Question

When a list is shown and scrolled around, ListAdapter.getView() either creates a new list item view, or retools an existing view passed to it (as “convertView) to display new content.

I’m wondering, if there’s a way to get all the views created by getView()? E.g. if the list item views needs to free some resource when the activity is destroyed, it would be nice to go through all list item views and tell them to release the resource.

Answer 1

Well, it’s not as simple as iterating through the ListView using ListView#getChildAt(int) – the ListView is an AbsListView subclass – and AbsListView implements the RecycleBin used to hold Views that will be reused.

Before a View is placed in the RecycleBin its detached from its parent (the list view) using ViewGroup#detachViewFromParent(View), thus rendering it unaccessible using getChildAt(int).

What you should implement is the RecyclerListener interface that will notify you when a View is moved to the RecycleBin.