Create a custom View by inflating a layout?

Question

I am trying to create a custom View that would replace a certain layout that I use at multiple places, but I am struggling to do so.

Basically, I want to replace this:

<RelativeLayout
 android:id="@+id/dolphinLine"
 android:layout_width="fill_parent"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"
 android:background="@drawable/background_box_light_blue"
 android:padding="10dip"
 android:layout_margin="10dip">
  <TextView
   android:id="@+id/dolphinTitle"
   android:layout_width="200dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
   android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
   android:text="@string/my_title"
   android:textSize="30dip"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:textColor="#2E4C71"
   android:gravity="center"/>
  <Button
   android:id="@+id/dolphinMinusButton"
   android:layout_width="100dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/dolphinTitle"
   android:layout_marginLeft="30dip"
   android:text="@string/minus_button"
   android:textSize="70dip"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:gravity="center"
   android:layout_marginTop="1dip"
   android:background="@drawable/button_blue_square_selector"
   android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
   android:onClick="onClick"/>
  <TextView
   android:id="@+id/dolphinValue"
   android:layout_width="100dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_marginLeft="15dip"
   android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"
   android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/dolphinMinusButton"
   android:text="0"
   android:textColor="#2E4C71"
   android:textSize="50dip"
   android:gravity="center"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:inputType="none"/>
  <Button
   android:id="@+id/dolphinPlusButton"
   android:layout_width="100dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/dolphinValue"
   android:layout_marginLeft="15dip"
   android:text="@string/plus_button"
   android:textSize="70dip"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:gravity="center"
   android:layout_marginTop="1dip"
   android:background="@drawable/button_blue_square_selector"
   android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
   android:onClick="onClick"/>
</RelativeLayout>

By this:

<view class="com.example.MyQuantityBox"
    android:id="@+id/dolphinBox"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:myCustomAttribute="@string/my_title"/>

So, I do not want a custom layout, I want a custom View (it should not be possible for this view to have child).

The only thing that could change from one instance of a MyQuantityBox to another is the title. I would very much like to be able to specify this in the XML (as I do on the last XML line)

How can I do this? Should I put the RelativeLayout in a XML file in /res/layout and inflate it in my MyBoxQuantity class? If yes how do I do so?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes you can do this. RelativeLayout, LinearLayout, etc are Views so a custom layout is a custom view. Just something to consider because if you wanted to create a custom layout you could.

What you want to do is create a Compound Control. You'll create a subclass of RelativeLayout, add all our your components in code (TextView, etc), and in your constructor you can read the attributes passed in from the XML. You can then pass that attribute to your title TextView.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/custom-components.html