Develop Reference

Android: White on White Spinner

I have a spinner in a Layout, it is defined as
<Spinner
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/bithYearSpinner"
android:layout_marginTop="15dp" />
Spinner declaration and Adapter:
birthYearSpinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.bithYearSpinner);
String[] years = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.bithYears);
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String(this,android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item,years);
birthYearSpinner.setAdapter(adapter);
The problem is, spinner shows up with white text on white background which is impossible to see its items. I have done a research about it, some people have the same problem and there are some solutions but they dont work out for me. How can i fix this ? Any help would be appreciated.

To fix it, you can use custom xml layout for spinner item. By doing this, you can customize your spinner item text color and background.
Create item_spinner.xml and then,
<TextView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textSize="19sp"
android:textColor="#111111"
android:padding="8dp"
/>
And set your custom layout to adapter like this :
birthYearSpinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.bithYearSpinner);
String[] years = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.bithYears);
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.item_spinner, years);
birthYearSpinner.setAdapter(adapter);
Edit
If it is in fragment, try to replace this with getActivity() . Please look at this answer for reference.

create custom rowlayout for spinner and name it as spinner_item.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/theme_color"
android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/spinnerText"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:background="#ff00ff"
android:gravity="center"
android:paddingBottom="5dip"
android:paddingTop="5dip"
android:text=""
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="18sp" />
</LinearLayout>
now create Adapter and name it as DropDownAdapter.java
package com.ronem.adapters;
import android.content.Context;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.TextView;
import com.ronem.goldsilverpricenepal.R;
public class DropDownAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
LayoutInflater inflater;
String[] genereValue;
public DropDownAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId,
String[] genereValue) {
super(context, textViewResourceId, genereValue);
inflater = LayoutInflater.from(context);
this.genereValue = genereValue;
}
#Override
public View getDropDownView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
return getCustomView(position, convertView, parent);
}
#Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
return getCustomView(position, convertView, parent);
}
public View getCustomView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
// LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
convertView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.spinner_item_layou, parent, false);
TextView label = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.spinnerText);
label.setText(genereValue[position]);
return convertView;
}
}
now initialize and set custom adapter as shown in your activity
DropDownAdapter dAdapter = new DropDownAdapter(this, R.layout.spinner_item_layou, spinnerValues);
itemSpinner.setAdapter(dAdapter);

When i change my resource array <array name=""> to <string-array name="">, spinner items show up properly and no need to use a custom adapter.

Android GridView is empty

EDIT: This problem has been resolved, so the code in my original post does not apply anymore. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
First off, I have checked other similar questions but they either don't match mine or use the BaseAdapter. What I'm trying to do is display a text-image combination as part of a GridView. The actual app is larger, but my problem is that the GridView is blank in the very first activity!
I'd appreciate if someone can take a quick look at it and tell me what's wrong.
Code for layout file used for GridView elements:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/LinearLayout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/iv_grid"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:src="#drawable/ic_launcher" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv_grid"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TextView" />
</LinearLayout>
Layout file of first Activity:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingBottom="#dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingLeft="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="#dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools:context=".CategoriesActivity" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="54dp"
android:text="Select a category to learn more" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv_grid"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="26dp"
android:text="Lessons from History"
android:textSize="18sp" />
<GridView
android:id="#+id/gridView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_marginTop="25dp"
android:numColumns="3" >
</GridView>
</RelativeLayout>
And finally, the Java file:
package com.example.historicpersonalities;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;
public class CategoriesActivity extends Activity {
GridView gv_categories;
public int selected; //which category is selected [0-4]?
String[] data; //holds the data for GridView
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.layout_categories);
populate();
selected = -1;
gv_categories = (GridView) findViewById(R.id.gridView1);
gv_categories.setAdapter(new MyAdapter(this,
android.R.layout.simple_expandable_list_item_1));
gv_categories.setOnItemClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() {
#Override
public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> arg0, View arg1, int index,
long arg3) {
}
});
}
class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
public MyAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId) {
super(context, textViewResourceId);
}
#Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.layout_grid_scheme, null);
TextView item = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.tv_grid);
item.setText(data[position]);
ImageView img = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.iv_grid);
img.setImageResource(R.drawable.dummy);
Log.d("ankush", ""+position);
return v;
}
}
private void populate() {
data = new String[5];
data[0] = "Writers";
data[1] = "Painters";
data[2] = "Conquerors";
data[3] = "Chemists";
data[4] = "Actors";
}
}

I think the problem is the height of your gridView. GridView is a scrollable container and can contain any amount of content in any height. Try to set background color to your gridView and you will see, that there is no gridview on the screnn.
It's because you use wrap_content for gridview, but it's incorrect.

