java - getHeight returns 0 for all Android UI objects

Question

I'm building a UI, and it's all static defined in the XML. All of it has weights all over the place, and while it looks right, I wanted to see that things actually have the right height and all. The problem is that no matter where I call .getHeight() for my format layout I got 0. I tried in both onCreate() and onStart(). Same thing. Happens for all UI objects too. Any idea?

package com.app.conekta;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.Window;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.FrameLayout;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class Conekta extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

    }

    @Override
    public void onStart() {

        super.onStart();


    }

    @Override
    public void onResume() {
        super.onResume();

        FrameLayout fl1 = (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.headerFrameLayout);
        FrameLayout fl2 = (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.footerFrameLayout);
        Button b=(Button) findViewById(R.id.searchButton);

        Log.d("CONEKTA", String.valueOf(b.getHeight()));

    }
}

XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >



    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/headerFrameLayout"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="0.05"
        android:background="#597eAA" >

        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/logoImage"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:background="#7ba1d1"
            android:src="@drawable/logo_conekta" />
    </FrameLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/bodyLinearLayout"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="0.7"
        android:background="#f3f3f3"
        android:orientation="horizontal" >

        <FrameLayout
            android:id="@+id/leftBlankFrameLayout"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_weight="0.15"
            android:background="#f3f3f3" >
        </FrameLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/centerVerticalLayout"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_weight="0.7"
            android:orientation="vertical" >

            <FrameLayout
                android:id="@+id/topCenterFrameLayout"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.35" >
            </FrameLayout>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/venueLabel"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.025"
                android:text="What are you looking for?"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:textColor="#000000" />

            <EditText
                android:id="@+id/venueTextField"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.025" >

                <requestFocus />
            </EditText>

            <FrameLayout
                android:id="@+id/middleCenterFrameLayout"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.05" >
            </FrameLayout>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/locationLabel"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.025"
                android:text="Where?"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:textColor="#000000" />

            <AutoCompleteTextView
                android:id="@+id/locationTextField"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.025"
                android:text="" />

            <LinearLayout
                android:id="@+id/buttonLinearLayout"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.05"
                android:background="#f3f3f3"
                android:orientation="horizontal" >

                <FrameLayout
                    android:id="@+id/leftButtonLinearLayout"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                    android:layout_weight="0.1" >
                </FrameLayout>

                <Button
                    android:id="@+id/searchButton"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                    android:layout_weight="0.8"
                    android:background="#6fa8dc"
                    android:text="Search" />

                <FrameLayout
                    android:id="@+id/rightButtonLinearLayout"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                    android:layout_weight="0.1" >
                </FrameLayout>
            </LinearLayout>

            <FrameLayout
                android:id="@+id/bottomCenterFrameLayout"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="0.35" >
            </FrameLayout>
        </LinearLayout>

        <FrameLayout
            android:id="@+id/rightBlankFrameLayout"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_weight="0.15"
            android:background="#f3f3f3" >
        </FrameLayout>
    </LinearLayout>

    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/footerFrameLayout"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="0.15"
        android:background="#7ba1d1" >
    </FrameLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

It's 0 because in both onCreate and onStart, the view hasn't actually been drawn yet. You can get around this by listening for when the view is actually drawn:

final TextView tv = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.venueLabel);
final ViewTreeObserver observer= tv.getViewTreeObserver();
       observer.addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
            @Override
            public void onGlobalLayout() {
              tv.getHeight()
              observer.removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(this);
            }
        });

The call to remove the listener is there to prevent repeated invocations of your custom handler on layout changes... if you want to get those, you can omit it.