List activity with header, footer and empty all visible

Question

I would like to have the listview in a ListActivity be displayed with the header and footer visible all the time even if the list data is empty.

An empty list causes

Answer 1

In my case I had both header and footer views. I placed my mEmptyView in footer view.

First, as user1034295 mentioned, I overrided adapter's isEmpty() method:

@Override
public boolean isEmpty() {
// If not overridden, then this will return `true` if your list is empty
// Thus, you won't see header/footer views
   return false;
}

ExpandableListView adapter's getGroupCount(). Override appropriate method for your adapter.

@Override
public int getGroupCount() {
    int size = null != mData ? mData.size() : 0;
    if (0 == size) mHostFragment.toggleEmptyView(true);
    else mHostFragment.toggleEmptyView(false);
    return size;
}

In you activity/fragment

public void toggleEmptyView(boolean show) {
    if(show && mEmptyView.getVisibility() != View.VISIBLE)
        mEmptyView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    else if (!show && mEmptyView.getVisibility() != View.GONE)
        mEmptyView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}

mEmptyView is a child in ListView's footer view. So, when your list becomes 0 sized you'll get your header/footer views remained + mEmptyView will become visible.

Answer 2

You can put the listView and the empty layout together in a FrameLayout, and put the empty layout margin in the size of the header, then, you can change the visibility of the empty view when an item is added to listview.

layout will be as similar to this:

<FrameLayout
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:layout_weight="1">

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/myListView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        tools:listheader="@layout/myHeader"/>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/headerHeight"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:background="@color/white"
        android:id="@+id/emptyLayout">

       //insert your layout here

    </LinearLayout>

</FrameLayout>