If I'm not wrong, it seems that in your constructor you don't pass any data to the adapter.
public MyAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId) {
super(context, textViewResourceId);
}
In this code snippet, your are using ArrayAdapter (Context context, int textViewResourceId) which initialize an empty arraylist as the objects to represent in the GridView.
public ArrayAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId) {
init(context, textViewResourceId, 0, new ArrayList<T>());
}
Therefore your GridView should be empty. In addition to that, it seem you didn't properly implement the getView.(findViewById() parts should be handled as shown in the Opiatefuchs's answer)
If you want to extend ArrayAdapter, you should be calling a constructor which takes an array of objects as a parameter. (Of course there are many ways to make a custom adapter you can extend BaseAdapter or while extending ArrayAdapter you can override some other methods)
This way it should work:
class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
public MyAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId, String[] objects) {
super(context, textViewResourceId, objects);
}
#Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
View view;
if (convertView == null) {
LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.layout_grid_scheme, null);
} else {
view = convertView;
}
TextView item = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.tv_grid);
item.setText(getItem(position));
ImageView img = (ImageView) view.findViewById(R.id.iv_grid);
img.setImageResource(R.drawable.dummy);
}
}

Don´t know if this causes the problem, but You have to set Your TextView and ImageView in Your adapter like this:
TextView item = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.tv_grid);
item.setText(data[position]);
ImageView img = (ImageView) v.findViewById(R.id.iv_grid);
img.setImageResource(R.drawable.dummy);
EDIT
First of all, the best way is to combine all three solutions. BUT, I have seen another issue in Your xml layout: You put the same id to the TextView inside Your GridView Element xml and Your Activity layout xml. Both TextViews got id="#+id/tv_grid" . This could never work, change the id´s to different ones

Android displaying text when ListView is empty

I'm setting a TextView with the id #android:id/empty to display a message when there are no items in the ListView. However, this TextView gets displayed even if there are items in the ListView, right before the items show up.
How can I make it such that it only gets displayed when there are no elements in the ListView?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<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="#android:id/list"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:dividerHeight="1dp" >
</ListView>
<TextView
android:id="#android:id/empty"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/empty_list" />
</LinearLayout>
PS: I'm using a Loader and a SimpleCursorAdapter with a ListFragment.

I'm guessing you are using a regular Fragment or Activity with a ListView inside of it. If you are, you must add the empty layout to the ListView manually.
E.g.
ListView lv = (ListView)findViewById(android.R.id.list);
TextView emptyText = (TextView)findViewById(android.R.id.empty);
lv.setEmptyView(emptyText);
Then your ListView will automatically use this view when its adapter is empty
If you are using a ListActivity you do not need to call setEmptyView() on the ListView since the ListActivity automatically manages that for you.

Set a TextView and assign to it whatever you want to display when the ListView is empty:
ProjectListAdapter projectListAdapter = new ProjectListAdapter();
TextView empty=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.empty);
projectsListView.setEmptyView(empty);
And in my xml file we write the below code
<TextView
android:id="#+id/empty"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="Your text here"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF" />

I had this problem. You have to set the emptyView explicitly in your code.
Change your TextView:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/emptyResults"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/empty_list" />
Then in the onCreate():
listViewResults = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.list);
listViewResults.setEmptyView((LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.emptyResults));
This code above assumes your ListView is in a LinearLayout.

