ListView not getting space to show content on smal

Question

So I am developing a screen where there are some images and buttons on top and Below that is a list view which shows a list of some activity.

The design is something like this :-

Now on smaller screen the ListView height becomes very small as the screen space is taken up by the above icons and images.

So how can i increase the height of the Linearlayout or ListView so that user can scroll to the see the rest of the ListView.

 <LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
         .... Other Layouts .....

     <ListView
        android:id="@+id/listArea"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:paddingLeft="@dimen/list_padding"
        android:paddingRight="@dimen/list_padding" />
</LinearLayout>

Edit: Tried using the top view as a header to the List but since I want an EmptyView too, this is creating a problem as it replaces the whole header + listview

Answer 1

You can use the weightSum and layout_weight attributes to control how much of the parent's available space a child view will take up. To use these, a parent layout, for example, your LinearLayout, gets the android:weightSum attribute. Each child layout gets the android:layout_weight attribute, where the sum of all child weights is the weightSum of the parent. In addition, each child should have their layout_height or layout_width set to 0dp, whichever is going to be decided by the weight.

Here's an example based on your diagram. Let's say you want the two top views to take up 1/4 of the screen each, and the ListView to take up the bottom half. Add android:weightSum="4" to your LinearLayout, android:layout_weight="1" to the two child layouts that you represent with ...Other Layouts..., and android:layout_weight="2" to the ListView. Code might look something like this:

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" 
    android:weightSum="4">

    <ImageView
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        ...some other attributes.../>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        ...some other attributes...>
        ...some children of the LinearLayout...
    </LinearLayout>

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/listArea"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:paddingLeft="@dimen/list_padding"
        android:paddingRight="@dimen/list_padding" 
        android:layout_weight="2"/>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 2

From what I read about that issue, you should specify the Views on top as header of the list, and the'll scroll properly.

Afaik this only works if the list is non-empty, as the empty view replaces the whole list including headers.