Creating ViewHolders for ListViews with different item layouts

Question

I have a ListView with different layouts for different items. Some items are separators. Some items are different because they hold different kinds of data, etc.

I want to implement ViewHolders to speed up the getView process, but I'm not quite sure how to go about it. Different layouts have different pieces of data (which makes naming difficult) and different numbers of Views I want to use.

How should I go about doing this?

The best idea I can come up with is to create a generic ViewHolder with X items where X is the number of Views in an item layout with the highest number of them. For the other views with a small number of Views, I'll just use a subsection of those variables in the ViewHolder. So say I have 2 layouts I use for 2 different items. One has 3 TextViews and the other has 1. I would create a ViewHolder with 3 TextView variables and only use 1 of them for my other item. My problem is that this can get really ugly looking and feels really hacky; especially when an item layout may have many Views of many different types.

Here is a very basic getView:

@Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

    MyHolder holder;

    View v = convertView;
    if (v == null) {
        LayoutInflater vi = (LayoutInflater)getContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        v = vi.inflate(R.layout.layout_mylistlist_item, parent, false);

        holder = new MyHolder();
        holder.text = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.mylist_itemname);
        v.setTag(holder);
    }
    else {
        holder = (MyHolder)v.getTag();
    }

    MyListItem myItem = m_items.get(position);

    // set up the list item
    if (myItem != null) {
        // set item text
        if (holder.text != null) {
            holder.text.setText(myItem.getItemName());
        }
    }

    // return the created view
    return v;
}

Suppose I had different types of row layouts, I could have a ViewHolder for each type of row. But what type would I declare "holder" to be at the top? Or would I declare a holder for each type and then use the one for the type of row I'm on.

user_9528509 · Answer

Using view types is not the simplest way. Sometimes it's better not to use ViewType, but implement a class hierarchy which will do all the things.

Okay, we have a task to show a furniture items in the list - chairs, beds and so on. First implement the object model:

public abstract class FurnitureBase  {
    @LayoutRes
    abstract public int getLayoutFileResource();
    abstract public HolderFurnitureBase getHolder(View convertView);
}


public class FurnitureChair extends FurnitureBase  {
    public double price;
    public Material material;
    ...

    public FurnitureChair(double price, Material material) {
        ...
    }


    @Override
    public int getLayoutFileResource() {
        return R.layout.item_furniture_chair;
    }


    @Override
    public HolderFurnitureBase getHolder(View convertView) {
        return new HolderFurnitureChair(convertView);
    }
}


public class FurnitureBed extends FurnitureBase  {
    public double price;
    public BedSize size;
    ...

    public FurnitureBed(double price, BedSize size) {
        ...
    }


    @Override
    public int getLayoutFileResource() {
        return R.layout.item_furniture_bed;
    }


    @Override
    public HolderFurnitureBase getHolder(View convertView) {
        return new HolderFurnitureBed(convertView);
    }
}

Next, create holders:

public abstract class HolderFurnitureBase
{
    public HolderFurnitureBase(View convertView) { };

    public abstract void renderItem(FurnitureBase item);
}

public class HolderFurnitureChair extends HolderFurnitureBase
{
    private final ImageViewAccent mIconAction;
    private final TextViewPrimaryDark mPrice;
    ...

    public HolderFurnitureChair(View convertView)
    {
        // just init views
        super(convertView);
        this.mIconAction = convertView.findViewById(R.id.item_furniture_chair_icon_action;
        this.mPrice = convertView.findViewById(R.id.item_furniture_chair_text_price);
    }


    public void renderItem(FurnitureBase item)
    {
        FurnitureChair chair = (FurnitureChair ) item;
        mIconAction.setImageResource(chair.getProductTypeIcon());
        mPrice.setText(Utils.Formatter.formatMoney(chair.price, chair.priceCurrency));
    }
}


public class HolderFurnitureBed extends HolderFurnitureBase
{
    private final TextView mSize;
    private final TextViewPrimaryDark mPrice;
    ...

    public HolderFurnitureBed(View convertView)
    {
        // just init views
        super(convertView);
        this.mSize = convertView.findViewById(R.id.item_furniture_bed_text_size;
        this.mPrice = convertView.findViewById(R.id.item_furniture_bed_text_price);
    }


    public void renderItem(FurnitureBase item)
    {
        FurnitureBed bed = (FurnitureBed) item;
        mSize.setText(bed.getSizeText());
        mPrice.setText(Utils.Formatter.formatMoney(bed.getPrice(), bed.getPriceCurrency()));
    }
}

And gather all the magic in the adapter:

public final class AdapterFurniture extends ArrayAdapter
{
    public AdapterFurniture(Context context, List items) {
        super(context, R.layout.item_furniture_bed, items);
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public View getView(final int position, @Nullable View convertView, @NonNull ViewGroup parent)
    {
        FurnitureBase item = getItem(position);
        HolderFurnitureBase holder;
        if (convertView == null) {
            convertView = LayoutInflater.from(getContext()).inflate(item.getLayoutFileResource(), parent, false);
            holder = item.getHolder(convertView);
        }
        else {
            holder = (HolderFurnitureBase) convertView.getTag();
        }
        holder.renderItem(getItem(position));
        convertView.setTag(holder);
        return convertView;
    }
}

That's all. No need to count view types, no need to change adapter when a sofa added, and an armchair, and more and more - just extend the base class for the new item and holder base class for the new holder, and the app is ready for testers to enjoy :)

Creating ViewHolders for ListViews with different item layouts

3 Answers