Question

I encountered a problem when embedding a ListView inside a ScrollView, or at least that’s where I guess the problem comes from. The ListView element is a fairly simple one:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/item_root"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/general_background_list_middle" 
    android:paddingTop="4dp"
    android:paddingBottom="4dp"
    android:paddingRight="0dp"
    android:paddingLeft="0dp">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/chat_friends_avatar"       
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="7dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
        android:paddingRight="0dp" 
        android:paddingLeft="0dp"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:src="@drawable/friends_icon_avatar_default"/>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/chat_message_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/chat_friends_avatar"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_marginRight="35dp"
        android:maxLines="10"
        android:textSize="12dp"/>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/chat_friend_name"
        android:layout_width="140dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="3dp"
        style="@style/SubText"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/chat_friends_avatar"      
        android:layout_below="@id/chat_message_text" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/chat_message_time"
        android:layout_width="80dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="3dp"
        style="@style/SubText"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_below="@id/chat_message_text" />

</RelativeLayout>   

However, when I embed a list of such elements in a ScrollView, in between some other elements, the rows are not fully displayed, they are clipped (see image below) if the text is wrapped. The ListView is instantiated as follows in the ScrollView:

<ListView
android:id="@+id/info_chat_listview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:cacheColorHint="@color/frame_background_color"
android:clickable="false"
android:divider="@null"
android:footerDividersEnabled="false"
android:focusable="false" >
</ListView> 

If the height of the ListView is set to “wrap_content” only the first element is shown. That’s why I’m using a method to calculate the height of the rows of the list:

private int getCommentsListHeight() {
        if (mChatAdapter != null && mChatAdapter.getCount() != 0) {
            if (mChatList != null) {// && mCommentsListItemHeight == 0) {
                mCommentsListItemHeight = 0;
                for (int i = 0; i < mChatAdapter.getCount(); i++) {
                    // Get view item height
                    View viewItem = mChatAdapter
                            .getView(i, new View(OnAirActivity.this), mChatList);
                    viewItem.measure(0, 0);
                    Logger.d(LOGTAG, "View " + i + " measured height = " + viewItem.getMeasuredHeight());
                    mCommentsListItemHeight += viewItem.getMeasuredHeight();
                }
            }
            //return mChatAdapter.getCount() * mCommentsListItemHeight;
            return mCommentsListItemHeight;
        } else {
            return 0;
        }
    }

Unfortunately, in case when the text inside the TextView is wrapped, even over several lines, the height of the row element returned by the getMeasuredHeight() method is constant. Also the getLineCount() called on the TextView inside the row element returns 1 even if the text is wrapped.

On the other hand, if this ListView is embedded in a LinearLayout, everything works fine and the full list is displayed with no clipping.

Do you have any suggestions as to what might be wrong here? I really don’t like the idea of manually measuring the height of the list elements and it apparently doesn’t work but why can’t android nicely stretch the ListView inside the ScrollView to fit it all in there?

Clipped list:

Answer 1

It’s a BAD practice to encapsulate ListView within a ScrollView because ListView itself contains scrolling capabilities. You should implement a solution that does not contain such hierarchy of views and I hope it will do the magic 🙂