How to center the elements in ConstraintLayout

Question

I am using ConstraintLayout in my application to make applications layout. I am trying to a create a screen wheren one EditText and Button

Answer 1

There is a simpler way. If you set layout constraints as follows and your EditText is fixed sized, it will get centered in the constraint layout:

app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"

The left/right pair centers the view horizontally and top/bottom pair centers it vertically. This is because when you set the left, right or top,bottom constraints bigger than the view it self, the view gets centered between the two constraints i.e the bias is set to 50%. You can also move view up/down or right/left by setting the bias your self. Play with it a bit and you will see how it affects the views position.

Answer 2

add these tag in your view

    app:layout_constraintCircleRadius="0dp"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.5"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"

and you can right click in design mode and choose center.

Answer 3

you can use layout_constraintCircle for center view inside ConstraintLayout.

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:id="@+id/mparent"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">
        <ImageButton
            android:id="@+id/btn_settings"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            app:srcCompat="@drawable/ic_home_black_24dp"
            app:layout_constraintCircle="@id/mparent"
            app:layout_constraintCircleRadius="0dp"
            />
    </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

with constraintCircle to parent and zero radius you can make your view be center of parent.

Answer 4

You can center a view as a percentage of the screen size.

This example uses 50% of width and height:

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:background="#FF0000"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHeight_percent=".5"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintWidth_percent=".5"></LinearLayout>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

This was done using ConstraintLayout version 1.1.3. Don't forget to add it to your dependencies in the gradle, and increase the version if there is a new version out there:

dependencies {
...
    implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.3'
}

Answer 5

Update:

Chain

You can now use the chain feature in packed mode as describe in Eugene's answer.

---

Guideline

You can use a horizontal guideline at 50% position and add bottom and top (8dp) constraints to edittext and button:

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingLeft="16dp"
    android:paddingRight="16dp">

    <android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
        android:id="@+id/client_id_input_layout"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginBottom="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/guideline"
        android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent">

        <android.support.design.widget.TextInputEditText
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:hint="@string/login_client_id"
            android:inputType="textEmailAddress"/>

    </android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

    <android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton
        android:id="@+id/authenticate"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/login_auth"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/guideline"
        android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"/>

    <android.support.constraint.Guideline
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/guideline"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        app:layout_constraintGuide_percent="0.5"/>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Answer 6

The solution with guideline works only for this particular case with single line EditText. To make it work for multiline EditText you should use "packed" chain.

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingLeft="16dp"
    android:paddingRight="16dp">

    <android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
        android:id="@+id/client_id_input_layout"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/authenticate"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed">

        <android.support.design.widget.TextInputEditText
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:hint="@string/login_client_id"
            android:inputType="textEmailAddress" />

    </android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

    <android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton
        android:id="@+id/authenticate"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:text="@string/login_auth"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="@id/client_id_input_layout"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="@id/client_id_input_layout"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/client_id_input_layout" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Here's how it looks:

You can read more about using chains in following posts:

• Building interfaces with ConstraintLayout
• Build a Responsive UI with ConstraintLayout