Easy ListView with Anchored Header/Footer and "Custom" Row Layout.

This is the basic listview that has been working great for me.

Disclaimer: While the list item view for this is "custom" it does not allow you to provide more than one view per list item. You can customize that one item (background, font, size, color, etc.) To add more views to a list item please see my entry on custom list adapters.

First is the page layout. I only included a simple textview header, but it could easily be replaced with buttons or checkboxes or anything. The surrounding linear layout but be set to "fill_parent" height and width and also have a vertical orientation. The listview width should be set to "fill_parent" so that the whole list row is clickable and not just the text. layout_weight should be set to 1 which will cause the listview to expand to the height of available space in the window, pushing the header or footer to be docked at the top or bottom.



pageone.xml

xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

  android:layout_height="fill_parent"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:orientation="vertical" >

<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:text="This is the Header"
  android:id="@+id/Header" >
</TextView>

<ListView
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:layout_weight="1"
  android:textFilterEnabled="true"
  android:id="@android:id/list" >
</ListView>
</LinearLayout>

The row layout is important if you want to customize the look of your list (like text size, color, etc). Otherwise, android has some built in layouts that can be used. In my example, I am just using a single textview (easily populated by string values using simpleadapter) with a small font. Add more textviews in a horizontal linear layout for columns, or vertical for two rows of text. Use relative layout to add photos and for even more customization. Remember the id of the textviews that will be populated by simple adapter later on. (EDIT: If you want to use additional text views, image views check boxes or whatever, you need to use a custom adapter!)

list_item.xml

<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent"
  android:padding="10dp"
  android:textSize="16sp"
  android:id="@+id/label">
</TextView>

In the java file, include a String of the items you want to display before the onCreate. Set the list Adapter in onCreate. Set up list item click event handler after onCreate. Right now, it is set up to display a toast message of the list item selected.

PageOne.java

public class StepTherapy extends ListActivity {

String[] items={"lorem", "ipsum", "dolor", "sit", "amet",
"consectetuer", "adipiscing", "elit", "morbi", "vel",
"ligula", "vitae", "arcu", "aliquet", "mollis",
"etiam", "vel", "erat", "placerat", "ante",
"porttitor", "sodales", "pellentesque", "augue",
"purus"};
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.steptherapy);

ListView lv = (ListView)getListView();
        lv.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list_item, R.id.label, items));
    public void onListItemClick(ListView parent, View v, int position, long id) {
            Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), ((TextView) v).getText(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}