Constraint Layout behaviour to match Linear layout behaviour

Question

I wondered how to achive the same behaviour from Constraint Layout, it is easily doable with Linear layout, as you can see I have three views in a vertical linear layout , if I change visibility of midle one (textview2) to GONE , textView3 will shift up and replace it.

<?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:orientation="vertical"
    >
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView1"
        />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView2"
        />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView3"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView3"
        />

</LinearLayout>

so it changes from to

My question is how to achive this Linear layout feature with Constraint layout?

Requirement is first item (textview1) should not move down - only textview3 should shift up to fill the missing textview2 spaces

---

I tried following by adding this to textview1 app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed" but it does not have the same result as I want as it moves textview1 a bit dowan and textview3 a bit up to compensate on the missing space of textview2 (when it is GONE)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="droidmentor.searchviewsample.ConstaintTest"
    >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView1"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/textView2"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/textView2"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/textView2"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed"
        />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView2"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/textView3"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/textView3"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/textView3"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView1"
        />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView3"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView3"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView2"/>
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Answer 1

I think chain is met your needs

Try below code , you can change layout_constraintVertical_bias accorging to your ui

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView6"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginStart="1dp"
    android:text="TextView"
    app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/textView7"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.05"
    app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView7"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="TextView"
    app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/textView8"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/textView6"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView6" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView8"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginEnd="1dp"
    android:text="TextView"
    app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/textView7"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView7" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Answer 2

Use the following code:

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

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView1"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="TextView1"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView2"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="TextView2"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView1"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@id/textView1" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView3"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="TextView3"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView2"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@id/textView2" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Answer 3

I tried this configuration and it seemed to perform like the LinearLayout:

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
             xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
             xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" 
             android:paddingStart="8dp"
             android:paddingEnd="8dp"
             android:layout_width="match_parent"
             android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/te1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@color/red"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        tools:text="@tools:sample/cities"/>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/te2"
        android:background="@color/dark_green"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/te1"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        tools:text="@tools:sample/cities"/>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/te3"
        android:background="@color/blue_custom"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/te2"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        tools:text="@tools:sample/cities"/>
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Note: I am using custom colors from my color.xml file to highlight the background in order to better see the TextViews