屏幕元素的层次

The basic functional unit of an Android application is the activity--an object of the class android.app.Activity. An activity can do many things, but by itself it does not have a presence on the screen. To give your activity a screen presence and design its UI, you work with views and viewgroups -- basic units of user interface expression on the Android platform.

Android应用程序的基础功能单元就是Activity--android.app.Activity类中的一个对象。一个Activity可以做很多事，但是他自己并不会显示到屏幕上。想要让你的Activity显示在屏幕上并且设计它的UI，你需要使用view和viewgroup--Android平台基础的用户界面表达单元。

Views

A view is an object of base class android.view.View. It's a data structure whose properties store the layout and content for a specific rectangular area of the screen. A View object handles measuring and layout, drawing, focus change, scrolling, and key/gestures for the screen area it represents.

一个view是一个android.view.View基础类的对象。它是一个存储有屏幕上特定的一个矩形内布局和内容属性的数据结构。一个View对象处理测距和布局，绘图，焦点变换，滚动条，还有屏幕区域自己表现的按键和手势。

The View class serves as a base class for widgets -- a set of fully implemented subclasses that draw interactive screen elements. Widgets handle their own measuring and drawing, so you can use them to build your UI more quickly. The list of widgets available includes Text, EditText, InputMethod, MovementMethod, Button, RadioButton, Checkbox, and ScrollView.

View类作为一个基类为widget（窗体部件）服务，widget--是一组用于绘制交互屏幕元素的完全实现子类。Widget处理它们自己的测距和绘图，所以你可以更快速地用它们去构建你的UI。可用到的widget包括Text，EditText，InputMethod，Button，RadioButton，Checkbox，和ScrollView。

Viewgroups

A viewgroup is an object of class android.view.Viewgroup. As its name indicates, a viewgroup is a special type of view object whose function is to contain and manage a subordinate set of views and other viewgroups, Viewgroups let you add structure to your UI and build up complex screen elements that can be addressed as a single entity.

一个ViewGroup是一个android.view.Viewgroup类的对象。正如同它的名字表明的一样，一个viewgroup是一个特殊的view对象，它的功能是去装载和管理一组下层的view和其他viewgroup，Viewgroup让你可以为你的UI增加结构并且将复杂的屏幕元素构建成一个独立的实体。

The Viewgroup class serves as a base class for layouts -- a set of fully implemented subclasses that provide common types of screen layout. The layouts give you a way to build a structure for a set of views.

Viewgroup类作为一个基类为layout（布局）服务，layout--是一组提供屏幕界面通用类型的完全实现子类。layout让你可以为一组view构建一个结构。

A Tree-Structured UI

On the Android platform, you define an Activity's UI using a tree of view and viewgroup nodes, as shown in the diagram below. The tree can be as simple or complex as you need to make it, and you can build it up using Android's set of predefined widgets and layouts or custom view types that you create yourself.

在Android平台上，你用view树和viewgroup节点来定义一个Activity的UI，就如同下面图表一样。这个树可以如你需要那样简单或者复杂，并且你可以使用Android的预定义widget和layout或者你自定义的view类型来构建它。

An example of a tree of views and viewgroups 一个view和viewgroup树的样例

http://code.google.com/android/images/viewgroup.png

To attach the tree to the screen for rendering, your Activity calls its setContentView() method and passes a reference to the root node object. Once the Android system has the reference to the root node object, it can work directly with the node to invalidate, measure, and draw the tree. When your Activity becomes active and receives focus, the system notifies your activity and requests the root node to measure and draw the tree. The root node then requests that its child nodes draw themselves -- in turn, each viewgroup node in the tree is responsible for drawing its direct children.

要将屏幕绑定一个树以便于渲染，你的Activity调用它的setContentView()方法并且传递一个参数给根节点对象。一旦Android系统获得了根节点的参数，它就可以直接通过节点来无效化，测距和绘制树。当你的Activity被激活并且获得焦点时，系统会通知你的activity并且请求根节点去测距并绘制树，根节点就会请求它的子节点去绘制它们自己。每个树上的viewgroup节点都为它的子节点的绘制负责。

As mentioned previously, each view group has the responsibility of measuring its available space, laying out its children, and calling Draw() on each child to let it render itself. The children may request a size and location in the parent, but the parent object has the final decision on where how big each child can be.

正如之前提到的，每个view group都有测量它的有效空间，布局它的子对象，并且调用每个子对象的Draw()方法去绘制它们自己。子对象可能会请求获得一个它们在父对象中的大小和位置，但是父对象对于每个子对象的大小和位置有最终的决定权。

LayoutParams：一个子对象如何指定它的位置和大小

Every viewgroup class uses a nested class that extends ViewGroup.LayoutParams. This subclass contains property types that define a child's size and position, in properties appropriate for that view group class.

每个viewgroup类都会使用一个继承于Viewgroup.LayoutParams的嵌套类。这个子类包含了包含了定义一个子对象位置和大小的属性类型，并且需适用于view group类。

An example of layoutparams

layoutparams的一个样例

<img src="http://code.google.com/android/images/layoutparams.png" />

Note that every LayoutParams subclass has its own syntax for setting values. Each child element must define LayoutParams that are appropriate for its parent, although it may define different LayoutParams for its children.

要注意的是，每个LayoutParams子类都有它自己赋值的语法。每个子元素必须定义适用于它们父对象的LayoutParams，尽管父对象可能会为子元素定义不同的LayoutParams。

All viewgroups include width and height. Many also include margins and borders. You can specify width and height exactly, though you probably won't want to do this often. More often you will tell your view to size itself either to the dimensions of its content, or to become as big as its containing object will allow.

所有的viewgroup都包括宽和高。很多还包括边界的定义（margin和border）。你可以非常精确地描述宽和高，尽管你并不想经常这么做。更多时候你希望你的view自行调整到适应内容大小，或者适应容器大小。