Develop Reference

Getting child view to match_parent in Android

I have a simple linear layout which I'm inflating in an adapter:
#Override
public View getView(final int position, View convertView, final ViewGroup parent) {
if (convertView == null) {
convertView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.category_listview_row, parent, false);
} else {
((LinearLayout)convertView).removeAllViews();
}
if (LAYOUT_TYPES.GRID.equals(layoutType)) {
convertView = CategoryFragment.getViewForGridLayout(context, displayArray, position, convertView, listener);
} else {
convertView = CategoryFragment.getViewForListLayout(context, displayArray, position, convertView, listener);
}
return convertView;
}
Here, category_listview_row is the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:gravity="top"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
The getViewForGridLayout method programmatically creates one or more views and adds them to convertView.
I would like all the child views to match this parent view in height, however I can't get this to work. This is the outer linear layout of the child views that are added programmatically:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="#+id/base_listview_style_one_layout"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:padding="#dimen/node_default_spacing"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:background="#5ab9c6">
This layout has subviews which are removed according to the actual data to be displayed, so some will be longer than others. However I want them all to be the height of the parent so it doesn't look weird.
This is a screenshot of what I'm seeing:
The first row is ok since both items have a title and a subtext
On the second row, the second item doesn't have a subtext so that view is smaller. However, I'd like it to take the full height of the row so all items in a single row will have the same height.
Any tips? Thanks!

I would advise using a Recyclerview with GridLayoutManager.
If you want certain items spanning multiple columns, you can do so by setting SpanSizeLookup on the GridLayoutManager.
Here is a simple example https://stackoverflow.com/a/26907508/4498224.

Propably your layout params are ignored. Be sure that you are adding child views to your convertView like this:
View view = inflater.inflate( R.layout.item /* resource id */,
convertView /* parent */,
true /*attachToRoot, you dont need to call addView then*/);

Instead of removing the textview, why not just make it invisible or set its color to white to it occupies the space?

Please change your linearlayout height from wrap content to "match_parent".
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:gravity="top"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />`

Set the height of parent layout to wrap_content.
Set the height of child view to match-parent.
Try this i hope it will resolve your issue.

#zundi you can use view holder design pattern with recycler view adapter and define which row needs to have two images and which one needs to have one. Its pretty much simpler than doing it with linear layout.
Recycleview show different view types has a pretty decent explanation on how to do this.
And also to answer you question of making
some rows with 2 items and other rows with 1 item
you can use setSpanSizeLookup (GridLayoutManager.SpanSizeLookup spanSizeLookup) method of GridLayoutManager and define it in the activity.
RecycleView's span size gives you more info on how to achieve that.
mLayoutManager.setSpanSizeLookUp(new GridLayoutManager.SpanSizeLookUp() {
#Override
public int getSpanSize(int position) {
if(position == 0)
return 2; //here the view takes up two spaces in a row(header)
else return 1; //here view takes 1 space i.e., 2 views in a total row
} });
In the above example my grid layout manager takes 2 view holders based on different positions and decides if its header or not and populates the data.
Other Solution:
Rather than giving match parent and wrap parent inside your layout give a fixed 'dp' for height. That should make the views look consistent.

#zundi if doing it right way with RecyclerView and LayoutManager which would simplify you life dramatically but have a bit of learning curve doesn't suits you, here is an option that hasn't been mentioned yet:
You can define android:lines=x on TextView which contains subtext.
Just match_parent is not going to work for you because you want LinearLayout to wrap height of its children and its children to match_parent which is a circular dependency

This method can be performed on both Linear Layout or TextView you are using
You have set
android:layout_height="match_parent"
but not the height, so it is simple case
android:layout_height="match_parent"
So, in case even if there will be no value in the string it will still contain the height allotted to it

ListView / GridView: Setting child layout properly

I want to create a ListView (same question is relevant for a GridView) where the items have very specific LayoutParams. Take this example where I want each row to be a LinearLayout with a height of 100dp:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="100dp">
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/pd_textview"
android:gravity="center_vertical"/>
</LinearLayout>
When I use this XML layout with a standard BaseAdapter implementation of getView() that inflates the views none of the LayoutParams for my LinearLayout get applied (each row simply wraps around the size of the text in the TextView):
#Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
// Inflate view if necessary
if (convertView == null) {
convertView = ((Activity) mContext).getLayoutInflater().inflate(ID_LAYOUT, null, false);
}
// Return the view
return convertView;
}
Fishing around in the appropriate section of the Android documentation, it says the following about getView() which explains the current behaviour:
Get a View that displays the data at the specified position in the
data set. You can either create a View manually or inflate it from an
XML layout file. When the View is inflated, the parent View (GridView,
ListView...) will apply default layout parameters unless you use
inflate(int, android.view.ViewGroup, boolean) to specify a root view
and to prevent attachment to the root.
My question is simply, how should I actually be doing this? The suggestion of using a root view with the desired LayoutParams seems convoluted given that the LayoutParams I want to inflate the view with are in the view that I'm trying to inflate (yes I could inflate a static view and leave it as a member of the class to reference against... but that seems silly). The other option would be to only define the contents of the row item in XML and manually create the container and its LayoutParams every time?
Is there a 'correct' way (i.e. not a wasteful hack) that I'm missing to simply create items with the LayoutParams defined in the XML?

