How can I implement a Material Design Expand/Collapse List on Android?

Question

I am looking to implement a material list of this style. How can I do this on Android? What classes should I look at? Are there any existing libraries that could make implementi

Answer 1

Yes, you can easily implement it with the library SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter. There is a full working example here.

Basically you create a section class:

class MySection extends StatelessSection {

    String title;
    List<String> list;
    boolean expanded = true; // true if you want it to be displayed expanded initially

    public MySection(String title, List<String> list) {
        // call constructor with layout resources for this Section header, footer and items 
        super(R.layout.section_header, R.layout.section_item);

        this.title = title;
        this.list = list;
    }

    @Override
    public int getContentItemsTotal() {
        return expanded? list.size() : 0;
    }

    @Override
    public RecyclerView.ViewHolder getItemViewHolder(View view) {
        // return a custom instance of ViewHolder for the items of this section
        return new MyItemViewHolder(view);
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindItemViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) {
        MyItemViewHolder itemHolder = (MyItemViewHolder) holder;

        // bind your view here
        itemHolder.tvItem.setText(list.get(position));
    }

    @Override
    public RecyclerView.ViewHolder getHeaderViewHolder(View view) {
        return new SimpleHeaderViewHolder(view);
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindHeaderViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder) {
        MyHeaderViewHolder headerHolder = (MyHeaderViewHolder) holder;

        // bind your header view here
        headerHolder.tvItem.setText(title);

        // handles the click on the header to toggle the expanded variable
        headerHolder.rootView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                expanded = !expanded;
                headerHolder.imgArrow.setImageResource(
                        expanded ? R.drawable.ic_keyboard_arrow_up_black_18dp : R.drawable.ic_keyboard_arrow_down_black_18dp
                );
                sectionAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
            }
        });
    }
}

Then you set up the RecyclerView with your sections:

// Create an instance of SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter 
SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter sectionAdapter = new SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter();

// Create your sections with the list of data for each topic
MySection topic1Section = new MySection("Attractions", attractionsList);
MySection topic2Section = new MySection("Dining", diningList);

// Add your Sections to the adapter
sectionAdapter.addSection(topic1Section);
sectionAdapter.addSection(topic2Section);

// Set up your RecyclerView with the SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter
RecyclerView recyclerView = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.recyclerview);
recyclerView.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(getContext()));
recyclerView.setAdapter(sectionAdapter);

Answer 2

I implemented such a list using this library:
expandable-recycler-view

There is a related blog, but it refers to an old version:
Expand a RecyclerView in Four Steps

It's basically an adapter where you can supply a list of parent elements that contain the children. You further have to specify two holders for the parents and the children. See the library's page for more details.

class MyChild {
  // add data
}
class MyParentListItem implements ParentListItem {
  private final List<MyChild> mChildren;

  MyParentListItem(List<MyChild> children) {
    mChildren = children;
    // add other data
  }

  @Override
  public List<MyChild> getChildItemList() {
    return mChildren;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean isInitiallyExpanded() {
    return false;
  }
}

class MyParentViewHolder extends ParentViewHolder {
  MyParentViewHolder(View itemView) {
    super(itemView);
    // get other views with itemView.findViewById(..);
  }
}

class MyChildViewHolder extends ChildViewHolder {
  MyParentViewHolder(View itemView) {
    super(itemView);
    // get other views with itemView.findViewById(..);
  }
}

public class MyExpandableAdapter extends ExpandableRecyclerAdapter<MyParentViewHolder, MyChildViewHolder> {
  private final LayoutInflater mInflater;
  public MyExpandableAdapter(List<MyParentListItem> parentItemList, Context context) {
    super(parentItemList);
    mInflater = LayoutInflater.from(context);
  }

  @Override
  public MyParentViewHolder onCreateParentViewHolder(ViewGroup parentViewGroup) {
    final View itemView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.parent_layout, parentViewGroup, false);
    return new MyParentViewHolder(itemView);
  }

  @Override
  public MyChildViewHolder onCreateChildViewHolder(ViewGroup childViewGroup) {
    final View itemView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.child_layout, childViewGroup, false);
    return new MyChildViewHolder(itemView);
  }

  // bind data to holders in the onBind methods
}