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How can I get a LinearLayout (or any other ViewGroup) to assume the size of it's child views rather than assuming the size of the background image?

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:background="@drawable/large_image300x300pix">

 <TextView android:id="@+id/TextView01" 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:text="Hello world!"/>
</LinearLayout>

The linear layout becomes the same size as the background image. How can I get my linear layout to assume the same size as the textview?

Petrus
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5 Answers5

24

OK, so this thread is a little old, but I have a solution that someone might someday find useful. I think Android has problems scaling large images down, so the LinearLayout size ends up getting bumped by the background drawable bitmap, and the ImageView ends up forcing up the size of the parent container.

Unless you use a relative layout. You can make the ImageView relative to the position of the LinearLayout, even when the ImageView is behind the layout in the parent. My solution looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<ImageView
    android:src="@drawable/activation_popup"
    android:scaleType="fitXY"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:layout_alignTop="@+id/activation_layout"
    android:layout_alignBottom="@id/activation_layout"
    android:layout_alignLeft="@id/activation_layout"
    android:layout_alignRight="@id/activation_layout"
    android:contentDescription="@string/act_code_label" />
<LinearLayout
    android:id="@id/activation_layout"
    android:clipToPadding="true"
    android:padding="25dp"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
    <!-- LinearLayout wraps a bunch of smallish views here -->
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

I tried this on a top of display sizes and OS versions, seems to work great. Note that the padding in the LinearLayout is a trick to make space for a shadow border in the background image graphic. The LinearLayout doesn't need any relative positioning because top left is assumed.

Eric Ruck
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    This was the ONLY solution that worked for me after hours of searching. Thank you. – wapples Mar 25 '16 at 23:46
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    depending on your intentions for the background, however, it might be important to use `scaleType="centerCrop"` instead of `fitXY`. fitXY will stretch/shrink the image so that it matches exactly the size of the resulting imageView, no matter how tall or skinny. `centerCrop` will scale the image down so that it fits inside the imageview dimensions, but will *save the aspect ratio*, if that's important for you. – mix3d May 04 '16 at 14:06
  • It's better to use `android:scaleType="centerCrop"` – sagus_helgy Oct 12 '17 at 10:50
  • You will need ConstraintLayout if you are intending to use edge-to-edge where oyu will need insets, it won't work with RelativeLayout in edge cases. – David Jul 19 '22 at 06:23
4

You can create a FrameLayout and put an ImageView and your LinearLayout there. So you'll be able to configure the layout of your background image.

Michael
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    In that ImageView, I set both width and height to match_parent, Scale Tpye to fitXY and enabled adjustViewBounds. Works! – sulai Oct 17 '12 at 11:08
1

This happens because the Android view calculates its minimum size based on its background drawable size.

Check my answer here in this another post which covers the same problem which will help you to achieve your layout configuration.

Community
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Alexander Haroldo da Rocha
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0

If your image lends itself to being converted to a scalable 9-patch image, then doing that would cause the background to scale around the TextView.

GeekYouUp
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  • Yes, unfortunately my image doesn't tile, and isn't suitable for 9-patch. – Petrus Nov 30 '10 at 13:29
  • I'm not sure this is correct... I'm still seeing this same issue happen when using 9-patches. The 9-patches will expand but don't seem to shrink. – greg7gkb Feb 06 '12 at 19:00
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I believe the best solution here is to set android:clipToPadding="true". What this does is excludes the padding for the main layout and wraps your layout to its children.

Raheel Khalid
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