I used ListFragment and had the same issue. I tried all variants from this answers, but the problem wasn't solved.
So I found my variant, to override setEmptyText():
public class NewsFragment extends ListFragment{
private TextView emptyText;
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
//...
emptyText = (TextView)view.findViewById(android.R.id.empty);
//...
}
#Override
public void setEmptyText(CharSequence text) {
emptyText.setText(text);
}
}
Hope it will be helpful for somebody.

I know this is kind of late, but for it to work from XML, you need to put a weight on your ListView and have your TextView match_parent
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<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="#android:id/list"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:dividerHeight="1dp" >
</ListView>
<TextView
android:id="#android:id/empty"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="#string/empty_list" />
</LinearLayout>

There's a good example of how to do it which works awesome:
When you want to show a message to the user when the ListView is
empty, you have to keep in mind the following 3 steps:
In the xml where the ListView is declared, create a TextView (the TextView can be inside a LinearLayout if you want) right
below the ListView
Set the TextView’s id as “emptyElement”
And inside the activity, set the setEmptyView() property to the ListView
1- Create an xml which will hold the ListView and name it
“my_activity”
and an activity called “MyActivity”.
Now, in the just created xml “my_activity”, you will have to set the ListView. And right below the ListView, you will have to add
a TextView. This will be used to display the empty message.
Important: The TextView must have as id the following name: “emptyElement”. This name is mandatory. The message won’t be displayed
if you use another name.
This is how “my_activity” xml should look like:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingLeft="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="#dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="#dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingBottom="#dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools:context=".MyActivity">
<ListView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/listView"/>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/emptyElement"
android:text="The list is empty"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:visibility="gone"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:textColor="#android:color/darker_gray"/>
</RelativeLayout>
Create an xml for displaying items (when the list is not empty), and name it “list_item”.
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/list_item_text_view"
android:textSize="20sp"
android:padding="10dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"/>
Create a new Java class for the custom adapter which will be used by the ListView and name “MyCustomAdapter”. The code for the adapter
is written below:
import android.content.Context;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.BaseAdapter;
import android.widget.TextView;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class MyCustomAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
private ArrayList<String> mListItems;
private LayoutInflater mLayoutInflater;
public MyCustomAdapter(Context context, ArrayList<String> arrayList){
mListItems = arrayList;
//get the layout inflater
mLayoutInflater = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
}
#Override
public int getCount() {
//getCount() represents how many items are in the list
return mListItems.size();
}
#Override
//get the data of an item from a specific position
//i represents the position of the item in the list
public Object getItem(int i) {
return null;
}
#Override
//get the position id of the item from the list
public long getItemId(int i) {
return 0;
}
#Override
public View getView(int position, View view, ViewGroup viewGroup) {
// create a ViewHolder reference
ViewHolder holder;
//check to see if the reused view is null or not, if is not null then reuse it
if (view == null) {
holder = new ViewHolder();
view = mLayoutInflater.inflate(R.layout.list_item, null);
holder.itemName = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.list_item_text_view);
// the setTag is used to store the data within this view
view.setTag(holder);
} else {
// the getTag returns the viewHolder object set as a tag to the view
holder = (ViewHolder)view.getTag();
}
//get the string item from the position "position" from array list to put it on the TextView
String stringItem = mListItems.get(position);
if (stringItem != null) {
if (holder.itemName != null) {
//set the item name on the TextView
holder.itemName.setText(stringItem);
}
}
//this method must return the view corresponding to the data at the specified position.
return view;
}
/**
* Static class used to avoid the calling of "findViewById" every time the getView() method is called,
* because this can impact to your application performance when your list is too big. The class is static so it
* cache all the things inside once it's created.
*/
private static class ViewHolder {
protected TextView itemName;
}
}
Now go to MyActivity class and add the code below:
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.ListView;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class MyActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.my_activity);
ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);
// Create an empty array list of strings
List<String> items = new ArrayList<String>();
// Set the adapter
MyCustomAdapter adapter = new MyCustomAdapter(items);
listView.setAdapter(adapter);
// Set the emptyView to the ListView
listView.setEmptyView(findViewById(R.id.emptyElement));
}
}

