Question

I have a question about the implementation of a ListView layout within a tab layout.

When we are implementing this where we have a Custom title bar underneath which is a Tab Layout and within each Tab layout is a List View , should the main activity be a extension of ListView or should it be a extension of Tab View ? Can it be List View ?

The reason is that I’ve created a ListView properly functioning and I want to expand on it by using the list as a template and adding Tabs (categories) which branches into more of such lists. I’ve done it using ListView and seems like addition of tabs would require that i rewrite my whole code by extending tabview. Is there any way i can make use of ListView while implementing my tabs ?

I have noticed that there is no tutorial on how to implement these 2 views/layouts together, anyone has any links and directions ?

Answer 1

I’ve got an example of this in some code I wrote a while ago.

What I needed was also a list inside of a tab. So the driver for this is the tab that has other activities inside it. You add TabSpec’s that have the Intent of the ListActivity to the TabHost.

This is the layout for the tab:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@android:id/tabhost"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:padding="5dp">
        <TabWidget
            android:id="@android:id/tabs"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            />
        <FrameLayout
            android:id="@android:id/tabcontent"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:padding="5dp" />
    </LinearLayout>
</TabHost>

Then this is the layout for one of the list views in the tab:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <ListView android:id="@+id/android:list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>
    <TextView android:id="@+id/android:empty"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:text="@string/no_items"/>
</LinearLayout>

And this is the code for the tab itself:

public class

MyTabActivity extends TabActivity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            setContentView(R.layout.my_tabs);
            Bundle bundle = getIntent().getExtras();

            TabHost tabHost = getTabHost();
            TabHost.TabSpec spec;
            Intent intent;

            intent = new Intent().setClass(this, MyListActivity.class);
            spec = tabHost  .newTabSpec("some_things")
                            .setIndicator("Some")
                            .setContent(intent);
            tabHost.addTab(spec);

            intent = new Intent().setClass(this, MyOtherActivity.class);
            spec = tabHost  .newTabSpec("top_things")
                            .setIndicator("Top")
                            .setContent(intent);
            tabHost.addTab(spec);


            tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0).getLayoutParams().height = 35;
            tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(1).getLayoutParams().height = 35;
    }
}