Questions tagged [android-view]

Introduction

A View in Android is the display of the data utilized by the application. Views range widely from simple and non-interactive to complex and interactive in many ways. In addition to the Views provided by the SDK, developers have the option to create custom Views. This means that virtually any communication or display to the user may be handled in innumerable ways.

ViewGroups

ViewGroup is a subclass of View, which has the ability to hold other Views. Children Views may be added to the ViewGroup at run-time (in Java code) or may be pre-defined in Android XML. Like Views, ViewGroups may also be extended in the same way. Follow these guidelines for questions regarding ViewGroups:

• If the ViewGroup is provided by the Android SDK, it should be listed below in Standard Views.
• If the ViewGroup is a Custom View, use android-custom-view

Standard Views

A wide variety of Views are delivered with the Android SDK for use by developers. These views make up a majority of the Views in a standard application. Each View has its own semantics and behaviors. As a result, it is often more beneficial to use the tags specifically related to those Views. Below is a list of standard views provide within the Android SDK:

• ListViews utilize the android-listview tag.
• TabHosts utilize the android-tabhost tag.
• TextViews display text to the user: utilize the android-textview tag.
• EditTexts allow the user to input text: utilize the android-edittext tag.
• WebViews display web pages or other web related content: utilize the android-webview tag.
• ImageViews display images or drawables: utilize the android-imageview tag.
• GridViews utilize the android-gridview tag.

Usage: android-view vs. android-layout

While Views and layouts work hand-in-hand, questions regarding the two are often very different. These guidelines will help to properly determine which tag to use:

• If the question refers to the properties used to display the View properly, then use android-layout.
• If, instead, the question refers to the functionality of the View, then android-view is appropriate.