Begin by launching Eclipse and selecting the File -> New - > Android Application Project menu option. Within the resulting New Android Application dialog, enter GridLayoutSample as both the application and project names. Declare a suitable package name, or use com.example.gridlayoutsample as a placeholder name.
Begin by launching Eclipse and selecting the File -> New - > Android Application Project menu option. Within the resulting New Android Application dialog, enter GridLayoutSample as both the application and project names. Declare a suitable package name, or use com.example.gridlayoutsample as a placeholder name.
−
Set the SDK menus to the latest SDK available (at time of writing this is Android 4.2 Jelly Bean) before clicking Next. On the subsequent screens simply accept the default settings until the Blank Activity screen appears at which point the activity should be named GridLayoutSampleActivity with a corresponding layout named activity_grid_layout.
+
Set the SDK menus to the latest SDK available (at time of writing this is Android 4.4 KitKat) before clicking Next. On the subsequent screens simply accept the default settings until the Blank Activity screen appears at which point the activity should be named GridLayoutSampleActivity with a corresponding layout named activity_grid_layout.
Click on the Finish to initiate the project creation process.
Click on the Finish to initiate the project creation process.
On creation of the new project, Eclipse should have displayed the Graphical Layout tool and pre-loaded the activity_grid_sample.xml file. In the event that this is not the case, simply navigate to GridLayoutSample -> <package name> -> res -> layout in the Package Explorer panel and double click on the activity_grid_layout.xml file.
On creation of the new project, Eclipse should have displayed the Graphical Layout tool and pre-loaded the activity_grid_sample.xml file. In the event that this is not the case, simply navigate to GridLayoutSample -> <package name> -> res -> layout in the Package Explorer panel and double click on the activity_grid_layout.xml file.
−
With the layout displayed, select the hello world! Text View object and press the keyboard Delete key to remove it from the layout. Next, right-click on the white layout view background and select Change Layout… from the resulting menu. In the Change Layout dialog, select GridLayout from the New Layout Type: menu and click on OK to change the layout type.
+
With the layout displayed, select the Hello World! Text View object and press the keyboard Delete key to remove it from the layout. Next, right-click on the white layout view background and select Change Layout… from the resulting menu. In the Change Layout dialog, select GridLayout from the New Layout Type: menu and click on OK to change the layout type.
For the purposes of this tutorial, the GridLayout is only required to be large enough to contain the child views contained therein. As such, the height and width parameters of the view need to be changed from match_parent to wrap_content. To make this change, select the layout, either by clicking on the white background of the user interface canvas, or from within the Outline panel. With the view selected, unfold the Layout Parameters section of the Properties panel and change the Width and Height values to wrap_content as illustrated in Figure 15-1:
For the purposes of this tutorial, the GridLayout is only required to be large enough to contain the child views contained therein. As such, the height and width parameters of the view need to be changed from match_parent to wrap_content. To make this change, select the layout, either by clicking on the white background of the user interface canvas, or from within the Outline panel. With the view selected, unfold the Layout Parameters section of the Properties panel and change the Width and Height values to wrap_content as illustrated in Figure 15-1:
