of course it can be done.
I think the easiest for your situation, plus you can then easily extend, is to create some helper functions that take care of:
1) creating a empty screen
2) create a button for a screen
3) create a textview for a screen
and finally
4) create a screen and populate it
You have to decide the proper Root element for your Views, depending on the child arragement you need. For simplicity let's choose a LinearLayout, but for a RelativeLayout or TableLayout the example is the same, it only changes that when you add the elements, you have to use additional parameters to properly place them.
Note that the function to create an empty custom view returns a ViewGroup ("where all layouts derive from"). This way, you always work with ViewGroups and just define the screen layout type once, inside createCustomView. So you can change the type of screens just there, and the rest of code will work ...
Here is some code for your inspiration:
private ViewGroup createCustomView(Context context) {
LinearLayout myCoolNewView=new LinearLayout(context); // or RelativeLayout, etc..
return myCoolNewView;
}
private Button createButton(Context context, String buttonText) {
Button newButton=new Button(context);
newButton.setText(buttonText);
return newButton;
}
private TextView createText(Context context, String initialText) {
TextView newText=new TextView(context);
newText.setText(buttonText);
return newText;
}
private ViewGroup createScreen(Context context, int numberOfButtons, int numberOfTextfields) {
ViewGroup newScreen=createCustomView(context);
TextView[] textViews=new TextView[numberOfTextFields];
for (int i=0; i<numberOfTextfields; i++) {
textViews[i]=createText(context, "hi i am text "+i);
newScreen.addView(textViews[i]); // you ideally provide here layoutparams to properly place your buttons
}
for (int j=0; i<numberOfButtons; j++) {
Button button=createButton(context, "hi i am button "+j);
button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
public void onClick (View clickedView) {
// here you have a button keypress and you know all the textviews
textView[i%j].setText("hey you pressed me");
}
});
newScreen.addView(button);
}
return newScreen;
}
So now you can:
ViewGroup screen1=createScreen(context, 10, 10);
ViewGroup screen2=createScreen(context, 5, 3);
ViewGroup screen3=createScreen(context, 2, 5);
and add the screens to a parent layout, to a ViewFlipper, to a ViewSwitcher, etc... like this:
ViewGroup parentLayoutOfAllScreens=findViewById(R.id.root_of_screens);
parentLayoutOfAllScreens.addView(screen1);
parentLayoutOfAllScreens.addView(screen2);
parentLayoutOfAllScreens.addView(screen3);
In the XML you just have to create the root layout, and name it root_of_screens...
good coding !!! I suppose there'll be some errors in the code above, just typed it here, but I hope you get the idea and tweak it to suit your needs!
EDIT : v2.0 : Extending a View
Create a new .java named "MyCoolScreen.java" or whatever name, in the same folder where your activity is (for simplicity):
package ........
public class MyCoolScreen extends LinearLayout {
/** Now every view holds its own buttons, and they are private, it's good for encapsulating */
private TextView[] mTextViews; // <-- as a convention, members should start with "m"
private Button[] mButtons;
private UserPressedButtons mUserPressedButtonsListener; // See below
/** The following constructors must always be present for a custom view, and must always call super */
public MyCoolScreen(Context context) {
// This is the constructor you will use when creating your view programmatically
super(context);
}
public MyCoolScreen(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
// This is the constructor Android calls when you include your custom view in an XML
// You can do this too!!
// The ATTRS will then include your numberofbuttons and numberoftextfields from the XML
// this is beyond the example, but read about it, it's interesting
super(context, attrs); // this MUST ALWAYS be here for custom views, or they will not work.
// it tells the parent view to continue the construction.
}
public MyCoolScreen(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
// Another constructor Android calls from the XML
super(context, attrs, defStyle);
}
/** We create an "init" method to initialize this view from outside */
public void init(int numberOfTextViews, int numberOfButtons) {
createScreen(numberOfTextViews, numberOfButtons);
}
/** This is the same */
private Button createButton(Context context, String buttonText) {
Button newButton=new Button(context);
newButton.setText(buttonText);
return newButton;
}
/** This is the same */
private TextView createText(Context context, String initialText) {
TextView newText=new TextView(context);
newText.setText(buttonText);
return newText;
}
/** We tweak this function so it doesnt return a view, but rather fills up this one :) */
private void createScreen(int numberOfButtons, int numberOfTextfields) {
ViewGroup newScreen=this; // It's this view the one we gonna fill up!
mTextViews=new TextView[numberOfTextfields];
mButtons=new Button[numberOfButtons];
Context context=getContext(); // Views always know their context after constructed
for (int i=0; i<numberOfTextfields; i++) {
mTextViews[i]=createText(context, "hi i am text "+i);
newScreen.addView(textViews[i]); // you ideally provide here layoutparams to properly place your buttons
}
for (int j=0; i<numberOfButtons; j++) {
Button button=createButton(context, "hi i am button "+j);
button.setId(j);
button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
public void onClick (View clickedView) {
// here you have a button keypress and you know all the textviews
if (mUserPressedButtonsListener!=null) mUserPressedButtonsListener.OnButtonPressed(j);
textView[i%j].setText("hey you pressed me");
}
});
mButtons[j]=button;
newScreen.addView(button);
}
}
public interface UserPressedButtons {
public void OnButtonPressed(int buttonNumber);
}
public void setUserPressedButtonsListener (UserPressedButtons listener) {
mUserPressedButtonsListener=listener;
}
}
Ok, so now to use this, in your Activity you can do:
import ....... .MyCoolScreen;
import ....... .MyCoolScreen.UserPressedButtons;
.
.
.
MyCoolScreen screen1=new MyCoolScreen(context);
screen1.init(5,5); // initializes the screen.
myRootLayout.addView(screen1);
What's cool about this, is now functionality is totally encapsulated in your custom view. And it resides in another .java, so your activity code is very clean, and you can even expand the View functionality without making it ugly.
It's also a common practice to create interfaces and listeners for your views to communicate with the outside world, so for example, we can do:
screen1.setUserPressedButtonsListener(new MyCoolScreen.UserPressedButtons() {
@Override
public void OnButtonPressed (int number) {
// you know the user pressed button "number", and you can do stuff about it without
// having to include it inside the MyCoolScreen class. Of course in your example you
// don't need this at the moment, because the View will modify its textfield, but suppose
// one of the buttons is "rocket launch" , that is something you will handle at the activity level, ie.
if (number==ROCKET_LAUNCH) RocketLauncher.setTarget(10,10).launch(); // Your MyCoolScreen doesnt know how to launch rockets, but your activity maybe yes...
}
});
You can do all kinds of cool things with your new custom view. For example, you could define:
@Override
public void OnDraw(Canvas c) {
c.drawEllipse ...
c.drawRectangle ....
}
And you can paint circles, lines, etc... over your textfields & buttons :) For this to work, you have to put
setWillNotDraw(false) on the constructor.
There might be errors, just typed the code here, but I hope it helps you!
