Shake animation is "sliding underneath" other widgets android

Question

I am new to animations. I have a spin Animation on a button. The problem is when that button animation is executed the button intersects other buttons in the layout. So during animation the moving button cannot be seen since it is being covered up by other buttons. Any idea on how to make my animation stay on the top layer of the layout? I would like to figure out a solution that is API 8 compatible.

//create shake animation
    final Animation shakeIt = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.shake);
    findViewById(R.id.button_spin).startAnimation(shakeIt);


// use shake animation
    spinnerButton.startAnimation(shakeIt);

EDIT: (here is a lot more info)

So i have played with it over the past few hours and discovered some more things. Lecho intuition is correct, the z order is the driving factor in whether a widget goes "above" or "below" another one. The problem I am facing is could be because of two things:

1. The button that is at the front of view view (and i want to move it back) has text that is edited near the end of the activity. Does adding text forcing the widget to redraw change the Z order of that view???

2. The button text is changed in the onResume() and it seems that I'm not able to change the Z-order of the buttons in that method???

answers to these above 2 questions would solve my problem

Edit 2: XML in question

<?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"
    android:background="@drawable/bg"
    android:orientation="vertical"
     >

     <LinearLayout
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="0dp"
       android:orientation="vertical"
       android:layout_weight=".7"
       android:layout_marginTop="5dp" >

         <Button
            android:id="@+id/categoryButton"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:background="@drawable/drop"
            android:prompt="@string/planet_prompt"
            android:paddingRight="20dp"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="35dp"
            />


     </LinearLayout>


 <LinearLayout
     android:layout_width="match_parent"
     android:layout_height="0dp"
     android:layout_weight="0.1"
     android:orientation="horizontal" >

     </LinearLayout>

   <LinearLayout
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="0dp"
       android:orientation="horizontal"
       android:layout_weight="1.5" >

               <LinearLayout
               android:layout_width="0dp"
               android:layout_height="match_parent"
               android:orientation="horizontal"
               android:layout_weight="1" >
               </LinearLayout>

                <Button
                android:id="@+id/button_spin"
                android:layout_width="0dp"
                android:layout_weight="2.35"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                android:background="@drawable/letseat"
                android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
                android:gravity="center" />

              <LinearLayout
               android:layout_width="0dp"
               android:layout_height="match_parent"
               android:orientation="horizontal"
               android:layout_weight="1" >
               </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>



 <LinearLayout
     android:layout_width="match_parent"
     android:layout_height="0dp"
     android:layout_weight="3"
     android:orientation="vertical">

      <Button
        android:id="@+id/button_additems"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="@drawable/add_rest"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal" />   

        <Button
        android:id="@+id/button_showrestaurant"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="@drawable/edit_rest"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <Button
        android:id="@+id/button_nearbyplaces"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="@drawable/whats_near"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal" />

  </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

Just my idea. In android z-order is determined by order in which views are added to XML. Maybe animated button was added to xml before the other one so it is "deeper". Try to put animated button later in XML or use method bringChildToFront(buttonView) on your layout or add your button to layout from code.

Edit:

Ad 1. Adding text seems to not change the Z order. When I change text and call button.bringToFront() the Z order is changed but not when I call bringToFront() or setText() alone.

Ad 2. In onResume adding text doesn't change Z order but method bringToFront() seems to works as expected.

I am not able to test those methods together with view animation right now.

Test activity:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    private int i = 1;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        final Button btn1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn1);
        final Button btn2 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn2);
        btn2.bringToFront();
        final Button btn3 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn3);
        btn3.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                if ((i % 2) == 0) {
                    final Button btn1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn1);
                    btn1.setText("BUTTON_BLACK_NEW");
                    btn1.bringToFront();
                } else {
                    final Button btn2 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn2);
                    btn2.setText("BUTTON_GREY_NEW");
                    btn2.bringToFront();
                }
                ++i;

            }
        });

    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        if ((i % 2) == 0) {
            final Button btn1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn1);
            btn1.bringToFront();
        } else {
            final Button btn2 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn2);
            btn2.bringToFront();
        }
        ++i;
    }

}

Layout:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity" 
android:id="@+id/main_layout">

<Button
    android:id="@+id/btn1"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@android:color/black"
    android:text="BUTTON_BLACK"
    android:textColor="@android:color/white" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btn2"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"
        android:text="BUTTON_GREY"
        android:textColor="@android:color/black" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btn3"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="CHANGE_Z"
        android:layout_below="@+id/btn2" />

</RelativeLayout>