New to Android: Dynamically changing views

Question

I'm trying to learn how to build apps for Android.

The first simple app, which will become a component of a bigger app I hope to build, is to have a button on the screen where, when tapped, it adds something new to the view.

For instance:

Imagine a layout that only has a button:

[Create!]

When that button is pressed, the view gets a new row added to it:

[Create!]
A Something!

Upon subsequent presses, more rows are added

[Create!]
A Something!
A Something!

And so on.

I've made a LinearLayout and placed the button in it, and have attached a click listener to it. That all works great. What I can't figure out is how to get a handle on the LinearLayout in the onClick function with which I'll addView() the new TextView that says "A Something!"

Am I on the right track? What basic thing am I missing? Thanks!

Answer 1

This is from memory, so it may not be exactly right.

In your layout, you'll want to give the LinearLayout an id.

< LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/namehere"
... >

Then in your code you'll use findViewById to get a reference to it.

LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.namehere);

ll.addView(...);

Answer 2

I think you are approaching this the wrong way. You should look into ListView and SimpleArrayAdapter. This will put the elements into a list format that users will be more familiar with. Google has some good examples that use this (like their Notepad example). Especially if you are new to Android, you should look at their demos to get you through the basics. you can find them here