I'd have preferred to put this in a comment, but I don't have the 50 reputation needed to do that...
There is detailed explanation of the issue here:
http://www.doubleencore.com/2013/05/layout-inflation-as-intended/
The main point is this:
"The problem with this is android:layout_xxx attributes are always be evaluated in the context of the parent view. As a result, without any known parent, all LayoutParams you declared on the root element of your XML tree will just get thrown away [,...]"
So, indeed, the solution is:
convertView = ((Activity) mContext).getLayoutInflater().inflate(ID_LAYOUT, parent, false);

ListView Create cell programmatically

I need to put a series of checkboxes in the cell of a ListView. The problem is that I do not know ahead of time how many. I am guessing, but please correct me if I am wrong, that I need to create it programmatically. There will only be a few cells so I am not worried about reusability. How do I approach doing that?
No xml just build the cell in the getView method --> is this as simple as creating a View and add to it?
xml but append checkboxes to the xml --> I have no idea how to do this.
Is there some sort of dynamic xml CheckBox list that I can use?

I always prefer to use XML to separate the presentation of the controller (or code that controls the app)..
You just need to create a list view and define it's adapter. The adapter will have an XML (a row) where you can design the checkbox and the other elements that you want...
Check out the documentation where you can see an example of a listview with an adapter.
-- edit:
In your case you need to add the checkboxes programmatically in your adapter. Just define a view in your xml where you can add your checkboxes.
-- edit2:
Here is an example XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dp" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/checkboxContainer" >
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
In your adapter you
//get the container
LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) context
.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
View rowView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.NAME_OF_YOUR_XML, parent, false);
RelativeLayout your_container = (RelativeLayout) rowView.findViewById(R.id.checkboxContainer);
//declare your checkbox
CheckBox cb = new CheckBox(context);
cb.setText("your text");
// add the checkbox to your container
your_container.addView(cb);
This is just an example. I didn't test the code. Maybe you should use a linear layout instead of a relative layout to place your checkboxes easily..

easiest and most flexible is to use the ArrayAdapter and make an XML layout that looks like the single cell you'd want. Put your data in the array, create the Adapter and assign it to the ListView, and boom, your list has the right number of rows (cells). You can also customize the binding easily so that each cell has some information based on the corresponding Array entry.

Remove header from listView

I'm having some problems when trying to remove the header from a listView. At first I use addHeaderView() to add it, but when I change to another layout I want it to disappear but removeHeaderView() doesn't work...
I also tried setting visibility to GONE and it doesn't disappear...
What can I do?
Thanks in advance

Try the approach mentioned below..
Android ListView#addHeaderView and ListView#addFooterView methods are strange: you have to add the header and footer Views before you set the ListView's adapter so the ListView can take the headers and footers into consideration -- you get an exception otherwise. Here we add a ProgressBar (spinner) as the headerView:
// spinner is a ProgressBar
listView.addHeaderView(spinner);
We'd like to be able to show and hide that spinner at will, but removing it outright is dangerous because we'd never be able to add it again without destroying the ListView -- remember, we can't addHeaderView after we've it's adapter:
listView.removeHeaderView(spinner); //dangerous!
So let's hide it! Turns out that's hard, too. Just hiding the spinner view itself results in an empty, but still visible, header area.
Now try to hide the spinner:
spinner.setVisibility(View.GONE);
Result: header area still visible with an ugly space:
The solution is to put the progress bar in a LinearLayout that wraps it's content, and hiding the content. That way the wrapping LinearLayout will collapse when its content is hidden, resulting in a headerView that is technically still present, but 0dip high:
<LinearLayout
xmlns:a="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<!-- simplified -->
<ProgressBar
android:id="#+id/spinner"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</LinearLayout>
Then, set the layout as the header:
spinnerLayout = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.header_view_spinner, null);
listView.addHeaderView(spinnerLayout);
And when we need to hide it, hide the layout's content, not the layout:
spinnerLayout.findViewById(R.id.spinner).setVisibility(View.GONE);
Now the header disappears from view. No more ugly space at the top!

