Child of RelativeLayout is not filling the height of the RelativeLayout

Question

I have a ListView which gets populated with RelativeLayouts. The content of these RelativeLayouts can change and thus change their height respectively. On each RelativeLayout, I have a little vertical bar on the left side of the layout that matches the height of the layout.

It's a similar look to this -> Link

Though for some reason, the View object that I'm using isn't expanding to the height of the layout.

What am I doing wrong?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/post"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/column_post_selector"
android:orientation="horizontal" >

<!-- Status bar (THIS ISN'T FILLING TO PARENTS' HEIGHT) -->
<View
    android:id="@+id/status"
    android:layout_width="3dp"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_alignLeft="@id/post"
    android:layout_marginBottom="2dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="2dp"
    android:background="#33B5E5" />

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/thumbnail"
    android:layout_width="80dip"
    android:layout_height="80dip"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/status"
    android:contentDescription="@string/empty"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
    android:scaleType="fitStart" />

<!-- Title -->

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/title"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignTop="@id/post"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/thumbnail"
    android:textColor="#ffffff"
    android:textSize="14sp"
    android:typeface="sans" />
<!-- Rightend Duration -->

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/date"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
    android:layout_alignTop="@id/title"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dip"
    android:gravity="right"
    android:textColor="#10bcc9"
    android:textSize="12sp"
    android:textStyle="bold" />

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

You'll want to add layout_alignParentTop="true" and layout_alignParentBottom="true" to status - this will ensure that the view touches both the top and bottom of post's RelativeLayout.

Answer 2

I had a similar issue inside the cells of my RecyclerView which had a RelativeLayout as root element.

A workaround for me was wrapping an extra LinearLayout around the root RelativeLayout element.

So you card looks like this:

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <RelativeLayout 
                    android:layout_width="match_parent"
                    android:layout_height="match_parent">
            <View
                android:id="@+id/view_with_same_height_as_parent"
                android:layout_width="10dp"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
                android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>
...


    </RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28799251/3708094

Answer 3

If your RelativeLayout is inside a ScrollView, then on the ScrollView you need to add the fillViewPort param and set it to true

  <ScrollView
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="match_parent"
      android:fillViewport="true">

Answer 4

I had a similar problem with a RelativeLayout inside a ScrollView. According to the documentation there is a bug in RelativeLayout (up to version 17) that cause mistakes in measured height if it is added inside scrolling container (like ListView).

So to solve the problem you should calculate height programmatically.

You could make your extended class and override the onMeasure method or add a OnGlobalLayoutListener to the parent view.

I choose the second way. Here is my solution:

findViewById(R.id.scroll_view).getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
    @Override
    public void onGlobalLayout() {
        float topElementPosition = findViewById(R.id.top_element).getY();
        float bottomElementPosition = findViewById(R.id.bottom_element).getY();
        int bottomElementHeight = findViewById(R.id.bottom_element).getMeasuredHeight();
        int height = (int)(bottomElementPosition-topElementPosition+bottomElementHeight);
        findViewById(R.id.view).setMinimumHeight(height);
        findViewById(R.id.scroll_view).getViewTreeObserver().removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(this);
    }
});

Answer 5

Had the same pesky problem which by the way makes no sense. What worked for me in the end was changing the android:layout_height in RelativeLayout tag to fill_parent like this

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
  ...

hope this helps

Answer 6

I fixed by manually set layout during onLayout for invalid view:

@Override
protected void onLayout(boolean changed, int left, int top, int right, int bottom) {
    super.onLayout(changed, left, top, right, bottom);

    int rootMarginRight = ((MarginLayoutParams)root.getLayoutParams()).rightMargin;
    int paddingRight = root.getPaddingRight() + rootMarginRight;

    //invalid view
    actionsContainer.layout(
            right - actions.getWidth() - paddingRight,
            0,
            right - paddingRight,
            getHeight()
    );
}

Answer 7

If you know the exact height you want to set, you can set Height or MinHeight for this component (View). In your case, you can set with: android:minHeight="76dp", or you can set it programmatically using LayoutParams. Hope it helps!

Answer 8

My problem was the the following line

android:fitsSystemWindows="true" <-- In the parent view

was removed. Having added it back, it works fine now.