New in IntelliJ IDEA 11: Preview of Android UI layouts
October 13th, 2011 by Eugene KudelevskyIntelliJ IDEA 11 introduces a new feature that makes it much easier to design UI layouts for Android applications — UI layouts preview. Just open some layout xml file from your Android project and you’ll see a new Preview tool window.
Preview is updated as you edit the file, so you can see the changes immediately. Many different options such as screen size, target platform version, theme, etc. are available for tuning what you see.
Custom view components are also supported and shown correctly. But since IntelliJ IDEA uses class files from your output directory to render such components, you have to build your project first.
Please note, that layout preview feature is under development, so we really need to know your opinions. You’re welcome to try it in the latest Nika EAP and let us know what you think. If the IDE doesn’t preview some of your layout xml files, please submit bugreports with these files attached.
October 13th, 2011 at 6:49 am
This is the best new feature in Nika!
It is such a big time saver.
Thanks a lot!
October 13th, 2011 at 7:20 am
Great! I’m looking forward
October 13th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Thank you for adding this feature.
I should speed up Android development.
October 13th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
This is very usefull thing, I will wait for a new version.
October 13th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
Looks like I’m going to have to upgrade now. Keep up the great work with killer new features.
October 14th, 2011 at 5:25 am
I definitely no longer have any good reason to keep using Eclipse alongside IntelliJ.
October 19th, 2011 at 8:40 am
Does it support custom views? I have a class Field inherited from View and I see “Unable to initialize …Field” to the top of the Preview.
October 19th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Looks really useful and nice guys!
I would really enjoy using this stuff @ development!
+1
October 20th, 2011 at 2:17 am
definitely android killer feature!
thanks a lot, keep workin, can’t wait for Nika 
October 20th, 2011 at 6:12 am
I’m waiting for this awesome plugin!
It will do my life much better
October 20th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
You guys are SO awesome
October 21st, 2011 at 4:12 am
Its seems to be very interesting but its just a preview of UI. If it will editable I’ll absolutely happy. But progress is good…
October 21st, 2011 at 9:01 am
I wait for it and now it happened;) Thanks jetbrains!
October 21st, 2011 at 10:17 am
These are great news for Android developers using IDEA! I hope the next step will be a full fledged Android UI designer
Keep up the good work!
October 22nd, 2011 at 2:57 am
Great… I’m waiting for this
October 22nd, 2011 at 7:27 am
Wonderful feature! I hate development in Eclipse, random build errors poped up on me in the last 3 days in that IDE (the same code builds correctly in IntelliJ) so I tried IntelliJ for the first time today and I fell in love on the first touch. Would be great if the Preview feature distinguished between layouts in layout and layout-land folders and automatically selected Landscape/Portrait parameter in the Preview window based on that… Keep up the great work!
October 30th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Awesome. Keep improving Android support.
November 4th, 2011 at 1:52 am
How do i set up the idea IDE for Android platform development.
Like this:http://source.android.com/source/using-eclipse.html.
Think you.
November 7th, 2011 at 5:58 am
http://wiki.jetbrains.net/intellij/Simple_Android_application_from_scratch_in_IntelliJ_IDEA_10.5
November 9th, 2011 at 6:09 am
I love you guys for this!! Thank you!!
December 7th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Is it only me, or does it omit background images on buttons (used as drawable reference). But still, nice feature.
Btw, its a library project (where I define the layout and also the buttons), maybe this is the reason? Dont want to file a “bug report” before I know its a bug, and not a glitch due to my setup.
January 15th, 2012 at 6:02 am
Will a GUI layout designer be implemented (just like in Eclipse)?
February 5th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Hi,
I like this, but it would be much better if it were a design editor, allowing direct editing of the design (like ecclipse).
That would make designing a UI in IntelliJ much faster.
February 20th, 2012 at 6:14 am
IDEA RULES! After adding this feature I really do not have to even open any other IDE for Android.
If you’re making a list for new version of the preview, then please implement **scrolling**
Namely, if a view gets out (by its width) of preview screen, than it is not displayed. Only first X items will be displayed.
It would be nice if scrolling is enabled.
February 23rd, 2012 at 9:06 am
This is a really good feature and makes form layouts a lot easier! However, the changes that are reflected in this preview don’t carry across to my app? Any changes in the .java are but nothing that I change in my .xml files?