Dynamically load xml control and share UI control - xamarin

Question

I am new to xamarin. Is it possible to load a shared UI control in an xml file, if yes, how? I am open to better idea.
Below is a static loading via include, where parent.axml statically load child.xml.
<include
android:id="#+id/child"
layout="#layout/child"
android:layout_below="#id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
parent.axml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<include
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
layout="#layout/toolbar"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<include
android:id="#+id/child"
layout="#layout/child"
android:layout_below="#id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/parent_layout"
android:layout_below="#id/child">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/parent_text"
android:layout_margin="16dp"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Click to go to the moon!"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"
android:singleLine="true" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Child.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:local="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/child_text"
android:layout_margin="16dp"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="You made it!"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />
</RelativeLayout>
The idea is that it can achieve share of UI controls. In this case, parent.axml loads child.xml into its place holder based on condition.

Answer 1

You can use LayoutInflater to inflate layouts and auto-attach them to the parent (or not):
var linearLayout = LayoutInflater.Inflate(Resource.Layout.Child, parent, true);
var textView = linearLayout.FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.child_text);
textView.Text = "Inflated and attached to Parent";
Also depending upon your use-case, using a self-contained Fragment and adding that to your "parent" might be better a better solution.