Icon in Tab is not showing up

Question

I\'m starting with Android and when I try to do a TabHost with an icon and a text. Only the text is visible, if I left the text in blank it is possible to see the icon. I wa

Answer 1

This is a easy way to show the text and icon in ICS. After to setup the Tabhost, I call the next methods:

setTabIcon(mTabHost, 0, R.drawable.ic_tab1); //for Tab 1
setTabIcon(mTabHost, 1, R.drawable.ic_tab2); //for Tab 2

public void setTabIcon(TabHost tabHost, int tabIndex, int iconResource) {
    ImageView tabImageView = (ImageView) tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildTabViewAt(tabIndex).findViewById(android.R.id.icon);
    tabImageView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    tabImageView.setImageResource(iconResource);
}

If you want a more advanced solution, you need to create a layout like @sunadorer recommend. My recommendation is that you can create your layout using the holo theme layout, search the file on your sdk_dir/platforms/android-14/data/res/layout/tab_indicator_holo.xml.

My advanced solution is the next, you need to create a layout like this:

tab_indicator.xml

In your activity or fragment, create the next function:

public View createTabIndicator(LayoutInflater inflater, TabHost tabHost, int textResource, int iconResource) {
    View tabIndicator = inflater.inflate(R.layout.tab_indicator, tabHost.getTabWidget(), false);
    ((TextView) tabIndicator.findViewById(android.R.id.title)).setText(textResource);
    ((ImageView) tabIndicator.findViewById(android.R.id.icon)).setImageResource(iconResource);
    return tabIndicator;
}

And finally when you create your tab in your activity or fragment use the next code:

mTabHost.addTab(
    mTabHost.newTabSpec("tab1")
    .setIndicator(createTabIndicator(inflater, mTabHost, R.string.tab1, R.drawable.ic_tab1))
    .setContent(R.id.tab1)
);

I have tested this solution in ICS and works fine.

Good luck :)