I'm currently trying to create an Android grid layout from custom elements(taken from a db) and am in need of suggestions on how to implement it. The grid should have 6 columns and it should be scroll vertically. Each Grid Element(Item) has columnSpan, columnRow, xPosition and yPosition.
Here is an example of the desired result:
I tried with a GridLayout, but there is no adapter support with it.
I tried with Grid View, but can't manage to make it look right.
I need a robust solution, but at this point I'm desperate just for a working solution.
Here is an old post with hacky over-complicated solutions. Has something changed? Is there a good solution to this problem? And why does this problem exist in the first place?
Related
I am developing an app in which i need a layout like provided images.
Which layout should i use? and why ?
What is difference between GridView and GridLayout ? why they are in legacy section ? What are alternatives and best practices ?
Following are the layout i need to develop. i can achieve this
layout many ways but i need to know best practices.
I believe I came across the same problem you had. From the google documentation websites above and this answer GridView VS GridLayout in Android Apps, I got a clue.
use GridLayout when you only want to align the position of your child view widgets. In this case, the children should not be scrolled. Grid Layout does not support recycling, which will scrap old child views that are not on the screen and recycle their view holders. You should not have too many child views, otherwise an OMM will occur!!
if it is not case 1, I believe we should use recycler view. When your children items may be in the scale of 10 + or cannot fit on the screen, you'd better use recycler view. GridView is available since API 1. If you try to click the GridView guide link in the GridView reference guide, you will be redirected to Recycler View guide website. In this website, I quote
GridLayoutManager arranges the items in a two-dimensional grid, like the squares on a checkerboard. Using a RecyclerView with GridLayoutManager provides functionality like the older GridView layout.
StaggeredGridLayoutManager arranges the items in a two-dimensional grid, with each column slightly offset from the one before, like the stars in an American flag.
Google also has sample code for recycler view at https://github.com/android/views-widgets-samples
These are the websites that I looked into:
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/GridLayout
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/GridView
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/layout/recyclerview
https://medium.com/google-developer-experts/android-grid-layout-1faf0df8d6f2
https://stackoverflow.com/a/11307615/10075771
this will help you understand more about gridview and gridlayout. And for my opinion, as what i see in the layout you want to achieve, its best way to use gridview.
How to create Horizontal listview that has maximum of 3 row and more column it depends on the data just like in this picture
Link:https://i.stack.imgur.com/cUJjB.jpg
This is my concept don't mind the design i just want to know how to create that kind of list view
You can try FlexLayout.
FlexLayout is similar to the Xamarin.Forms StackLayout in that it can
arrange its children horizontally and vertically in a stack. However,
the FlexLayout is also capable of wrapping its children if there are
too many to fit in a single row or column, and also has many options
for orientation, alignment, and adapting to various screen sizes.
More information can be found in the official documentation.
Set the ItemsPanel of the ListView to a horizontal StackPanel.
<ListView.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"></StackPanel>
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</ListView.ItemsPanel>
From this question.
Edit: This solution may actually not work for you. If it doesn't work, take a look at this library. It might help you.
Everyone knows that GridView does not supports headers and footers like a ListView.
There is a few ways to implementing this:
Use a ListView and form columnt manually via ViewGroups. It not works for me, because it's require a lot of layout operations like measuring and layouting, and it's difficult to implement draw selector on top.
Use special adapter. It works fine with a footer: we should fill last cells with a Space and manually insert after them out footer with width that equals GridView width. But this not works with headers: although header is stretched, next cells float on it.
Use a GridLayout. GridLayout is good, but what about performance with 500-1000 cells? AdapterView supports caching and reusing Views, as far as I know, this is not possible with GridLayout.
Extend GridView and write custom class, that allows to draw a header before the grid content. It's difficult, but it's should work very fast. Let's try to figure out how to do this:
Measure the header. It's very simple, I have not questions about this.
Layout header in the top of the grid. We also should consider with scrolling position to allow move header with whole grid content, so my first question is: how to know where bottom border should be located while scrolling?
Layout whole grid content after the header. How to do that? I've newer do this before.
Dispatch draw to the header view too and resolve overscrolling effect if it's not work well.
Handle the scroll event and refresh header position.
So what you can suggest me? How to do header offset? Is it right to invoke relayouting with every scroll event?
I searched an answer on a same situation with a GridView (but for a FooterView).
