Helper methods to show and hide Android layouts

ShowHideLayouts

  // Helper method to animate the showing of a view
	private void showLayout (final LinearLayout theLayout) {
		
		AlphaAnimation fade_in = new AlphaAnimation(0.0f, 1.0f);
		fade_in.setDuration(500);
		fade_in.setAnimationListener(new AnimationListener() {
			
		    public void onAnimationStart(Animation arg0) {
		    }
		    public void onAnimationRepeat(Animation arg0) {
		    }
		    public void onAnimationEnd(Animation arg0) {
		    	theLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
		    }
		});
		theLayout.startAnimation(fade_in);
	}
	
	// Helper method to animate the hiding of a view
	private void hideLayout (final LinearLayout theLayout) {
		
		AlphaAnimation fade_out = new AlphaAnimation(1.0f, 0.0f);
		fade_out.setDuration(500);
		fade_out.setAnimationListener(new AnimationListener() {
			
		    public void onAnimationStart(Animation arg0) {
		    }
		    public void onAnimationRepeat(Animation arg0) {
		    }
		    public void onAnimationEnd(Animation arg0) {
		    	theLayout.setVisibility(View.GONE);
		    }
		});
		theLayout.startAnimation(fade_out);
	}