Android Floating Action Button is another interesting component introduced in material design. The floating action button floats on UI in a circular shape with an action attached to it. You can find complete information about floating action button behaviour, transitions and other specs here.

1. Floating Action Button

You can place a floating action button using below design support widget. The layout_gravity attribute is used to define the position of the button.

<android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton
        android:id="@+id/fab"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="bottom|end"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/fab_margin"
        android:src="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_email" />

Now we’ll see the FAB in action by creating a simple project.

2. Creating New Project

1. In Android Studio, go to File ⇒ New Project and fill all the details required to create a new project. I gave my project name as FAB and package name as info.androidhive.fab

2. Open build.gradle and add design support library dependency.

com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1 and com.android.support:design:23.1.1

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.1'
}

3. Open dimens.xml and add below dimensions. You can see fab_margin is added as 16dp

<resources>
    <!-- Default screen margins, per the Android Design guidelines. -->
    <dimen name="activity_horizontal_margin">16dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="activity_vertical_margin">16dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="fab_margin">16dp</dimen>
</resources>

4. Apply the material design to your app by following the steps mentioned here. But if you updated your Android Studio to latest version, the Material Design theme will be applied automatically when you created the new project.

5. Open the layout file of main activity (activity_main.xml) and do the below changes. You can see the Floating Action Button is added in the below layout. This layout contains the toolbar and floating action button needed for the activity.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout 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"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
    tools:context="info.androidhive.fab.MainActivity">

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">

        <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
            app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" />

    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

    <include layout="@layout/content_main" />

    <android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton
        android:id="@+id/fab"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="bottom|end"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/fab_margin"
        android:src="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_email" />

</android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

6. Create another xml layout named content_main.xml and add the below code. This layout contains the actual content of the activity except the toolbar and fab.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 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"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    app:layout_behavior="@string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior"
    tools:context="info.androidhive.fab.MainActivity"
    tools:showIn="@layout/activity_main">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Android Floating Action Button" />
</RelativeLayout>

Now if you run the app, you can see the floating action button displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen.

2.1 Floating Action Button Click Listener

The click event listener of fab is same as a normal button click event. Add the below code to your MainActivity.java to take appropriate action when fab is clicked.

FloatingActionButton fab = (FloatingActionButton) findViewById(R.id.fab);
        fab.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                // Click action
                Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, NewMessageActivity.class);
                startActivity(intent);
            }
        });

package info.androidhive.fab;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private FloatingActionButton fab;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

        fab = (FloatingActionButton) findViewById(R.id.fab);
        fab.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, NewMessageActivity.class);
                startActivity(intent);
            }
        });
    }
}

Ravi Tamada

Ravi is hardcore Android programmer and Android programming has been his passion since he compiled his first hello-world program. Solving real problems of Android developers through tutorials has always been interesting part for him.