Android - how to make a scrollable constraintlayout?

Question

It seems that it is working, I don't know what dependency you were working with but in this one

compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'

Is working, this is what I did

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView 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"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
            android:id="@+id/til_input"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:hint="Escriba el contenido del archivo"
            app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintRight_toLeftOf="@+id/btn_save"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@id/btn_save"
            app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="spread">

            <EditText
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent" />
        </android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/btn_save"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:onClick="onClickButtonSave"
            android:text="Guardar"
            app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="@+id/til_input"
            app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/txt_content"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginTop="0dp"
            app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/til_input"
            app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="spread"
            app:layout_constraintVertical_weight="1" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/btn_delete"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:onClick="onClickButtonDelete"
            android:text="Eliminar"
            app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/txt_content"
            app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="spread" />

    </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

</ScrollView>

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Scroll Bottom

There is a type of constraint which breaks the scroll function:

Just make sure you are not using this constraint on any view when wanting your ConstraintLayout to be scrollable with ScrollView :

app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf=“parent”

If you remove these your scroll should work.

Explanation:

Setting the height of the child to match that of a ScrollView parent is contradictory to what the component is meant to do. What we want most of the time is for some dynamic sized content to be scrollable when it is larger than a screen/frame; matching the height with the parent ScrollView would force all the content to be displayed into a fixed frame (the height of the parent) hence invalidating any scrolling functionality.

This also happens when regular direct child components are set to layout_height="match_parent".

If you want the child of the ScrollView to match the height of the parent when there is not enough content, simply set android:fillViewport to true for the ScrollView.

Use NestedScrollView with viewport true is working good for me

<android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:fillViewport="true">

        <android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="700dp">

        </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

</android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView>

for android x use this

 <androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:fillViewport="true">
    <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">
.....other views....

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
    </androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView>

To summarize, you basically wrap your android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout view in a ScrollView within the text of the *.xml file associated with your layout.

Example activity_sign_in.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<ScrollView 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"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".SignInActivity"> <!-- usually the name of the Java file associated with this activity -->

    <android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 
        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"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:background="@drawable/gradient"
        tools:context="app.android.SignInActivity">

        <!-- all the layout details of your page -->

    </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>
</ScrollView>

---

Note 1: The scroll bars only appear if a wrap is needed in any way, including the keyboard popping up.

Note 2: It also wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure your ConstraintLayout is big enough to the reach the bottom and sides of any given screen, especially if you have a background, as this will ensure that there isn't odd whitespace. You can do this with spaces if nothing else.

Just use constraint layout inside NestedScrollView or ScrollView.

<android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView
        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"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:background="@color/white">

 </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

</android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView>

thats it. enjoy your coding.

A lot of answers here, nothing really simple. It's important that the ScrollView's layout_height is set to match_parent while the layout_height of the ContraintLayout is wrap_content

<ScrollView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    >

    <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    
    ...

TO make a scrollable layout, the layout is correct. It will not be scrollable until there is reason to scroll(just like in any other layout). So add enough content and it will be scrollable, just like with any layout(Linear, Relative, etc). However, you cannot scroll properly in Blueprint or design-mode when designing with ConstraintLayout and ScrollView.

Meaning:

You can make a scrollable ConstraintLayout, but it will not scroll properly in the editor due to a bug/scenario that wasn't considered. But even though scrolling doesn't work in the editor, it works on devices. (I have made several scrolling COnstraintLayouts, so I have tested it)

Note

Regarding your code. The ScrollView is missing a closing tag, I don't know if it is the case in the file or if it is a copy-paste miss, but you may want to look at it.