How to group multiple views in a ConstraintLayout

Question

I have added 3 buttons in a ConstraintLayout. I have added a button to disable or enable these buttons.

If I was using normal LinearLayout. I could have put all the buttons in a Linear Layout and enable or disable that particular layout.

But I am using ConstraintLayout. So I need to disable or enable all of these buttons, I believe that there must be a way in ConstraintLayout to group different views.

Kindly guide me how to group views in ConstriantLayout

  <Button
        android:text="Button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/button"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        android:layout_marginLeft="16dp" />

    <Button
        android:text="Button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/button2"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="@+id/button"
        android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/button" />

    <Button
        android:text="Button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/button3"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/button2"
        android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        android:layout_marginRight="16dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="@+id/button2"
        android:layout_marginLeft="8dp" />

Take a look, maybe Chains might help you: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/constraint/ConstraintLayout.html#Chains — krossovochkin, Feb 10 '17 at 13:13
setGroupVisibility(mLayout, group, Group.VISIBLE) ; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47865436/cant-set-visibility-on-constraint-group — Manu Garg, Nov 29 '18 at 14:05

score 90 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 03 '21 at 11:58

Yes, as I know you can handle visibility using linear layout but not Enable/Disable views I think, correct me if I am wrong. So now in ConstraintLayout also we can handle visibility of particular group of views using the Group

<android.support.constraint.Group/>

This is new feature introduced in ConstraintLayout which is currently in Beta version.

How to add beta ConstraintLayout to project follow steps below

add maven support in project gradle file as below

allprojects {
    repositories {
        maven { url 'https://maven.google.com' }
        jcenter()
    }
}

then in app gardle dependencies add ConstarintLayout library dependency

compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.0-beta3'

now you have to add group in your ConstraintLayout as follow

<android.support.constraint.Group
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:constraint_referenced_ids="button7,button3,button2"
        android:id="@+id/group" />

where in Group reference id

app:constraint_referenced_ids="button7,button3,button2"

contains the comma separated view id's you want to handle run time, so in activity you just bind Group as below and handle visibility

import android.support.constraint.Group; //import statement in activity

Group group=(Group)findViewById(R.id.group);//bind view from xml
group.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);//this will visible all views
group.setVisibility(View.GONE);//this will set Gone to all views
group.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);//this will set INVISIBLE to all view

Edit: ConstraintLayout 1.1.0 stable version released on 12 April 2018 https://androidstudio.googleblog.com/2018/04/constraintlayout-110.html

implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.0'

Edit: Android X If anyone using android x package you can find package info here

https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/migrate

and use:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Group />

@IbrahimDisouki i think it is not there currently, if anything i found i will update here. — Pavan, Jun 19 '17 at 13:41
It's not possible. Groups were created to control its members visibility, not view positioning or anything like that. — Mauker, Jan 15 '19 at 14:09
Yes as group reference views position can be anywhere on the screen so technically it does not make any sense — Pavan, Jan 15 '19 at 14:13
can `androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Group` be used on Views not part of a Constraintlayout? — lasec0203, Oct 12 '20 at 03:11
The answer to my question above is, no. Also you can't just place a `androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Group` anywhere in your layout file, it must share the same parent `androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout` as the Views it references. — lasec0203, Oct 12 '20 at 03:17

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 20 '19 at 14:03

3

Currently there is no way you can do that. You have to disable each button individually, because constraints are added to each widget in constraintlayout.

To group views, you need to use view groups, that doesn't make sense in the context of constraint layout.

Edit

With Constraint layout:1.1.0-beta1, you can group views using android.support.constraint.Group.

edited May 20 '19 at 14:03

vahdet

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answered Apr 23 '17 at 05:53

Arnav Rao

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How to group multiple views in a ConstraintLayout

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