Creating a widget at runtime

As mentioned before, generally, the UI is declared in XML files and then modified during runtime through the Java code. It is possible to create the UI completely in Java code, though for a complex layout, it would generally not be considered best practice.

In this recipe, we are going to add a view to the existing layout defined in activity_main.xml.

Getting ready

Create a new project in Android Studio and call it RuntimeWidget. Select the Empty Activity option when prompted for the Activity Type.

How to do it...

We will start by adding an...