.

Here is the simplest code I can use to get the result pictured above:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/ListLayout"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        <ListView android:id="@id/android:list" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="1">
        </ListView>
    </LinearLayout>
    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/TipLayout"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@+id/ListLayout">
        <TextSwitcher android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/TipSwitcher">
            <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:textSize="7pt"
                android:id="@+id/Tip1TextView" android:text="Tip: Hello, Android!"></TextView>
            <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tip: This is the second TextView in the TipSwitcher!"
                android:id="@+id/Tip2TextView" android:textSize="7pt"></TextView>
        </TextSwitcher>
    </LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

Like I've said, I've already tried so many different combinations that I can't list them, and for the most part I was randomly inserting XML in an attempt to get something to work the way I wanted. So I'd greatly appreciate suggestions as to how I would go about doing this the right way.

Thanks.

EDIT: Something I forgot to mention, this may or may not be relevant. My MainMenuActivity is extending ListActivity. According to the docs, "ListActivity has a default layout that consists of a single, full-screen list in the center of the screen." But, "If you desire, you can customize the screen layout by setting your own view layout with setContentView() in onCreate()." So I don't think the ListActivity is interfering.

Answer 1

Put the TextSwitcher in the ListView itself. You can use addFooterView() for this.