I've read attentively your suggestions and some from other websites. I had the same reflexion. I found a simple way as your tip: "Use special adapter. It works fine with a footer..." and this answer by #RaulSoto helped me a lot. But when I tried to update my gridview, I had a NPE, because my footer was not like the layout of my items and I had a custom filter which recalculated the getCount() method, but without understand that another view was added.
Finally, I found only solution which works: a custom class.
Create your own class as you said: "Extend GridView and write custom class" but don't extend GridView. You should extend with ListView and measure the entire width, the column width and the number of columns. I think, it's less difficult that to extend GridView, calculate the height of the header view and move it as you move your gridview or refresh the header each time you handle a scroll event..
I searched to do it in this way and I took this little project on GitHub: HFGridView by Sergey Burish. It was exactly what I need, no more.
I only added a custom attrs file in my app and customize a bit his project to have the expected result (especially, it was to have one column in portrait, two in landscape mode, refering to the numColumns attribute in my layout).
And when I try, just for test, to add a HeaderView and refresh the content with adding new items, the header view stays at the top of my gridview list, without refreshing himself.
So, I think you should search to create your class as GridView extends ListView. Refer you to the HFGridView by SBurish, it is very simple to understand how it does.
Hope this helps you with your purpose.
I would like to create a grid of dots very much like in this game: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nerdyoctopus.gamedots&hl=en
The aim is for each dot to be touchable, so I can recognise where that particular dot is and other information about it.
I don't really know where to start. Do I want to create a custom View for a dot with all the information I want, and then create multiple versions of it? And then do I arrange them in a grid with the setTranslation() method, or would it be better to use LayoutParams with offsets?
If I created my own "Dot" that extended "View", then I could add a lot of different information/methods to it - I could theoretically have a changeColor() method. Is this the best way?
A GridView is not what I am thinking of (as far as I know) as it is basically a different style of ListView.
There are lots of questions here! I have looked at a number of questions here on StackOverflow and elsewhere, but none show/ explain how I should start.
I would use a TableLayout for this. A GridView is the equivalent of a ListView in a 'grid' form, with scrolling, view recycling and whatnot, and that is not what you need. A GridLayout, as Dalmas suggested, would be a much better option if you want to build a static grid, but in my experience it is not easy to distribute the available space equally between columns, and if you are going to need to alter the grid distribution during the game, a TableLayout is much easier to use.
For the dots, yes, a custom view with a configurable color would be the best way to go around it.
You should use a GridLayout. It will do exactly what you need. It is available through the android support library v7 : http://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/features.html#v7-gridlayout
It allows you to arrange views using a grid of rectangular cells.
For the dots, I would go with a custom dot view as you suggest, with a simple method to set the color. Don't store any data in the views if possible, it will make things much easier and flexible.
How do i create this kind of views in my application?
(The screenshot is actually of an android application available in android market).
I am confused as i assume that we can create the same kind of layout either by using Gridview or by using ListView.
Problems:
In Gridview, can we give separator between two rows? can we give background to each row in gridview?
In Listview, i think we can customize the listview with 3 books in a row with background, and we can give a separator as well.
From your expert side, please suggest me a possible solution to design and create the same kind of layouts for the android application.
Look at the code of Shelves, written by Romain Guy (one of the ListView's creator).
He used a GridView:
no separator
background is a bitmap drawable
< bitmap
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:src="#drawable/shelf_panel"
android:tileMode="repeat" />
background image is like this:
The code is worth a look because it contains other interesting solutions, too.
Stated problems:
In Gridview, can we give separator between two rows? can we give background to each row in gridview?
Well, you can always make up a separator by adding something on the bottom of your view. Make it so that it 'connects' on the sides, and you won't know the difference. It will cost you an extra view per grid-item, so probably not the best option.
In Listview, i think we can customize the listview with 3 books in a row with background, and we can give a separator as well.
Eeuhm, yes, although I don't see what the problem is?
With a ListView, each row is counted as an element, so there will be extra work in logic that keeps each item within the row separate. I would suggest you use a gridview. For each grid element, keep an empty shelf space (for one book) as the background image. This image will include the shelf-base. So there is no need for additional rows. The image should look like this:
I would instead suggest to have grid view and view flipper if the number of books are limited.
View flipper will give a better effect than scrolling.