(Android) How to fill ListView background and preserve header transparency

Question

I have a custom image background that fills the entire screen behind a ListView.

The ListView has a header that contains some data, then a transparent 10dp margin(allowi

Answer 1

I hacked it by adding a colored footer. The footer was a LinearLayout containing a View called "fill" set to 5dp height w/ my desired bg color.

After populating & scaling my list header (prior code), I then adjusted the footer to fill in the remaining screen space:

        ...

    int totHeight = getTotalHeightofListView();

    if((mHeader.getMeasuredHeight() + totHeight) < mList.getMeasuredHeight())
        addFooterFill(mHeader.getMeasuredHeight() + totHeight);
}

protected int getTotalHeightofListView() {

    ListAdapter LvAdapter = mList.getAdapter();
    int totHeight = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < mAdapter.getCount(); i++) {
        View mView = mAdapter.getView(i, null, mList);
        mView.measure(
                MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED),
                MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED));
        totHeight += mView.getMeasuredHeight();
    }

    return totHeight; 
}

protected void addFooterFill(int sizeUsed){

    View fill = (View) mFooter.findViewById(R.id.fill);

    LinearLayout.LayoutParams params = (LinearLayout.LayoutParams) fill.getLayoutParams();
    params.height = mList.getMeasuredHeight() - sizeUsed;
    fill.setLayoutParams(params);
}

In theory this should work even if you already have a footer. You're essentially just adjusting the height of a view within the footer.