Question

I have a custom listview defined in my xml layout file. I can add items to this ListView inside onCreate method, through an array adapter.

However when I add items from another content view and then go back to the content view with the ListView all the items are gone and there’s nothing listed. Even after calling .notifyDataSetChanged();

It seems like I can only add to the list when the content view containing the ListView is currently being displayed. Is this the default behavior?

Failed attempted workaround

I used another array to keep the newly added items and then try to add them when the ListView became visible again. I had to override onContentChanged() to do so but then no items were added still.

So the main question is

How can I dynamically add items to the ListView even if it’s out of sight and still preserve the old items?

PS: I have to say the Android API is one of the worst I’ve ever come across.

Answer 1

If you change content view, then all the previous views are going to be destroyed. Are you using an adapter? If so, then it would be very easy to add all the items to the list again.

There shouldn’t be any reason to setContentView any time other than in onCreate.

If you were looking to have multiple screens, instead of changing content view, then start a new activity.