Most people don't like to use AddHeaderView, however I sometimes found it very convenient, to avoid modifying complex adapters, or if the headers are not very related to them.
With this easy trick you will be able to seamlessly remove/add headers:
I add an empty LinearLayout with orientation vertical, and height wrap_content, as the only Header View (let mListView be the target listView):
LinearLayout mCustomHeaders=new LinearLayout(context);
mCustomHeaders.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
mListView.addHeaderView(mCustomHeaders);
mListView.setAdapter (.......)
Thenafter, I can add random stuff, anywhere, to the list as header, even when the list is full:
mCustomHeaders.add(myHeaderView1);
mCustomHeaders.add(myHeaderView2);
mCustomHeaders.add(myHeaderView3);
You can also delete all headers, anytime:
mCustomHeaders.removeAllViews(); // will erase all headers
You get the idea .... Hope it helps !

The problem is that you are always creating a new object when you do:
View headerView = someView
So the new view is not the same as the view already added as listView header, try this:
View headerView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.adapter_datatable_saleitem_header, null, false);
headerView.setTag(this.getClass().getSimpleName() + "header");
if (listView.getHeaderViewsCount() > 0) {
View oldView = listView.findViewWithTag(this.getClass().getSimpleName() + "header");
if (oldView != null) {
listView.removeHeaderView(oldView);
}
}

You can check if header count > 0 then remove the header and add it again.
its works fine for me.
View _headerView;
private void function HandleHeaderView(){
if(listView.getHeaderViewsCount() > 0)
{
listView.removeHeaderView(_headerView);
}
/* Add list view header */
_headerView = GetHeaderView();
listView.addHeaderView(_headerView);
}
private View GetHeaderView()
{
View header = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.header_layout, null);
// TODO: ...
return header
}

Where drawerLogoView is my headerview, here's what I do:
drawerLogoView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.navigation_drawer_custom_layout, null);
mDrawerList.addHeaderView(drawerLogoView,null,false);
LinearLayout layOut = ((LinearLayout)drawerLogoView.findViewById(R.id.NavProfilePreviewLayout));
layOut.setLayoutParams(new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, 0));
That way, it becomes invisible :D
To show it back, you can use this:
LinearLayout layOut = ((LinearLayout)drawerLogoView.findViewById(R.id.NavProfilePreviewLayout));
layOut.setLayoutParams(newRelativeLayout.LayoutParams(RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));

If you are using addHeaderView(), you can't delete your header after that.
So, don't use addHeaderView(). Rather, create your own adapter that
blends your main roster of Views with your header. While my
MergeAdapter will not handle your specific case, you can use it to see
the concept of blending multiple row sources:
https://github.com/commonsguy/cwac-merge

I encountered this problem in a slightly disguised scenario: the ListView I was dealing with came from PreferenceFragment, and the header represents a PreferenceCategory. So, my freedom of setting up the ListView was severely limited. But there were two approaches (partly inspired by other answers on this page). One was to add a custom layout to my PreferenceCategory (using a class that extends android.preference.PreferenceCategory, see Custom PreferenceCategory Headings). But I found an easier workaround: for the first Preference in this PreferenceCategory, I override onCreateView():
#Override public View onCreateView(ViewGroup parent) {
parent.setTop(-parent.getChildAt(0).getTop());
return super.onCreateView(parent);
}

Hide footer view in ListView?

I have a ListView. The data behind it is fetched from the Internet, in sets of 10-30 items whenever the user scrolls all the way to the bottom. In order to indicate that it is loading more items, I used addFooterView() to add a simple view that displays a "Loading..." message and a spinner. Now, when I'm out of data (no more data to fetch), I want to hide that message. I tried to do:
loadingView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
Unfortunately, while that does hide the view, it leaves space for it. I.e. I end up with a big blank space where the "Loading" message used to be. How can I go about properly hiding this view?
I can't use removeFooterView() because I may need to show it again, in which case I can't call addFooterView() again because an adapter has already been set on the ListView, and you can't call addHeaderView() / addFooterView() after setting an adapter.

It seems that you are allowed to call addHeaderView() / addFooterView() after setAdapter() as long as you call one of those methods at least once before. That is a rather poor design decision from Google, so I filed an issue. Combine this with removeFooterView() and you have my solution.
+1 for the other two answers I got, they're valid (and arguably more correct) solutions. Mine, however, is the simplest, and I like simplicity, so I'll mark my own answer as accepted.

