Android getMeasuredHeight returns wrong values !

Question

I'm trying to determine the real dimension in pixels of some UI elements !

Those elements are inflated from a .xml file and are initialized with dip width and height so that the GUI will eventually support multiple screen size and dpi (as recommended by android specs).

<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="150dip"
android:orientation="vertical">
    
<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/TlFrame" 
    android:layout_width="110dip" 
    android:layout_height="90dip"
    android:src="@drawable/timeline_nodrawing"
    android:layout_margin="0dip"
    android:padding="0dip"/></LinearLayout>

This previous xml represent one frame. But I do add many dynamically inside a horizontal layout describe here :

<HorizontalScrollView 
        android:id="@+id/TlScroller"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_margin="0dip"
        android:padding="0dip"
        android:scrollbars="none"
        android:fillViewport="false"
        android:scrollbarFadeDuration="0"
        android:scrollbarDefaultDelayBeforeFade="0"
        android:fadingEdgeLength="0dip"
        android:scaleType="centerInside">
        
        <!-- HorizontalScrollView can only host one direct child -->
        <LinearLayout 
            android:id="@+id/TimelineContent" 
            android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
            android:layout_margin="0dip"
            android:padding="0dip"
            android:scaleType="centerInside"/>
   
    </HorizontalScrollView > 

The method defined to add one frame inside my java code :

private void addNewFrame()
{       
    LayoutInflater inflater     = (LayoutInflater) _parent.getContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    ViewGroup root      = (ViewGroup) inflater.inflate(R.layout.tl_frame, null);
    TextView frameNumber = (TextView) root.findViewById(R.id.FrameNumber);
    Integer val = new Integer(_nFramesDisplayed+1); //+1 to display ids starting from one on the user side 
    frameNumber.setText(val.toString());
    
    ++_nFramesDisplayed;
    _content.addView(root);
// _content variable is initialized like this in c_tor
// _content = (LinearLayout) _parent.findViewById(R.id.TimelineContent);
}

Then inside my code, I try to get the actual real size in pixel because I need this to draw some opengl stuff over it.

LayoutInflater inflater     = (LayoutInflater) _parent.getContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    ViewGroup root      = (ViewGroup) inflater.inflate(R.layout.tl_frame, null);
    ImageView frame = (ImageView) root.findViewById(R.id.TlFrame);
    
    frame.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
    frame.measure(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

    final int w = frame.getMeasuredWidth();
    final int h = frame.getMeasuredHeight();

Everything seems to work fine except that those values are way bigger than the actual pixel size of the ImageView.

Reported infos from getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics); are the following : density = 1,5 densityDpi = 240 widthPixel = 600 heightPixel = 1024

Now, I know the rule from android is : pixel = dip * (dpi /160). But nothing makes any sense with the value returned. For that ImageView of (90dip X 110dip), the returned values of the measure() method is (270 x 218) which I assumed is in pixel !

Anyone has any idea why ? Is the value returned in pixel ?

By the way : I've been testing the same code but with a TextView instead than an ImageView and everything seems to be working fine ! Why !?!?

Answer 1

You're calling measure incorrectly.

measure takes MeasureSpec values which are specially packed by MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec. measure ignores LayoutParams. The parent doing the measuring is expected to create a MeasureSpec based on its own measurement and layout strategy and the child's LayoutParams.

If you want to measure the way that WRAP_CONTENT usually works in most layouts, call measure like this:

frame.measure(MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(maxWidth, MeasureSpec.AT_MOST),
        MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(maxHeight, MeasureSpec.AT_MOST));

If you don't have max values (for example if you're writing something like a ScrollView that has infinite space) you can use the UNSPECIFIED mode:

frame.measure(MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED),
        MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED));

Answer 2

Do that:

frame.measure(0, 0);

final int w = frame.getMeasuredWidth();
final int h = frame.getMeasuredHeight();

Solved!

Answer 3

Ok ! Kind of Answering my own question here...But not completly

1 - It seems that on some devices, The ImageView measuring do not provide with exact values. I've seen lots of reports on this happenning on Nexus and Galaxy devices for example.

2 - A work around that I've come up with :

Set the width and height of your ImageView to "wrap_content" inside xml code.

Inflate the layout inside your code (generally in the UI initialization I suppose).

LayoutInflater inflater     = (LayoutInflater) 
_parent.getContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
ViewGroup root      = (ViewGroup) inflater.inflate(R.layout.tl_frame, null);
ImageView frame = (ImageView) root.findViewById(R.id.TlFrame);

Calculate your own ratio for your image view, based on the typical Android calculation

//ScreenDpi can be acquired by getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics);
 pixelWidth = wantedDipSize * (ScreenDpi / 160)

Use the calculated size to set your ImageView dynamycally inside your code

frame.getLayoutParams().width = pixeWidth;

And voila ! your ImageView has now the wanted Dip size ;)