android: listview and linearlayout padded from the edges of parent layout?

Question

So, I want to create a layout with listview and Linearlayout clearly specified with the image.

The padding i.e. required from all the edges of the device is important for me and this should work in a responsive manner for different devices it should be padded from various sides.

Could I Use Nine patch in this case , if yes how?

How could I achieve this , any skeleton layout will solve my problem.

Answer 1

To get that spacing you should use margin, not padding.

Here's a solution:

<RelativeLayout        
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/mylistview"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="@dimen/listview_height"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/standard_margin"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_below="@id/mylistview"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/standard_margin>

    </LinearLayout>


</RelativeLayout>

This sets a fixed value for the ListView's height, and makes the LinearLayout automatically resize to fit the remaining space (because of layout_below).

Then create a dimensions file in res/values:

E.g.

dimens.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <dimen name="listview_height">200dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="standard_margin">30dp</dimen>

</resource>

To support different screen sizes you can have different dimensions in other folders such as /res/values-large, /res/values-xlarge etc.