How to place layouts one over another in android using addContentView()?

By | February 10, 2012

Hello all…

In today’s tutorial I will show you how to add different layouts one over another in android through java code.
For this we use the function addContentView() which is a variation on setContentView(View, android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams) to add an additional content view to the screen.

Here I will create an xml with a textView and a Edittext and on another layout i Will have edittext, imageView etc.
I am going to place these two layouts one over the other.

First layout is named “main.xml” which will look like this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
	<TextView
	    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
	    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
	    android:text="CoderzHeaven"
	    />
	<EditText
		android:text="CoderzHeaven"
		android:id="@+id/EditText01"
		android:layout_width="fill_parent"
		android:layout_height="wrap_content">
	</EditText>
</LinearLayout>

And the second xml named “second.xml”

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="center|center_horizontal" >

<ScrollView
	android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:scrollbars="vertical"
    android:fadeScrollbars="true">

    <LinearLayout
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="center|center_horizontal" >

		<TextView
			android:text="TextView"
			android:id="@+id/TextView01"
			android:layout_width="fill_parent"
			android:gravity="center"
			android:layout_gravity="center|center_horizontal"
			android:layout_height="wrap_content">
		</TextView>

		<ImageView
			android:id="@+id/ImageView01"
			android:layout_width="wrap_content"
			android:layout_height="wrap_content"
			android:src="@drawable/android_3"
			android:layout_gravity="center|center_horizontal">
		</ImageView>

		<EditText
			android:text="CoderzHeaven"
			android:id="@+id/EditText01"
			android:layout_margin="5dp"
			android:layout_width="fill_parent"
			android:layout_height="wrap_content">
		</EditText>

		<EditText
			android:text=""
			android:id="@+id/EditText02"
			android:layout_margin="5dp"
			android:layout_width="fill_parent"
			android:layout_height="wrap_content">
		</EditText>

		<RatingBar
			android:id="@+id/RatingBar01"
			android:layout_width="wrap_content"
			android:layout_margin="5dp"
			android:layout_height="wrap_content">
		</RatingBar>

		<Button
			android:text="Button"
			android:id="@+id/Button01"
			android:layout_gravity="center|center_horizontal"
			android:layout_width="fill_parent"
			android:layout_margin="5dp"
			android:layout_height="wrap_content">
		</Button>
	</LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

Now I am going to add these two xml in a single activity. The xml which you add first will have lower z-order.

This is the activity java file.

package com.coderzheaven.pack;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.ViewGroup;

public class ContentViewExample extends Activity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
        getWindow().addContentView(inflater.inflate(R.layout.second, null),
        						   new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(
        						   ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
        						   ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT));
    }
}

Here I am adding the main.xml before second.xml that is why main.xml is below second.xml.
After running this application you will see this window.

You can download the sample code from here.
Please leave your valuable comments if you find this post useful.

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