Android - Porting my UITableView to android

Question

I want to port my UITableView to my android application which I'm working on right now. I have no problem with creating a basic ListView in android with the basic android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1. But I'm having trouble with custom cells. So here is my custom cell in my UITableView:

enter image description here

So my question is: How can I create a custom list item in android? It should look like my custom UITableViewCell.

Is it possible to create the list item with an interface builder? And how do I have access to the Labels and Views of the cell?

Another question is: I have multiple prototype cells in my UITableView. But as far I know is, I can only set one ListAdapter with one layout style for the whole list. How does that work?

Thanks!

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 07 '14 at 23:05

It sounds like you are on the right track, though it would be much nicer if you had listed what you currently have from the xml layouts, the Activity (or fragment), and the adapter.

The packaged simple_list_item_x 's are intended for very basic usage --i.e. the "simple". Anyways, the views that we will be working with are ImageView (UIImageView in iOS), TextView (UILabel in iOS), and View (UIView in iOS).

In addition to the views there are also 2 different layouts that we will be using, LinearLayout and RelativeLayout. The former just puts objects in to either a horizontal or vertical list, while the latter allows you to position the views relative to the container or the views listed in the xml itself.

The XML below is the layout for the ListView item. You can access the items through their id's (android:id) by calling findViewById(R.id.icon_image); replacing the id with the correct one, in your fragment or activity.

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

        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/icon_image"
            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            android:layout_width="44dp"
            android:layout_height="44dp"
            android:layout_marginRight="5dp"/>

        <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/text_wrapper"
            android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            android:layout_alignRight="@+id/icon_image"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/upper_text_view"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/lower_text_view"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
        </LinearLayout>

        <View
            android:id="@+id/color_view"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
            android:layout_width="5dp"
            android:layout_height="match_parent" />

</RelativeLayout>

On to the second question; If you are using Eclipse or Android Studio (recommended one), then when you create a new layout or open an existing one you can either view it by the xml ("text"), or with a designer ("Design") which is designated by tabs at the bottom of the view.

For your last question. Yes, you can only have one adapter per list, which is the same as iOS. If you want to have multiple item types (cells in iOS) then in the custom adapter under the 'getView(...)' method you will decide which xml layout to use (inflate).

This is a large topic, and if you don't know much about android may seem somewhat difficult. In the end, it is the same concept as iOS, just organized a little differently. There is a good tutorial/walkthrough by vogella about ListViews and the adapters (you want the custom adapter part). Vogella

Thanks. After reading your answers I searched how to access the Labels and views. So I ended up with this answer here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15832335/android-custom-row-item-for-listview . After playing around for a while, it works now :-) Thanks alo — Mike_NotGuilty, Nov 09 '14 at 11:00

Android - Porting my UITableView to android

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