Is it possible to enable the "Show layout bounds" developer option programmatically?

Question

For example, I can manipulate ADB debugging using:

Settings.Secure.putInt(getActivity().getContentResolver(),Settings.Secure.ADB_ENABLED, 1);

Is it possible to enable the "Show layout bounds" option in a similar manner? I haven't been able to find any documentation on it.

Answer 1

No, AFAIK it is not available. One thing I have done, however, is tint all my views to see where they are bound and where they overlap, etc. You can use this code, which uses the droidQuery library to select all views to iterate over:

public static void debugLayout(View layout)
{
    $.with(layout).selectAll().each(new Function() {
        @Override
        public void invoke($ d, Object... args) {
            View v = d.view(0);
            Drawable drawable = v.getBackground();
            if (drawable != null)
                drawable.setColorFilter(0xAAFF0000, PorterDuff.Mode.MULTIPLY);
            else
                drawable = new ColorDrawable(0xAAFF0000);
            try {
                //API 16+
                v.setBackground(drawable);
            }
            catch (Throwable t) {
                v.setBackgroundDrawable(drawable);
            }
        }
    });
}

Answer 2

There may be something you can do to simulate what the Settings code actually does:
https://github.com/android/platform_packages_apps_settings/blob/master/src/com/android/settings/DevelopmentSettings.java#L942

private void writeDebugLayoutOptions() {
    SystemProperties.set(View.DEBUG_LAYOUT_PROPERTY,
        mDebugLayout.isChecked() ? "true" : "false");
    pokeSystemProperties();
}