Android Module Development - Part 5

This is the follow up post from Android Module Development series. Today I am
going to continue with next topic which is Using XML layouts in modules.

1. Understanding methods, properties, constants and module life cycle
2. Using event listeners and callbacks in Module
3. Converting native control into Titanium view
4. Accessing module and app resources
5. Using XML layouts in modules

Usually in native Android development, we will define out user interface and layouts in xml file. Same thing we can implement in Titanium Android module also. For that we have to use LayoutInflater.

LayoutInflater class is used to instantiate layout XML file into its corresponding View objects. In other words, it takes as input an XML file and builds the View objects from it.

Lets consider our RatingBar module, here I am using xml layout file (raingbar_layout.xml) to create RatingBar with custom styles. In module I can access the xml layout elements in following way

//declaration
View raingBarWrapper;
int resId_raingBarHolder = -1, resId_ratingBar = -1;

//fetching app package name and resources 
String packageName = proxy.getActivity().getPackageName();
Resources resources = proxy.getActivity().getResources();

//fetching resource id
resId_raingBarHolder = resources.getIdentifier("raingbar_layout", "layout", packageName);
resId_ratingBar = resources.getIdentifier("ratingbar_default","id", packageName);

LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(getActivity());
//inflating "raingbar_layout" xml file
raingBarWrapper = inflater.inflate(resId_raingBarHolder, null);

//getting reference to RatingBar component in layout
ratingBar = (RatingBar) raingBarWrapper.findViewById(resId_ratingBar);
setNativeView(raingBarWrapper);

//adding properties to RatingBar component
ratingBar.setNumStars(stars);
ratingBar.setStepSize(stepSize);
ratingBar.setRating(rating);

XML layout file (raingbar_layout.xml)

Source Code:
You can download entire RatingBar module source code here https://github.com/railskarthi/Ratingbar