How to perform this action in Android Activity?

Question

I have a ListView, where the ListItem contains student's registration number and their name. So, the following is the action I would like to perform.

When I click the ListItem, the ListItem expands (or a layout appears between the two ListItem or something like that happens) and the expanded section displays further information about that student (say his group, his age and stuffs like that). The expanded layout/block may also provide the option to receive feedback from the user (say, the teacher) who uses the app. I don't have the required reputation to post an Image. Please click the below link for a visual understanding of what I would like to develop.

http://tinyurl.com/q2auwuk

Unfortunately, I am yet to find how to perform such an action. I mean I am a newbie to android development. Hence may be I am short of various Android's View possibilities even to perform a successful google search. Any assistance would be of great help.

Answer 1

It sounds like you would want something like an ExpandableListView.

You can implement one like below. Scroll down for the link to the full tutorial on AndroidHive.

activity_main.xml

<?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"
    android:background="#f4f4f4" >

            <ExpandableListView
                android:id="@+id/lvExp"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"/>   

</LinearLayout>

list_group.xml

<?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="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="8dp"
    android:background="#000000">


    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/lblListHeader"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingLeft="?android:attr/expandableListPreferredItemPaddingLeft"
        android:textSize="17dp"
        android:textColor="#f9f93d" />

</LinearLayout>

Create one more xml file named list_item.xml for child list item. This will contain simple TextView element.

list_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="55dip"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/lblListItem"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="17dip"
        android:paddingTop="5dp"
        android:paddingBottom="5dp"
        android:paddingLeft="?android:attr/expandableListPreferredChildPaddingLeft" />

</LinearLayout>

Create a new class file called ExpandableListAdapter.java and extend this from BaseExpandableListAdapter. This class provides required methods to render listview.

ExpandableListAdapter.java

package info.androidhive.expandablelistview;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.BaseExpandableListAdapter;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class ExpandableListAdapter extends BaseExpandableListAdapter {

    private Context _context;
    private List<String> _listDataHeader; // header titles
    // child data in format of header title, child title
    private HashMap<String, List<String>> _listDataChild;

    public ExpandableListAdapter(Context context, List<String> listDataHeader,
            HashMap<String, List<String>> listChildData) {
        this._context = context;
        this._listDataHeader = listDataHeader;
        this._listDataChild = listChildData;
    }

    @Override
    public Object getChild(int groupPosition, int childPosititon) {
        return this._listDataChild.get(this._listDataHeader.get(groupPosition))
                .get(childPosititon);
    }

    @Override
    public long getChildId(int groupPosition, int childPosition) {
        return childPosition;
    }

    @Override
    public View getChildView(int groupPosition, final int childPosition,
            boolean isLastChild, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        final String childText = (String) getChild(groupPosition, childPosition);

        if (convertView == null) {
            LayoutInflater infalInflater = (LayoutInflater) this._context
                    .getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
            convertView = infalInflater.inflate(R.layout.list_item, null);
        }

        TextView txtListChild = (TextView) convertView
                .findViewById(R.id.lblListItem);

        txtListChild.setText(childText);
        return convertView;
    }

    @Override
    public int getChildrenCount(int groupPosition) {
        return this._listDataChild.get(this._listDataHeader.get(groupPosition))
                .size();
    }

    @Override
    public Object getGroup(int groupPosition) {
        return this._listDataHeader.get(groupPosition);
    }

    @Override
    public int getGroupCount() {
        return this._listDataHeader.size();
    }

    @Override
    public long getGroupId(int groupPosition) {
        return groupPosition;
    }

    @Override
    public View getGroupView(int groupPosition, boolean isExpanded,
            View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        String headerTitle = (String) getGroup(groupPosition);
        if (convertView == null) {
            LayoutInflater infalInflater = (LayoutInflater) this._context
                    .getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
            convertView = infalInflater.inflate(R.layout.list_group, null);
        }

        TextView lblListHeader = (TextView) convertView
                .findViewById(R.id.lblListHeader);
        lblListHeader.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
        lblListHeader.setText(headerTitle);

        return convertView;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean hasStableIds() {
        return false;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isChildSelectable(int groupPosition, int childPosition) {
        return true;
    }
}

Once you are done with customer adapter, open your MainActivity.java and do the following changes. In the following I created required data needed for list view and passed it to custom adapter.

MainActivity.java

package info.androidhive.expandablelistview;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ExpandableListView;
import android.widget.ExpandableListView.OnChildClickListener;
import android.widget.ExpandableListView.OnGroupClickListener;
import android.widget.ExpandableListView.OnGroupCollapseListener;
import android.widget.ExpandableListView.OnGroupExpandListener;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    ExpandableListAdapter listAdapter;
    ExpandableListView expListView;
    List<String> listDataHeader;
    HashMap<String, List<String>> listDataChild;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        // get the listview
        expListView = (ExpandableListView) findViewById(R.id.lvExp);

        // preparing list data
        prepareListData();

        listAdapter = new ExpandableListAdapter(this, listDataHeader, listDataChild);

        // setting list adapter
        expListView.setAdapter(listAdapter);
    }

    /*
     * Preparing the list data
     */
    private void prepareListData() {
        listDataHeader = new ArrayList<String>();
        listDataChild = new HashMap<String, List<String>>();

        // Adding child data
        listDataHeader.add("Top 250");
        listDataHeader.add("Now Showing");
        listDataHeader.add("Coming Soon..");

        // Adding child data
        List<String> top250 = new ArrayList<String>();
        top250.add("The Shawshank Redemption");
        top250.add("The Godfather");
        top250.add("The Godfather: Part II");
        top250.add("Pulp Fiction");
        top250.add("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly");
        top250.add("The Dark Knight");
        top250.add("12 Angry Men");

        List<String> nowShowing = new ArrayList<String>();
        nowShowing.add("The Conjuring");
        nowShowing.add("Despicable Me 2");
        nowShowing.add("Turbo");
        nowShowing.add("Grown Ups 2");
        nowShowing.add("Red 2");
        nowShowing.add("The Wolverine");

        List<String> comingSoon = new ArrayList<String>();
        comingSoon.add("2 Guns");
        comingSoon.add("The Smurfs 2");
        comingSoon.add("The Spectacular Now");
        comingSoon.add("The Canyons");
        comingSoon.add("Europa Report");

        listDataChild.put(listDataHeader.get(0), top250); // Header, Child data
        listDataChild.put(listDataHeader.get(1), nowShowing);
        listDataChild.put(listDataHeader.get(2), comingSoon);
    }
}

Here's the full tutorial for reference.