Android UI

How To Create GridView In Android

demo_gridview

Alternative design pattern to ListView. One of the ready made widget available in android UI widget set in which contents arranged like rows and columns(2D). Space conscious and eye catcher. Thus popular in mobile devices.

GridView is commonly seen in content arrangement where single item needs to be projected like in media galleries and Calendar.

Like a twin brother of ListViewGridview is very similar to ListView in many aspects. So if you have ever worked with any of these then other one can be easily understood with less effort.

Before we start we have a quick meeting with 3 very important parts of the GridView. These are the following

Step 1. Add Gridview To Layout

Open your layout XML file in design mode and drag and drop Gridview into layout. Now you have the layout to show GridView items. GridView is only a layout actually does not really care about the content but how they arrange in the layout.

Here you can define many attributes related to the layout like dimension, spacing, number of rows and columns etc.

Open res/layout/activity_flower.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".FlowerGalleryActivity">

    <GridView
        android:id="@+id/gridView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:numColumns="2"
        android:verticalSpacing="@dimen/elementMargin"
        android:horizontalSpacing="@dimen/elementMargin"
        android:gravity="center"
        />
</RelativeLayout>

Step 2. Adapter Layout

Which is the connecter between GridView and DataSet and he has one more duty it is the definition of each item in the GridView.

Adapter is like a pipe connection where data are passed to GridView one after another. Each passing data forms a view. Adapter has a definition for this formation. Based on this definition views are drawn. Each item in the GridView has a position which is starting from 0 to n. Where n is the total number of items – 1

In future if you customize the GridView then this is the part where you working on more than anywhere else.

Open res/layout/adapter_flower.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    >

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/photoView"
        android:layout_width="@dimen/gridView_cellWidth"
        android:layout_height="@dimen/gridView_cellHeight"
        android:contentDescription="@string/app_name"
        android:scaleType="centerCrop"
         />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/elementMargin"
        android:background="@color/overlay"
        android:padding="@dimen/cellText_padding"
        android:textColor="@color/textColor"
        android:textSize="@dimen/cellText_textSize" />

</RelativeLayout>

Step 3. Create Dataset Class

Dataset is the collection of user defined item objects. Data Sources, which are responsible for providing data for GridView, may be different for each Application we If we have ‘n’ number of items present in GridView then Dataset will have ‘n’ number of item objects in it. Each item object has properties with values.

Flower.java

package gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview.dataset;

public class Flower {

    private String mFlowerName;
    private int mPhotoPath;

    public String getFlowerName() {
        return mFlowerName;
    }

    public void setFlowerName(String name) {
        mFlowerName = name;
    }

    public int getPhotoPath() {
        return mPhotoPath;
    }

    public void setPhotoPath(int photoPath) {
        mPhotoPath = photoPath;
    }

}

Step 4. Create FlowerAdapter Class

package gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview.adapter;

import android.content.Context;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.BaseAdapter;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview.R;
import gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview.dataset.Flower;


//This is a custom adapter. It has been extended from BaseAdapter because
//we need to overrider the getView function for changing the layout of each Grid View Item
public class FlowerAdapter extends BaseAdapter {

    private ArrayList<Flower> mFlowerData = new ArrayList<>();
    private LayoutInflater mInflaterCatalogListItems;

    public FlowerAdapter(Context context, ArrayList<Flower> flowerData) {
        mFlowerData = flowerData;
        mInflaterCatalogListItems = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    }

    //This function will determine how many items to be displayed
    @Override
    public int getCount() {
        return mFlowerData.size();
    }

    @Override
    public Object getItem(int position) {
        return mFlowerData.get(position);
    }

    @Override
    public long getItemId(int position) {
        return position;
    }

    //This function will iterate through each object in the Data Set. This function will form each item in a Grid View
    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        ViewHolder holder;

        if (convertView == null) {

            holder = new ViewHolder();
            convertView = mInflaterCatalogListItems.inflate(R.layout.adapter_flower,
                    null);
            holder.sFlowerName = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.textView);
            holder.sFlowerPhotoPath = (ImageView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.photoView);
            convertView.setTag(holder);

