Child of RelativeLayout is not filling the height of the RelativeLayout

Question

I have a ListView which gets populated with RelativeLayouts. The content of these RelativeLayouts can change and thus change their height respectively. On each RelativeLayout, I have a little vertical bar on the left side of the layout that matches the height of the layout.

It's a similar look to this -> Link

Though for some reason, the View object that I'm using isn't expanding to the height of the layout.

What am I doing wrong?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/post"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/column_post_selector"
android:orientation="horizontal" >

<!-- Status bar (THIS ISN'T FILLING TO PARENTS' HEIGHT) -->
<View
    android:id="@+id/status"
    android:layout_width="3dp"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_alignLeft="@id/post"
    android:layout_marginBottom="2dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="2dp"
    android:background="#33B5E5" />

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/thumbnail"
    android:layout_width="80dip"
    android:layout_height="80dip"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/status"
    android:contentDescription="@string/empty"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
    android:scaleType="fitStart" />

<!-- Title -->

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/title"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignTop="@id/post"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/thumbnail"
    android:textColor="#ffffff"
    android:textSize="14sp"
    android:typeface="sans" />
<!-- Rightend Duration -->

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/date"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
    android:layout_alignTop="@id/title"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dip"
    android:gravity="right"
    android:textColor="#10bcc9"
    android:textSize="12sp"
    android:textStyle="bold" />

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

I had a similar issue inside the cells of my RecyclerView which had a RelativeLayout as root element.

A workaround for me was wrapping an extra LinearLayout around the root RelativeLayout element.

So you card looks like this:

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

        <RelativeLayout 
                    android:layout_width="match_parent"
                    android:layout_height="match_parent">
            <View
                android:id="@+id/view_with_same_height_as_parent"
                android:layout_width="10dp"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
                android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>
...


    </RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28799251/3708094

Answer 2

If your RelativeLayout is inside a ScrollView, then on the ScrollView you need to add the fillViewPort param and set it to true

  <ScrollView
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="match_parent"
      android:fillViewport="true">