Try setting the footer's height to 0px or 1px before hiding it. Alternatively, wrap the footer view in a wrap_content height FrameLayout and hide/show the inner view, leaving the FrameLayout visible; the height should wrap properly then.

in my case addFooterView / removeFooterView() cause some artefacts.
And I found other solution. I used FrameLayout as FooterView. And when I want to add Footer I called mFrameFooter.addView(myFooter); and mFrameFooter.removeAllViews(); for remove.
FrameLayout frameLayout = new FrameLayout(this);
listView.addFooterView(frameLayout);
......
......
//For adding footerView
frameLayout.removeAllViews();
frameLayout.addView(mFooterView);
//For hide FooterView
frameLayout.removeAllViews();

The Droid-Fu library has a class designed for having a loading footer show and hide: ListAdapterWithProgress.

Works well in my project:
1.Add footer view first
mListView.addFooterView(mFooterView);
mListView.setAdapter(mAdapter);
2.Set visibility
mFooterView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
mFooterView.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
3.Set invisibility
mFooterView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
mFooterView.setPadding(0, -1*mFooterView.getHeight(), 0, 0);

As #YoniSamlan pointed out, it can be achieved in a simple way. You have to specify
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
in the ViewGroup that contains the "Load More" button. Doesn't have to be FrameLayout, see below for a simple -working- example that uses a LinearLayout.
Both images show a screen that is scrolled all the way to the bottom. First one has a visible footer that wraps around the "load more" button. Second images shows that the footer collapses if you set button's visibility to GONE.
You can show again the footer (inside some callback) by changing the visibility:
loadMore.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); // set to View.GONE to hide it again
Perform listView initialization as usual
// Find View, set empty View if needed
mListView = (ListView) root.findViewById(R.id.reservations_search_results);
mListView.setEmptyView(root.findViewById(R.id.search_reservations_list_empty));
// Instantiate footerView using a LayoutInflater and add to listView
footerView = ((LayoutInflater) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE))
.inflate(R.layout.load_more_footer_view, null, false);
// additionally, find the "load more button" inside the footer view
loadMore = footerView.findViewById(R.id.load_more);
loadMore.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View view) {
fetchData();
}
});
// add footer view to the list
mListView.addFooterView(footerView);
// after we're done setting the footerView, we can setAdapter
adapter = new ReservationsArrayAdapter(getActivity(), R.layout.list_item_reservations_search, reservationsList);
mListView.setAdapter(adapter);
load_more_footer_view.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="wrap_content">
<Button
android:id="#+id/load_more"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="9dp"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:background="#drawable/transparent_white_border"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:text="#string/LOAD_MORE"/>

It should be a bug of Android.
You don't need to remove or add footer view dynamically. You just need to create an unspecified height parent Layout (either inflate it from an xml file or create it programatically) and then add your view which you want to hide or show into it.
And you can set the view, but NOT the parent Layout, to VISIBLE or GONE or something else now. It works for me.

Used
footer.removeAllViews();
This does not remove footer but flushes children.
You again have to repopulate children. Can check by
footer.getChildCount()<2

I also found that is possible call onContentChanged() (if you use ListActivity) to force recreate ListView if I need add HeaderView to them after setAdapter() call, but it is very ugly hack.

I have created a ListView that handles this. It also has an option to use the EndlessScrollListener I've created to handle endless listviews, that loads data until there's no more data to load.
You can see these classes here:
https://github.com/CyberEagle/OpenProjects/blob/master/android-projects/widgets/src/main/java/br/com/cybereagle/androidwidgets/helper/ListViewWithLoadingIndicatorHelper.java
- Helper to make it possible to use the features without extending from SimpleListViewWithLoadingIndicator.
https://github.com/CyberEagle/OpenProjects/blob/master/android-projects/widgets/src/main/java/br/com/cybereagle/androidwidgets/listener/EndlessScrollListener.java
- Listener that starts loading data when the user is about to reach the bottom of the ListView.
https://github.com/CyberEagle/OpenProjects/blob/master/android-projects/widgets/src/main/java/br/com/cybereagle/androidwidgets/view/SimpleListViewWithLoadingIndicator.java
- The EndlessListView. You can use this class directly or extend from it.

I have small hack way to resolve this problem for everywhere.
Put listview and footer view (just sub layout) in parent layout like LinnearLayout, remember that footerview below listview.
Controller this footer view gone and visibility like nomal view. And done!

first I am adding my footer to the listview,like this
listView.addFooterView(Utils.b);
Then on button click , I remove the view,
listView.removeFooterView(Utils.b);
I am adding the footer everytime when I am hitting the async,and theus the're no duplicate entry.I could aslo check for the count and so it like this,
if(listView.getFooterViewsCount() > 0){//if footer is added already do something}

When you want to remove the footer in ListView just call
listView.addFooterView(new View(yourContext));
It will add a dummy empty view which will not reserve any space