Android Style Custom ViewGroup

Question

I have a custom view group that contains a couple simple views. How can I style my view group so that certain properties reach certain child elements? For instance, in the example below how can I create style that allows for easy change of text size, color, etc. I'd like to set the style in xml on the CustomViewGroup if at all possible. Can I specify an ID when creating styles so that specific elements get it?

Example usage:

<com.example.CustomViewGroup
    android:id="@+id/custom"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

XML of the view group:

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/valueTextView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/descriptionTextView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@id/valueTextView"
        android:layout_alignLeft="@id/valueTextView"
        android:layout_marginTop="-4dip"
        android:layout_marginLeft="26dip"/>


</RelativeLayout>

If the style for this view was the same the whole time this wouldn't be an issue but I would like to use different styles in different situations so I can have it be bigger in some areas of my app but smaller in others.

Thanks in advance!

Try making some custom attributes(format reference) for each of the underlying child views, you'll use those attributes on the `CustomViewGroup`. Then assign proper styles to those attributes and apply them in the `CustomViewGroup`'s constructor to the right children. — user, Feb 13 '14 at 19:26
Thanks @Luksprog, this led me down the right path. See my answer below if you want to see how I ended up doing it — StackJP, Feb 14 '14 at 20:35

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

Based upon the comment from @Luksprog I was able to go down a path that led to a not-so-perfect but not-ugly-enough-that-I-hate-it solution.

Since I wasn't creating and adding the views in my ViewGroup constructor and was inflating from an xml file I couldn't just add attributes that reference styles (see this). So I ended up creating an enum attribute that switches between the various styles I could want for this view. Then in the constructor I inflated different layouts (where the styles were set in the xml) based upon this attribute.

Example:

    public CustomViewGroup(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
        initialize(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
    }

    private void initialize(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        if (attrs != null) {
            TypedArray a = context.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs, R.styleable.CustomViewGroup, defStyleAttr, 0);

            int style = a.getInt(R.styleable.CustomViewGroup_styleType, 0);
            switch (style) {
                case 0:
                    View.inflate(context, R.layout.custom_view_group_small, this);
                    break;
                case 1:
                    View.inflate(context, R.layout.custom_view_group_large, this);
                    break;
                default:
                    View.inflate(context, R.layout.custom_view_group_large, this);
                    break;
            }

            ...
        }
    }

Again not the most elegant solution but its working for me and I can now update the styles pretty easily without having to change a bunch of files.

Android Style Custom ViewGroup

1 Answers1