TextView tv=(TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.empty);
tv.setVisibiliy(View.GONE);

android.widget.ArrayAdapter<T> just accept row template

I am developing an android application which contains a ListAtivity class and get it is data as follow :
ArrayAdapter<Item> ara=new MyArrayAdapter(this,_items);
setListAdapter(ara);
And I defined MyArrayAdapter :
....
public MyArrayAdapter(Activity context, List<BirthdayContact> list) {
super(context,R.layout.list_row,0,list);
//super(context, R.layout.birthday_list, list);
this.context = context;
this.list = list;
}
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
View view = null;
if (convertView == null) {
LayoutInflater inflator = context.getLayoutInflater();
view = inflator.inflate(R.layout.birthday_list_row, null);
final ViewHolder viewHolder = new ViewHolder();
viewHolder._cName= (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.contact_name);
viewHolder._cImage = (ImageView) view.findViewById(R.id.contact_image);
viewHolder._cbirthDay=(TextView)view.findViewById(R.id.contact_birthday_remained);
view.setTag(viewHolder);
}
......
But the problem with this way is that you cant only assign each row`s template and you cant have other widget on list view which are not part of list of data. I mean I want to have a say a TextView which shows messages to user, and below that I show the list of rows.
Can you help me please?

If you want a different layout than a simple ListView you have the option of setting the content view to a layout file like this:
setContentView(R.layout.layout_with_diferrent_views); // call this on the onCreate() method
where R.layout.layout_with_different_views could be a xml layout like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="TextView" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Button" />
<ListView
android:id="#android:id/list"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
</ListView>
</LinearLayout>
Because you extends ListActivity you must have in the layout a ListView element with the id #android:id/list. Of course you can have a more complex layout than the one above as long as you have a ListView element with the id #android:id/list

You should consider using a listHeader : lv.addHeaderView(findViewById(R.id.header));
This has to be done in your onCreate method in your activity, and you must provide a widget with the id header.

If you want other components in activity.Then better consider Normal Activity instead ListActivity.

Can i put text in the left and in the right side of the elements of a listview?

i have to make a listview that haves a list of names, and also, aligned to the left, but in the same field, the sex of the person, male or female
is possible to do it? how?
code examples welcome
EDIT
I try with the first user answer, and i got this exception: 12-14 22:39:56.191: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(917): java.lang.IllegalStateException: ArrayAdapter requires the resource ID to be a TextView
this is the code of the XML item i make:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Left side"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Right side"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>
and this is the code where i have my list:
public class PendingInvitations extends ListActivity {
......
.....
....
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
private List<String> usernames=new ArrayList<String>();
for (int i=0;i<friends.size();i++)
{
usernames.add(i,friends.get(i).getFullName());
}
setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list_item2, usernames));

this would be the view that is used for each cell
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Left side" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Right side" android:layout_alignParentRight="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>
this is an example since i have no idea where your knowledge is at with lists, if the above xml was called "temp.xml" you would use this in the setlistadapter function
import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
public class FooList extends ListActivity extends BaseAdapter {
String[] listItems = {"item 1", "item 2 ", "list", "android", "item 3", "foobar", "bar", };
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.layout_with_listview);
// implement your own adapter
}
}
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
// A ViewHolder keeps references to children views to avoid unneccessary calls
// to findViewById() on each row.
ViewHolder holder;
// When convertView is not null, we can reuse it directly, there is no need
// to reinflate it. We only inflate a new View when the convertView supplied
// by ListView is null.
if (convertView == null) {
convertView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.temp, null);
// Creates a ViewHolder and store references to the two children views
// we want to bind data to.
holder = new ViewHolder();
holder.left = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.left);
holder.right = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.right);
convertView.setTag(holder);
} else {
// Get the ViewHolder back to get fast access to the TextView
// and the ImageView.
holder = (ViewHolder) convertView.getTag();
}
// Bind the data efficiently with the holder.
holder.left.setText("left text");
holder.right.setText("right text");
return convertView;
}
class ViewHolder
{
public TextView left;
public TextView right;
}

Each item of a ListView has to be a View. This includes ViewGroups. So you can use any Layout to arrange several Views inside a ListView item.