Android gridview equivalent for earlier sdk

Question

I'm trying to create a detail view to display mostly textviews. I think that a gridview would be ideal, it doesn't seem to work well with my project which I use ActionBarSherlock for downward compatibility. I've tried using both relative layout and table layout, but I'm not sure how to accomplish what I want.

Here is what I have so far, but I need to have the first column width no greater than the element in it, ie: image, multiline textview, etc..:

<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@color/lemon" >

    <TableRow
        android:id="@+id/tableRow1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:padding="5sp" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/placard"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="24sp"
            android:textStyle="bold" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/material"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
            android:maxLines="5"
            android:padding="10sp"
            android:textColor="#0000ff"
            android:textSize="12sp"
            android:textStyle="bold" />
    </TableRow>

    <TableRow
        android:id="@+id/tableRow2"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/div_text"
            android:layout_width="0dip"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:paddingBottom="5sp"
            android:paddingLeft="10sp"
            android:paddingTop="5sp"
            android:text="@string/division"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="14sp" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/division"
            android:layout_width="0dip"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:paddingBottom="5sp"
            android:paddingLeft="10sp"
            android:paddingTop="5sp"
            android:textColor="#0000ff"
            android:textSize="16sp"
            android:textStyle="bold" />
    </TableRow>

    <TableRow
        android:id="@+id/tableRow3"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/hazards"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:paddingBottom="5sp"
            android:paddingLeft="10sp"
            android:paddingTop="5sp"
            android:textColor="#0000ff"
            android:textSize="14sp" />
    </TableRow>

</TableLayout>

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you are referring to GridLayout, which was introduced in API 14 (Android 4.0). However, the latest version of the support library includes a library project that you can use to incorporate GridLayout into your application and have it compatible back to API 7 (Android 2.1).

Because you are trying to make the rows asymmetric from one to the other, I believe GridLayout may still be your best (only) option.

Here is a link to the support library page.

HTH