Layout not visible on Android

Question

I've a SwipeRefreshLayout. If the user haven't streams I want to show the error page, else the RecyclerView.

The RecyclerView works fine, but if the user haven't streams, the error page is not showing.

This is my code

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

    <android.support.v4.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout
        android:id="@+id/swipeRefreshLayout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" >

        <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
            android:id="@+id/recyclerview_stream"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:paddingBottom="@dimen/feed_item_padding_topbottom"
            android:paddingTop="@dimen/feed_item_padding_topbottom"
            android:scrollbars="vertical" />

        <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/error_page"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_gravity="center"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical" >

            <ImageView
                android:layout_width="@dimen/no_found_width"
                android:layout_height="@dimen/no_found_height"
                android:layout_marginBottom="15dp"
                android:src="@drawable/ic_no_found" />

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/error_text"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:gravity="center"
                android:text="@string/not_found"
                android:textSize="@dimen/error_page_textsize" />
        </LinearLayout>

    </android.support.v4.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

You can control the visibility of the views by adjusting the visible property.

There are three possible states:

VISIBLE,INVISIBLE and GONE (does not consume space in the layout).

eg.

// no error
errorView.setVisibility(View.GONE); 
recylverView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

// if error
errorView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); 
recylverView.setVisibility(View.GONE);

See this link for more details on controlling the visibility. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#setVisibility(int)

You can also set the property in the layout xml file. probably it would make sense to set the error view to "GONE"