Set size of ListView base on his non-fixed elements heigth

Question

I have a layout defined as the following.

<ScrollView
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:padding="10dp">

        <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/section1"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginBottom="20dp"
                android:text="@string/anomaly_products_title"
                android:textColor="@color/title"
                android:textSize="16sp"
                android:textStyle="bold" />

            <ListView
                android:id="@+id/section1_list"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginBottom="40dp"
                android:divider="@android:color/transparent"
                android:dividerHeight="20dp" />
        </LinearLayout>

        .... Some Other section

    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

I also defined the item of the list as follows.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="13dp"
    android:background="@drawable/semi_rounded">

    <CheckBox
        android:id="@+id/checkbox_item"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="16sp" />
</LinearLayout>

I would like to set the height of the ListView to the height of all his elements and make it non-scrollable. The scroll must only occur on the parent ScrollView. For that, I have found the function setListViewHeightBasedOnChildren here.

The problem is that my checkbox label can be displayed on multiple lines and thus increase the size of the item slightly. With many checkboxes in this situation, the ListView becomes scrollable.

Is There any way to handle that case?

Answer 1

I would like to suggest adding headers and footers to your ListView instead of a ScrollView and ListView combination. This is simple and easier to implement. Here's a nice tutorial on how you might add headers/footers in a ListView.

Handling the height of the ListView based on the items count and item size is difficult and hard to optimize the overall process. You can also consider using a RecyclerView instead of ListView. It has the option to add headers and footers as well. Here's an implementation.

For adding multiple lists (multiple sections in your case), you might consider looking into this sample Github Project which might give you a lead on how you might achieve the behavior that you want using a RecyclerView.

Hence, remove the ScrollView. Put the contents which are above of your ListView in a separate layout file and do the same for the contents below your ListView. Then add them as a header and footer accordingly.