[android] Create a custom View by inflating a layout?

I am trying to create a custom View that would replace a certain layout that I use at multiple places, but I am struggling to do so.

Basically, I want to replace this:

<RelativeLayout
 android:id="@+id/dolphinLine"
 android:layout_width="fill_parent"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"
 android:background="@drawable/background_box_light_blue"
 android:padding="10dip"
 android:layout_margin="10dip">
  <TextView
   android:id="@+id/dolphinTitle"
   android:layout_width="200dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
   android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
   android:text="@string/my_title"
   android:textSize="30dip"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:textColor="#2E4C71"
   android:gravity="center"/>
  <Button
   android:id="@+id/dolphinMinusButton"
   android:layout_width="100dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/dolphinTitle"
   android:layout_marginLeft="30dip"
   android:text="@string/minus_button"
   android:textSize="70dip"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:gravity="center"
   android:layout_marginTop="1dip"
   android:background="@drawable/button_blue_square_selector"
   android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
   android:onClick="onClick"/>
  <TextView
   android:id="@+id/dolphinValue"
   android:layout_width="100dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_marginLeft="15dip"
   android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"
   android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/dolphinMinusButton"
   android:text="0"
   android:textColor="#2E4C71"
   android:textSize="50dip"
   android:gravity="center"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:inputType="none"/>
  <Button
   android:id="@+id/dolphinPlusButton"
   android:layout_width="100dip"
   android:layout_height="100dip"
   android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/dolphinValue"
   android:layout_marginLeft="15dip"
   android:text="@string/plus_button"
   android:textSize="70dip"
   android:textStyle="bold"
   android:gravity="center"
   android:layout_marginTop="1dip"
   android:background="@drawable/button_blue_square_selector"
   android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
   android:onClick="onClick"/>
</RelativeLayout>

By this:

<view class="com.example.MyQuantityBox"
    android:id="@+id/dolphinBox"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:myCustomAttribute="@string/my_title"/>

So, I do not want a custom layout, I want a custom View (it should not be possible for this view to have child).

The only thing that could change from one instance of a MyQuantityBox to another is the title. I would very much like to be able to specify this in the XML (as I do on the last XML line)

How can I do this? Should I put the RelativeLayout in a XML file in /res/layout and inflate it in my MyBoxQuantity class? If yes how do I do so?

Thanks!

Use the LayoutInflater as I shown below.

    public View myView() {
        View v; // Creating an instance for View Object
        LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.myview, null);

        TextView text1 = v.findViewById(R.id.dolphinTitle);
        Button btn1 = v.findViewById(R.id.dolphinMinusButton);
        TextView text2 = v.findViewById(R.id.dolphinValue);
        Button btn2 = v.findViewById(R.id.dolphinPlusButton);

        return v;
    }

A bit old, but I thought sharing how I'd do it, based on chubbsondubs' answer: I use FrameLayout (see Documentation), since it is used to contain a single view, and inflate into it the view from the xml.

Code following:

public class MyView extends FrameLayout {
    public MyView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        initView();
    }

    public MyView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        initView();
    }

    public MyView(Context context) {
        super(context);
        initView();
    }

    private void initView() {
        inflate(getContext(), R.layout.my_view_layout, this);
    }
}

Here is a simple demo to create customview (compoundview) by inflating from xml

attrs.xml

<resources>

    <declare-styleable name="CustomView">
        <attr format="string" name="text"/>
        <attr format="reference" name="image"/>
    </declare-styleable>
</resources>

CustomView.kt

class CustomView @JvmOverloads constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet? = null, defStyleAttr: Int = 0) :
        ConstraintLayout(context, attrs, defStyleAttr) {

    init {
        init(attrs)
    }

    private fun init(attrs: AttributeSet?) {
        View.inflate(context, R.layout.custom_layout, this)

        val ta = context.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs, R.styleable.CustomView)
        try {
            val text = ta.getString(R.styleable.CustomView_text)
            val drawableId = ta.getResourceId(R.styleable.CustomView_image, 0)
            if (drawableId != 0) {
                val drawable = AppCompatResources.getDrawable(context, drawableId)
                image_thumb.setImageDrawable(drawable)
            }
            text_title.text = text
        } finally {
            ta.recycle()
        }
    }
}

custom_layout.xml

We should use merge here instead of ConstraintLayout because

If we use ConstraintLayout here, layout hierarchy will be ConstraintLayout->ConstraintLayout -> ImageView + TextView => we have 1 redundant ConstraintLayout => not very good for performance

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<merge 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"
    tools:parentTag="android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/image_thumb"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        tools:ignore="ContentDescription"
        tools:src="@mipmap/ic_launcher" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_title"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@id/image_thumb"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@id/image_thumb"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/image_thumb"
        tools:text="Text" />

</merge>

Using activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout 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:orientation="vertical">

    <your_package.CustomView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#f00"
        app:image="@drawable/ic_android"
        app:text="Android" />

    <your_package.CustomView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#0f0"
        app:image="@drawable/ic_adb"
        app:text="ADB" />

</LinearLayout>

Result

Github demo

In practice, I have found that you need to be a bit careful, especially if you are using a bit of xml repeatedly. Suppose, for example, that you have a table that you wish to create a table row for each entry in a list. You've set up some xml:

In my_table_row.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TableRow xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
  android:orientation="vertical"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="match_parent" android:id="@+id/myTableRow">
    <ImageButton android:src="@android:drawable/ic_menu_delete" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/rowButton"/>
    <TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" android:text="TextView" android:id="@+id/rowText"></TextView>
</TableRow>

Then you want to create it once per row with some code. It assume that you have defined a parent TableLayout myTable to attach the Rows to.

for (int i=0; i<numRows; i++) {
    /*
     * 1. Make the row and attach it to myTable. For some reason this doesn't seem
     * to return the TableRow as you might expect from the xml, so you need to
     * receive the View it returns and then find the TableRow and other items, as
     * per step 2.
     */
    LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)getBaseContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    View v =  inflater.inflate(R.layout.my_table_row, myTable, true);

    // 2. Get all the things that we need to refer to to alter in any way.
    TableRow    tr        = (TableRow)    v.findViewById(R.id.profileTableRow);
    ImageButton rowButton = (ImageButton) v.findViewById(R.id.rowButton);
    TextView    rowText   = (TextView)    v.findViewById(R.id.rowText);

    // 3. Configure them out as you need to
    rowText.setText("Text for this row");
    rowButton.setId(i); // So that when it is clicked we know which one has been clicked!
    rowButton.setOnClickListener(this); // See note below ...           

    /*
     * To ensure that when finding views by id on the next time round this
     * loop (or later) gie lots of spurious, unique, ids.
     */
    rowText.setId(1000+i);
    tr.setId(3000+i);
}

For a clear simple example on handling rowButton.setOnClickListener(this), see Onclicklistener for a programatically created button.