Android "tools" namespace in layout xml documentation

Question

Per the question here,

What's "tools:context" in Android layout files?

The 'tools' namespace reference (xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools") has begun to appear in my layouts recently, and I want to know more. The original post only described the 'tools:context' attribute, but I have also noticed usage of the "tools:listitem" attribute appearing when I have designated a preview layout item for a listview, i.e.

<ListView
    android:id="@+id/lvCustomer"
    tools:listitem="@layout/customer_list_item" >
</ListView>

Are there more elements?

What brought me to this 'tools' namespace is that I want to be able to have 'preview-only' text (i.e. in a TextView or EditText) when using the layout designer in eclipse.

Currently, I assign the 'text' or 'hint' property for previewing text when arranging my layouts... but then I always have to remember to clear the preview value from within the code.

Ideally, instead of

<string name="preview_customer_name">Billy Bob's Roadhouse Pub</string>

...

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tvCustomerName"
    android:text="@string/preview_customer_name"
</TextView>

have a something like:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tvCustomerName"
    tools:previewText="@string/preview_customer_name"
</TextView>

Thanks-

Answer 1

We've just added support for designtime attributes like this in Android Studio 0.2.11. See http://tools.android.com/tips/layout-designtime-attributes for more.