        } else {
            holder = (ViewHolder) convertView.getTag();
        }


        //Change the content here
        if (mFlowerData.get(position) != null) {
            holder.sFlowerName.setText(mFlowerData.get(position).getFlowerName());
            holder.sFlowerPhotoPath.setImageResource(mFlowerData.get(position).getPhotoPath());
        }

        return convertView;
    }

    //View Holder class used for reusing the same inflated view. It will decrease the inflation overhead @getView
    private static class ViewHolder {
        TextView sFlowerName;
        ImageView sFlowerPhotoPath;

    }

}

Connection between these 3 parts

Now we have to connect them in order to make Gridview viewable. There is a order of connection. First connect dataset to adapter then after that connect adapter to Gridview. The below figure shows the internal working of a GridView.

gridview-adapter-dataset

Example

Below is the sample example showing the basic usage of GridView. In this example i will show you how to add contents to GridView, make changes to the content and update GridView after each change.

In Activity Class

FlowerGalleryActivity.java

package gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.Toast;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview.adapter.FlowerAdapter;
import gridview.devdeeds.com.gridview.dataset.Flower;

public class FlowerGalleryActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements AdapterView.OnItemClickListener {

    ArrayList<Flower> mFlowerDataSet = new ArrayList<>();

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


        //Prepare DataSet
        mFlowerDataSet = prepareDataSet();

        //Initialize Grid View for programming
        GridView gridview = (GridView) findViewById(R.id.gridView);

        //Connect DataSet to Adapter
        FlowerAdapter flowerAdapter = new FlowerAdapter(this, mFlowerDataSet);

        //Now Connect Adapter To GridView
        gridview.setAdapter(flowerAdapter);

        //Add Listener For Grid View Item Click
        gridview.setOnItemClickListener(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int position, long l) {

        //Show Name Of The Flower
        Toast.makeText(FlowerGalleryActivity.this, mFlowerDataSet.get(position).getFlowerName(),
                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }


    //Creating Data Set By Adding 6 flower objects
    private ArrayList<Flower> prepareDataSet() {

        ArrayList<Flower> flowerData = new ArrayList<>();

        Flower flower;

        //1st Item
        flower = new Flower();
        flower.setFlowerName("Alyssum");
        flower.setPhotoPath(R.drawable.alyssum);
        flowerData.add(flower);

        //2nd Item
        flower = new Flower();
        flower.setFlowerName("Daisy");
        flower.setPhotoPath(R.drawable.daisy);
        flowerData.add(flower);


        //3rd Item
        flower = new Flower();
        flower.setFlowerName("Jasmine");
        flower.setPhotoPath(R.drawable.jasmine);
        flowerData.add(flower);


        //4th Item
        flower = new Flower();
        flower.setFlowerName("Lily");
        flower.setPhotoPath(R.drawable.lily);
        flowerData.add(flower);


        //5th Item
        flower = new Flower();
        flower.setFlowerName("Poppy");
        flower.setPhotoPath(R.drawable.poppy);
        flowerData.add(flower);


        //6th Item
        flower = new Flower();
        flower.setFlowerName("Rose");
        flower.setPhotoPath(R.drawable.rose);
        flowerData.add(flower);

        return flowerData;

    }
}

Values Files

res/values/dimens.xml

<resources>
    <!-- Default screen margins, per the Android Design guidelines. -->
    <dimen name="activity_horizontal_margin">16dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="activity_vertical_margin">16dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="gridView_cellWidth">160dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="gridView_cellHeight">160dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="cellText_padding">5dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="elementMargin">10dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="cellText_textSize">18sp</dimen>
</resources>

res/values/colors.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <color name="colorPrimary">#3F51B5</color>
    <color name="colorPrimaryDark">#303F9F</color>
    <color name="colorAccent">#FF4081</color>
    <color name="overlay">#80000000</color>
    <color name="textColor">#ffffff</color>
</resources>

res/values/strings.xml

<resources>
    <string name="app_name">GridView Example</string>
</resources>

Output

screenshot_gridview

Complete Source Code

Complete source code of this project has been published in GitHub. It is free to use and customize. Please click on the below download button to see the GitHub repository.

Please ask your questions regarding this topic using the below comment section.
Thank you and good luck!

About author

Geethu is a teacher by profession, but she likes to research new things and is also interested in writing. Devdeeds is her blog, where she writes all the blog posts related to technology, gadgets, mobile apps, games, and related content.

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