Working with Tab Layout in Mono For Android

Introduction

When you want to wrap multiple views in a single window and navigate thought them with a Tab Container, you have to use Tab Layouts. The container object for TabLayout is Android.Widget.TabHost. When the user selects a tab, this object sends a message to the parent container, TabHost, to tell it to switch the displayed page.

TabHost is used to navigate through multiple views within the same activity.

syntex:

[Android.Runtime.Register("android/widget/TabWidget")]
public class TabWidget : LinearLayout, Android.Views.View.IOnFocusChangeListener

The Activity of Tab Layout goes like:

Activity

-TabHost

-TabWidget

-FrameLayout

-TabsContent

First, we create TabHost
Than create TabWidget
Than Create FrameLayout
Last, create the Content for the Tabs

Let's look at an example in which you'll create a tabbed UI that uses a separate an Activity for each tab:

Step 1: Start a new Mono for Android Application in Visual Studio 2010 named AndroidTabLayout.

Step 2: Add the images to your project Resources/Drawable/ like I add android.png and, and set the Build Action of image to AndroidResource in the property window.

Step 3 : Open the Resources/Layout/Main.axml file and edit the code like below code:

Main.axml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@android:id/tabh"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<TabWidget
android:id="@android:id/alltabs"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<FrameLayout
android:id="@android:id/tabcontents"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/imageview1"
android:src="@drawable/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textview1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:textSize="15px"
android:text="ANDROID" />
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textview2"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:textSize="15px"
android:text="Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system,
middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs
necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java
programming language." />
</FrameLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</TabHost>

In the above code, we first create a TabHost than, as it required, the TabWidget and a FrameLayout both live somewhere within it. To position the TabWidget and FrameLayout vertically, a LinearLayout is used, and inside the FrameLayout we create one ImageView and two TextViews to customize the tabs.

Step 4: Now open the Activity1.cs and use the following code:

Activity1.cs file

using System;
using Android.App;
using Android.Content;
using Android.Runtime;
using Android.Views;
using Android.Widget;
using Android.OS;
namespace AndroidTabLayout
{
[Activity(Label = "AndroidTabLayout", MainLauncher = true)]
public class Activity1 : TabActivity
{
protected override void OnCreate(Bundle bundle)
{
base.OnCreate(bundle);
// Set our view from the "main" layout resource
SetContentView(Resource.Layout.Main);
TabHost.TabSpec con;
con = TabHost.NewTabSpec("tab_test1").SetIndicator("IMAGE").SetContent(Resource.Id.imageview1);
TabHost.AddTab(con);
con = TabHost.NewTabSpec("tab_test2").SetIndicator("NAME").SetContent(Resource.Id.textview1);
TabHost.AddTab(con);
con = TabHost.NewTabSpec("tab_test3").SetIndicator("DESCRIPTION").SetContent(Resource.Id.textview2);
TabHost.AddTab(con);
TabHost.CurrentTab = 0;
}
}
}

In the above code, you see the first we change the base class from Activity to TabActivity, By default, the base class will be set to an Activity. After that we use two methods, SetIndicator() to set the text for the tab button, and SetContent() to define which View we want to associate with the tab and reveal when pressed.

Step 5: Run your application.

In this application, you see how all the tabs are categorized for different types of information, when you click on a particular tab the related information of the tab will be displayed in the content area.

Your application looks like:

By default, the content of the first Tab will be displayed:

Now click on the second Tab, the name will display:

Now click on the third Tab, the description will display:

Thank You............

3 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

jose fidalgo13y ago
to where this set the tabhost, give me also error AddTab (??sp1);
Andrew13y ago
I had to make the following changes for my proj to compile: android:id="@+id/tabh" android:id="@+id/alltabs" android:id="@+id/tabcontents"
Saqi14y ago
thanks . how to set image background tab button.