Question

Am trying to create a custom listview but it cant dispaly am really a newbie and need the help …. Here’s the code

public class Main_Activity extends ListActivity {

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

setListAdapter((ListAdapter) new MyAdapter(this, 
        android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,R.id.textView1,
        getResources().getStringArray(R.array.categories)));

}

private class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String>{

    public MyAdapter(Context context, int resource, int textViewResourceId,
            String[] strings) {
        super(context, resource, textViewResourceId, strings);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent){
        LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);

        View row = inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_item, parent, false);
        String[] items = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.categories);

        ImageView image = (ImageView)row.findViewById(R.id.textView1);
        TextView text =(TextView)row.findViewById(R.id.textView1);

        text.setText(items[position]);

        if(items[position].equals("Life")){
            image.setImageResource(R.drawable.lifeico);
        }

        else if(items[position].equals("Corporate")){
            image.setImageResource(R.drawable.corpico);
        }

        else if(items[position].equals("umash")){
            image.setImageResource(R.drawable.umashico);
        }


        return row;
    }
}

//then the listview layout 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">

<ListView
    android:id="@android:id/list"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" />

</LinearLayout>

//using the compound drawable layout

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:drawableLeft="@drawable/lifeico"
android:drawablePadding="5dp"
android:text="@string/textview"
android:textSize="25sp" >

</TextView> 

//and the resource list of items

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string-array name="categories">
    <item name="Life">Individual Life</item>
    <item name="Corporate">Corporate Insurance</item>
    <item name="Umash">Umash Funeral Services</item>
</string-array>

</resources>

Answer 1

you really haven’t given us enough to go on (like a logcat of errors if available or a log statement not being reached), it could be any number of things.

I’d say that there must be issue with the View row xml that you are inflating View row = inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_item,. That could be the incorrect name, but is the entire layout, just the TextView? If so, you should (add the imageView &) put it in a ViewGroup, like RelativeLayout,LinearLayout etc. just like your main layout is. But most alarming is probably:

    ImageView image = (ImageView)row.findViewById(R.id.textView1); <-
    TextView text =(TextView)row.findViewById(R.id.textView1); <-

can you see that you’re referencing two different views by the same id? the latest image command might be screwing it up.

Moreover, it’s best practices not to do what’s unnecessary in getView since it is called for each row of the ListView. That’s what passing things through the constructor are for (items which you seem to have ignored), so that they’re only done once. Try it like this:

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

setListAdapter((ListAdapter) new MyAdapter(
        this, 
        R.layout.list_item,  <--
        R.id.textView1,  <------
        R.id.imageView1, <------ make sure these are all correct
        getResources().getStringArray(R.array.categories)));

}

private class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String>{

    private int resource;
    private int textViewResourceId;
    private int imageViewResourceId;
    private String[] strings;
    private LayoutInflater inflater;

    public MyAdapter(Context context, int resource, int textViewResourceId, 
            int imageViewResourceId, String[] strings) {
        super(context, resource, textViewResourceId, strings);
        this.resource = resource;
        this.textViewResourceId = textViewResourceId;
        this.imageViewResourceId  = imageViewResourceId;
        this.strings = strings;
        inflater = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    }

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

        View row = inflater.inflate(resource, parent, false);

        ImageView image = (ImageView)row.findViewById(imageViewResourceId);
        TextView text =(TextView)row.findViewById(textViewResourceId);

        text.setText(strings[position]);

        if(strings[position].equals("Life")){
            image.setImageResource(R.drawable.lifeico);
        }

        else if(strings[position].equals("Corporate")){
            image.setImageResource(R.drawable.corpico);
        }

        else if(strings[position].equals("umash")){
            image.setImageResource(R.drawable.umashico);
        }


        return row;
    }

you could have even passed all your constructor parameters straight through if they were all in the same master class.