android studio java how to horizontally line up elements

#Android studio java how to horizontally line up elements android
#Android studio java how to horizontally line up elements code
#Android studio java how to horizontally line up elements series

#Android studio java how to horizontally line up elements android

Like most elements that can be drawn on the Android Canvas, paths have a dedicated drawPath method. If this sounds vague at the moment, let’s start by taking a closer look at how Paths are drawn. A Path is formed by the connection of lines, curves e.t.c to create a shape. You need a shape, one the Android system does not provide out-of-the-box support for, you should probably go with a Path. They don’t have to be regular shapes all the time (circles, rectangles e.t.c), some of the shapes don’t exactly have a certain definition, and that’s where Paths come in. At first, it might seem too much and daunting, but usually, taking a closer look at the View makes you realize that it’s actually made up of a bunch of shapes, lines and angles. Now, try to imagine the most complex view you’ve ever come across. What are Paths?įirst, take a deep breath. That would be all on Lines, and while I’ve not used them extensively in replicating daunting Views, they could come in handy depending on your use case and requirements. Two crossed lines drawn on the Android Canvas.

#Android studio java how to horizontally line up elements series

(If any of this is strange, or still hasn’t sat well with you at this point, you might want to read the first article in this series for more clarity, hang in there!). We start by creating the LinesView class by extending the View class, passing in the necessary initialisation parameters and using the annotation to provide constructor overloads in the transpiled Java version. The x and y values for the start point, the x and y values for the stop point, and the paint object used to draw the line itself. The signature of the drawLine method expects five arguments. drawLine(float startX, float startY, float stopX, float stopY, Paint paint) With this, let’s proceed checking out the anatomy of the drawLine method of the Canvas class. The first point p1 is the point where values x1 and y1 meet, the same can be said for point p2 with its corresponding x and y values. Representation of Lines on the Android CanvasĪs you can see from the diagram above, a single point is the point of intersection (where two axes meet) of the x and y axes. To draw a line on the android canvas, we need to position two points on the canvas, a start and stop point. That’s right because we would be needing exactly that in this exercise. You might have heard of a line commonly being described as the shortest distance between any two points. Now that we’ve reminded ourselves of that, let’s try to understand how a line works. In previous articles, we discussed the conditions for drawing shapes on-screen and the most important element in that process would be the Canvas class. Since we’re all on the same page now, let’s get started! Drawing a Line

#Android studio java how to horizontally line up elements code

To begin with, the code for all articles in this series can be found here, code for this one specifically can be found here.

In this article, we would be learning how to work with lines and paths. If any or all of these sound alien to you, you might want to revisit these articles before diving into this. We also learnt how to translate canvas origins to reduce point-by-point calculations and making our custom view react to changes. In the previous articles, we got introduced to custom views, and set up a demo project in that regard. Welcome to this part in the series on Custom Views on Android. “Match parent” should not be used inside ConstraintLayout at all.Working with Lines and Paths - Custom Views on Android - Part 3 This provides similar functionality with correct handling of margins.

Use match_constraint (0 dp) instead and attach constraints to the sides of the parent view if you wish. It all boils down to your preference really, as everyone will have different styles of creating constraints in their layouts, including crafting all of them manually.

See which views resized and changed position incorrectly, fix those constraints then repeat with another resolution. The other one is to start with positioning your views on the layout editor canvas without creating constraints, use infer and then change the preview device resolution. Then, click infer for the few views that are still missing constraints. The first approach is to create as many constraints by hand, so that your layout mostly works and is functional. That’s why I propose two approaches to using constraint inference: It can work on a layout with no constraints whatsoever, but since it’s a difficult problem to create a whole layout correctly, you might get mixed results. When you invoke the “Infer constraints” command in the toolbar, the layout editor tries to figure out any missing constraints on the views in your ConstraintLayout and adds them automagically. Using a Space as a negative margin When to use Inference