RecyclerView GridLayoutManager: how to auto-detect span count?

Question

Using the new GridLayoutManager: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v7/widget/GridLayoutManager.html

It takes an explicit span count, so the pro

Answer 1

A better way (imo) would be to define different span counts in (many) different values directories and let the device automatically select which span count to use. For example,

values/integers.xml -> span_count=3

values-w480dp/integers.xml -> span_count=4

values-w600dp/integers.xml -> span_count=5

Answer 2

Set spanCount to a large number (which is the max number of column) and set a custom SpanSizeLookup to the GridLayoutManager.

mLayoutManager.setSpanSizeLookup(new GridLayoutManager.SpanSizeLookup() {
    @Override
    public int getSpanSize(int i) {
        return SPAN_COUNT / (int) (mRecyclerView.getMeasuredWidth()/ CELL_SIZE_IN_PX);
    }
});

It's a bit ugly, but it work.

I think a manager like AutoSpanGridLayoutManager would be the best solution, but i didn't find anything like that.

EDIT : There is a bug, on some device it add blank space to the right

Answer 3

I extended the RecyclerView and overrode the onMeasure method.

I set an item width(member variable) as early as I can,with a default of 1. This also updates on configuration changed. This will now have as many rows as can fit in portrait,landscape,phone/tablet etc.

@Override
protected void onMeasure(int widthSpec, int heightSpec) {
    super.onMeasure(widthSpec, heightSpec);
    int width = MeasureSpec.getSize(widthSpec);
    if(width != 0){
        int spans = width / mItemWidth;
        if(spans > 0){
            mLayoutManager.setSpanCount(spans);
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

Personaly I don't like to subclass RecyclerView for this, because for me it seems that there is GridLayoutManager's responsibility to detect span count. So after some android source code digging for RecyclerView and GridLayoutManager I wrote my own class extended GridLayoutManager that do the job:

public class GridAutofitLayoutManager extends GridLayoutManager
{
    private int columnWidth;
    private boolean isColumnWidthChanged = true;
    private int lastWidth;
    private int lastHeight;

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(@NonNull final Context context, final int columnWidth) {
        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1);
        setColumnWidth(checkedColumnWidth(context, columnWidth));
    }

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(
        @NonNull final Context context,
        final int columnWidth,
        final int orientation,
        final boolean reverseLayout) {

        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1, orientation, reverseLayout);
        setColumnWidth(checkedColumnWidth(context, columnWidth));
    }

    private int checkedColumnWidth(@NonNull final Context context, final int columnWidth) {
        if (columnWidth <= 0) {
            /* Set default columnWidth value (48dp here). It is better to move this constant
            to static constant on top, but we need context to convert it to dp, so can't really
            do so. */
            columnWidth = (int) TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 48,
                    context.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
        return columnWidth;
    }

    public void setColumnWidth(final int newColumnWidth) {
        if (newColumnWidth > 0 && newColumnWidth != columnWidth) {
            columnWidth = newColumnWidth;
            isColumnWidthChanged = true;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onLayoutChildren(@NonNull final RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, @NonNull final RecyclerView.State state) {
        final int width = getWidth();
        final int height = getHeight();
        if (columnWidth > 0 && width > 0 && height > 0 && (isColumnWidthChanged || lastWidth != width || lastHeight != height)) {
            final int totalSpace;
            if (getOrientation() == VERTICAL) {
                totalSpace = width - getPaddingRight() - getPaddingLeft();
            } else {
                totalSpace = height - getPaddingTop() - getPaddingBottom();
            }
            final int spanCount = Math.max(1, totalSpace / columnWidth);
            setSpanCount(spanCount);
            isColumnWidthChanged = false;
        }
        lastWidth = width;
        lastHeight = height;
        super.onLayoutChildren(recycler, state);
    }
}

I don't actually remember why I choosed to set span count in onLayoutChildren, I wrote this class some time ago. But the point is we need to do so after view get measured. so we can get it's height and width.

EDIT 1: Fix error in code caused to incorrectly setting span count. Thanks user @Elyees Abouda for reporting and suggesting solution.

EDIT 2: Some small refactoring and fix edge case with manual orientation changes handling. Thanks user @tatarize for reporting and suggesting solution.

Answer 5

This is s.maks' class with a minor fix for when the recyclerview itself changes size. Such as when you deal with the orientation changes yourself (in the manifest android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize|keyboardHidden"), or some other reason the recyclerview might change size without the mColumnWidth changing. I also changed the int value it takes to be the resource of the size and allowed a constructor of no resource then setColumnWidth to do that yourself.

public class GridAutofitLayoutManager extends GridLayoutManager {
    private Context context;
    private float mColumnWidth;

    private float currentColumnWidth = -1;
    private int currentWidth = -1;
    private int currentHeight = -1;


    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(Context context) {
        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1);
        this.context = context;
        setColumnWidthByResource(-1);
    }

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(Context context, int resource) {
        this(context);
        this.context = context;
        setColumnWidthByResource(resource);
    }

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(Context context, int resource, int orientation, boolean reverseLayout) {
        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1, orientation, reverseLayout);
        this.context = context;
        setColumnWidthByResource(resource);
    }

    public void setColumnWidthByResource(int resource) {
        if (resource >= 0) {
            mColumnWidth = context.getResources().getDimension(resource);
        } else {
            /* Set default columnWidth value (48dp here). It is better to move this constant
            to static constant on top, but we need context to convert it to dp, so can't really
            do so. */
            mColumnWidth = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 48,
                    context.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
    }

    public void setColumnWidth(float newColumnWidth) {
        mColumnWidth = newColumnWidth;
    }

    @Override
    public void onLayoutChildren(RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, RecyclerView.State state) {
        recalculateSpanCount();
        super.onLayoutChildren(recycler, state);
    }

    public void recalculateSpanCount() {
        int width = getWidth();
        if (width <= 0) return;
        int height = getHeight();
        if (height <= 0) return;
        if (mColumnWidth <= 0) return;
        if ((width != currentWidth) || (height != currentHeight) || (mColumnWidth != currentColumnWidth)) {
            int totalSpace;
            if (getOrientation() == VERTICAL) {
                totalSpace = width - getPaddingRight() - getPaddingLeft();
            } else {
                totalSpace = height - getPaddingTop() - getPaddingBottom();
            }
            int spanCount = (int) Math.max(1, Math.floor(totalSpace / mColumnWidth));
            setSpanCount(spanCount);
            currentColumnWidth = mColumnWidth;
            currentWidth = width;
            currentHeight = height;
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

I accomplished this using a view tree observer to get the width of the recylcerview once rendered and then getting the fixed dimensions of my card view from resources and then setting the span count after doing my calculations. It is only really applicable if the items you are displaying are of a fixed width. This helped me automatically populate the grid regardless of screen size or orientation.

mRecyclerView.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(
            new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
                @Override
                public void onGlobalLayout() {
                    mRecyclerView.getViewTreeObserver().removeOnGLobalLayoutListener(this);
                    int viewWidth = mRecyclerView.getMeasuredWidth();
                    float cardViewWidth = getActivity().getResources().getDimension(R.dimen.cardview_layout_width);
                    int newSpanCount = (int) Math.floor(viewWidth / cardViewWidth);
                    mLayoutManager.setSpanCount(newSpanCount);
                    mLayoutManager.requestLayout();
                }
            });