Android setVisibility(View.Visible) not working on a layout

Question

I have a layout that I am trying to make visible and it is currently not working. The layout I want to make visible has the id "goal_reminder" below. The visibility is set to "GONE" in the xml.

Here is the xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<com.View.pages.ActivityPage     
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">

<android.support.v4.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout
    android:id="@+id/activity_refresh"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/activitylist"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#e7e6ee"
        android:clipToPadding="false"
        android:divider="@null"
        android:paddingBottom="80dp" />

</android.support.v4.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout>

<RelativeLayout
    android:id="@+id/goal_reminder"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@color/transparent_color"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:visibility="gone">

    <ImageView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="145dp"
        android:src="@drawable/sunsetforgoal" />

    <ImageView
        android:layout_width="200dp"
        android:layout_height="50dp"
        android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_below="@+id/goal_reminder_title"
        android:layout_marginEnd="5dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="35dp"
        android:src="@drawable/logo" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/goal_reminder_title"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="10dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
        android:text="No goal in progress"
        android:textColor="@color/text_color"
        android:textSize="26sp" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/goal_reminder_message"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_below="@+id/goal_reminder_title"
        android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="20dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
        android:text="Create a new goal in your \nprofile."
        android:textColor="@color/text_color"
        android:textSize="18sp" />

</RelativeLayout>

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/playground_welcome"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"
    android:autoLink="all"
    android:gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:paddingLeft="16dp"
    android:paddingRight="16dp"
    android:text="@string/welcome_string"
    android:textSize="18sp"
    android:visibility="gone" />

</com.View.pages.ActivityPage>

Here is the onFinishInflate(I am using the Screenplay/Flow libraries so that is taking place of onCreate). As you can see I am trying to set goalReminderLayout.setVisibility(View.Visible) and it's not actually making it visible. I have tested this same line of code outside of the if statements and it works just fine. I have also tested to make sure it's reaching that line of code in the if statements and that part is working fine, the lastTriggerDate is being saved properly in Parse. I am lost on why it's working fine outside of the if statements in the onFinishInflate. I also tested with a Log.d("TestVisiblity", goalReminderLayout.getVisibility()); which returns a 0(Visible) so it seems like its visible but its not actually showing up on my screen.

  Date lastTriggerDate = new Date();
  Boolean noDateInParse = false;

  if (currentUser.getLastTriggerDate() != null) {
    lastTriggerDate = currentUser.getLastTriggerDate();
  } else {
    noDateInParse = true;
  }

  Boolean inToday = DateUtils.isToday(lastTriggerDate.getTime());

  if (!inToday) {
    currentUser.setLastTriggerDate(currentTime);
    currentUser.saveInBackground(new SaveCallback() {
      @Override
      public void done(ParseException e) {
        if (e == null) {
          goalReminderLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
          fireGoalReminderAlert();
        } else {
          e.printStackTrace();
        }
      }
    });
  } else if (noDateInParse) {
    currentUser.setLastTriggerDate(currentTime);
    currentUser.saveInBackground(new SaveCallback() {
      @Override
      public void done(ParseException e) {
        if (e == null) {
          goalReminderLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

          fireGoalReminderAlert();
        } else {
          e.printStackTrace();
        }
      }
    });
  }

Here is the code for fireGoalReminderAlert(); It's just set to set the visibility back to gone after 10 seconds. I commented this line out when testing and still had no luck so I don't think this is causing the problem.

public void fireGoalReminderAlert() {
Runnable mRunnable;
Handler mHandler = new Handler();

mRunnable = new Runnable() {

  @Override
  public void run() {
    goalReminderLayout.setVisibility(View.GONE);
  }
};
mHandler.postDelayed(mRunnable, 10 * 1000);
}

Solution

When you set a layout to visible from gone it's always a good idea to invalidate view to allow a redraw on the layout.

goalReminderLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
goalReminderLayout.invalidate();

look at the android documentation for more info

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html