Android: How can you align a button at the bottom and listview above?

A FrameLayouts purpose is to overlay things on top of each other. This is not what you want.

In your RelativeLayout example you set the ListViews height and width to MATCH_PARENT this is going to make it take up the same amount of space as its parent, and thus take up all of the space on the page (and covers the button).

Try something like:

<LinearLayout 
   android:layout_width="match_parent" 
   android:layout_height="match_parent" 
   android:orientation="vertical">
  <ListView 
     android:layout_width="match_parent" 
     android:layout_height="0dip" 
     android:layout_weight="1"/>
  <Button 
     android:layout_width="match_parent" 
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
     android:layout_weight="0"/>
</LinearLayout>

The layout_weight dictates how the extra space is to be used. The Button does not want to stretch beyond the space it requires, so it has a weight of 0. The ListView wants to take up all of the extra space, so it has a weight of 1.

You could accomplish something similar using a RelativeLayout, but if it is just these two items then I think a LinearLayout is simpler.

  <?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"
      android:background="#ffffff"
  >

    <ListView android:id="@+id/ListView01" 
      android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
      android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
      android:layout_weight="1">
    </ListView>

    <FrameLayout android:id="@+id/FrameLayout01" 
      android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
      android:layout_height="wrap_content">
         <Button android:id="@+id/Button01" 
              android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
              android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
              android:text="button" 
              android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal">
        </Button>
    </FrameLayout>

  </LinearLayout>

Here is the design you are looking for. Try it.

I needed two buttons side-by-side at the bottom. I used a horizontal linear layout, but assigning android:layout_height="0dp" and android:layout_weight="0" for the buttons' linear layout didn't work. Assigning android:layout_height="wrap_content" for just the buttons' linear layout did. Here's my working layout:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/listView1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp" 
        android:layout_weight="1" />

    <LinearLayout 
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:orientation="horizontal">

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/new_button"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:text="New" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/suggest_button"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:text="Suggest" />

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

RelativeLayout will ignore its children android:layout_width or android:layout_height attributes, if the children have attributes that properly define their left and right or top and bottom values, respectively.

To achieve the result on the right image, showing the list above the button, your layout should look like this:

<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_above="@android:id/button1"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>

    <Button
        android:id="@android:id/button1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:text="@android:string/ok"/>

</RelativeLayout>

The key is to define android:layout_alignParentTop (defines top value) and android:layout_above (defines bottom value) in your RecyclerView. This way, RelativeLayout will ignore android:layout_height="match_parent", and the RecyclerView will be placed above the Button.

Also, make sure you look into android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing, if you have a more complex layout and you still need to define these values.