A Question For Anyone Experienced With Android And Xml To Explain A Mystery

I am currently developing an app and I came across a bug where two EditTexts just would not wrap inside a constraint layout. I tried everything to fix the problem. placing LinearLa

Solution 1:

The issue comes about because app:layout_constrainedHeight="true" is specified for both of the include files. Only the first app:layout_constrainedHeight="true" is honored and the second is not.

Here is a simplified layout to demonstrate the problem:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    android:id="@+id/decoder_text_to_morse_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatEditText
        android:id="@+id/include_text"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@color/red"
        android:hint="Text"
        app:layout_constrainedHeight="true"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/include_morse"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed" />

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatEditText
        android:id="@+id/include_morse"
        layout="@layout/layout_edit_text_morse"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@color/darkGreen"
        android:hint="Morse"
        android:inputType="textMultiLine"
        app:layout_constrainedHeight="false"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/include_text" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Since only the first view with app:layout_constrainedHeight="true" is honored, then the order will matter. You can try various combinations of this flag in the above layout to see what I mean. (ConstraintLayout version 2.0.4 is used.)

I would expect both flags to be honored instead of just one, but this is one of those cases where it is difficult to discern whether it is a defect or just a limitation.

Setting app:layout_constrainedHeight="false" for both views and relying on the vertical chain to do its job works a little better, but the layout slides a little beneath the status and navigation bars on the emulator.