Layout Background Help

Hi,

I'm just getting my feet wet. Initially I'm trying to make some simple changes to a watchface using the layout system and am not seeing the changes I expect.

I tried modifying the layout xml file to specify a background color and it does not appear to change. If I am reading the User Interface guide correct, I should be able to set the background property and I would expect the background to actually change.

<layout id="WatchFace" background="Gfx.COLOR_WHITE">

    <label id="TimeLabel" x="center" y="center" font="Gfx.FONT_LARGE" justification="Gfx.TEXT_JUSTIFY_CENTER" color="Gfx.COLOR_WHITE" />

</layout>

In the simulator I still see a black background.

I can change the text color and see that change so I'm pretty sure I'm changing the right file and the layout is set correctly etc. Am I misunderstanding the background feature of the layout?

I'm sure I'm doing something silly and once I see a working example I'll see how easy it is... but for the moment, not so much. I can clear it manually using setColor and clear on the DrawingContext, but I figured it would be part of the layout.

As I'm writing this and thinking about it, maybe in the example, that is what the Mainbackground drawable is, just a rectangle the size of the screen "clearing the view"?

Secondly, I see references to the resource compiler being smart about laying out out for various devices. Is there a way of controlling positioning in the resource/layout files that isn't absolute positioning? I can set the x and y of a bitmap, but I have to know what device I'm targetting if I want that centered for example.

Maybe these are all answered somewhere and I'm missing the magic documentation link.

Thanks,

Ben

tonny.madsen over 10 years ago

I have seen the same problem. Unfortunately, I never got around to reporting it...

hawken over 10 years ago

I've been able to replicate this. I'll check into it and get it reported.

Former Member over 10 years ago

I have a simular but different problem with background.
In the programmers guide it says that the default color of a shape is "Current draw context’s foreground color."

I have a layout:

<layout id="MainLayout">

	<drawable id="background" />

</layout>

<drawable-list id="background">

	<shape id="MainBackground" type="rectangle"/>

</drawable-list>

And in code:

dc.setColor(Gfx.COLOR_RED, Gfx.COLOR_RED);

        View.setLayout(Rez.Layouts.MainLayout(dc));

    	View.onUpdate(dc);

With this I would have expected the background of my data field to turn red, but it does not.
If I give my shape a color attribute, that works fine. I can't however retreive the shape with View.findDrawableById("MainBackground") to change it.

BENMULLIN over 10 years ago

Thanks for the feedback folks.

I also answered a few of my own questions I think.

I'm getting a better understanding of "overriding resource files". I think that is part of my answer for how to handle different models.

The other part is realizing that the x field has a valid value of "center". I noticed it in the text field for the time and tried it with a bitmap and it worked. The documentation only states that it is a pixel value but obviously there are more options. It would be nice if the documentation was updated to reflect all of the options available.