Android: Tabs at the BOTTOM

Question

Here's the simplest, most robust, and scalable solution to get tabs on the bottom of the screen.

1. In your vertical LinearLayout, put the FrameLayout above the TabWidget
2. Set layout_height to wrap_content on both FrameLayout and TabWidget
3. Set FrameLayout's android:layout_weight="1"
4. Set TabWidget's android:layout_weight="0" (0 is default, but for emphasis, readability, etc)
5. Set TabWidget's android:layout_marginBottom="-4dp" (to remove the bottom divider)

Full code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@android:id/tabhost"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:padding="5dp">

        <FrameLayout
            android:id="@android:id/tabcontent"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:padding="5dp"
            android:layout_weight="1"/>

        <TabWidget
            android:id="@android:id/tabs"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="0"
            android:layout_marginBottom="-4dp"/>

    </LinearLayout>

</TabHost>

Try it ;) Just watch the content of the FrameLayout(@id/tabcontent), because I don't know how it will handle in case of scrolling... In my case it works because I used ListView as the content of my tabs. :) Hope it helps.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@android:id/tabhost"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <RelativeLayout 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">
        <FrameLayout android:id="@android:id/tabcontent"
             android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
             android:layout_height="fill_parent"
             android:layout_alignParentTop="true" 
             android:layout_above="@android:id/tabs" />
    <TabWidget android:id="@android:id/tabs"
             android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
             android:layout_height="wrap_content"
             android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" />
    </RelativeLayout>
</TabHost>

There is a way to remove the line.

1) Follow this tutorial: android-tabs-with-fragments

2) Then apply the RelativeLayout change that Leaudro suggested above (apply the layout props to all FrameLayouts).

You can also add an ImageView to the tab.xml in item #1 and get a very iPhone like look to the tabs.

Here is a screenshot of what I'm working on right now. I still have some work to do, mainly make a selector for the icons and ensure equal horizontal distribution, but you get the idea. In my case, I'm using fragments, but the same principals should apply to a standard tab view.

Not sure if it will work for all versions of Android (especially those with custom UI stuff), but I was able to remove the gray bar at the bottom by adding

 android:layout_marginBottom="-3dp"

to the TabWidget XML...

For all those of you that try to remove the separating line of the tabWidget, here is an example project (and its respective tutorial), that work great for customizing the tabs and thus removing problems when tabs are at bottom. Eclipse Project: android-custom-tabs ; Original explanation: blog; Hope this helped.