Custom ListView click issue on items in Android

Question

So I have a custom ListView object. The list items have two textviews stacked on top of each other, plus a horizontal progress bar that I want to remain hidden until I actually do something. To the far right is a checkbox that I only want to display when the user needs to download updates to their database(s). When I disable the checkbox by setting the visibility to Visibility.GONE, I am able to click on the list items. When the checkbox is visible, I am unable to click on anything in the list except the checkboxes. I've done some searching but haven't found anything relevant to my current situation. I found this question but I'm using an overridden ArrayAdapter since I'm using ArrayLists to contain the list of databases internally. Do I just need to get the LinearLayout view and add an onClickListener like Tom did? I'm not sure.

Here's the listview row layout XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
    android:padding="6dip">
    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="0dip"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/UpdateNameText"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:textSize="18sp"
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            />
        <TextView
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:id="@+id/UpdateStatusText"
            android:singleLine="true"
            android:ellipsize="marquee"
            />
        <ProgressBar android:id="@+id/UpdateProgress" 
                     android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
                     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                     android:indeterminateOnly="false" 
                     android:progressDrawable="@android:drawable/progress_horizontal" 
                     android:indeterminateDrawable="@android:drawable/progress_indeterminate_horizontal" 
                     android:minHeight="10dip" 
                     android:maxHeight="10dip"                    
                     />
    </LinearLayout>
    <CheckBox android:text="" 
              android:id="@+id/UpdateCheckBox" 
              android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
              android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
              />
</LinearLayout>

And here's the class that extends the ListActivity. Obviously it's still in development so forgive the things that are missing or might be left laying around:

public class UpdateActivity extends ListActivity {

    AccountManager lookupDb;
    boolean allSelected;
    UpdateListAdapter list;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        lookupDb = new AccountManager(this);
        lookupDb.loadUpdates();

        setContentView(R.layout.update);
        allSelected = false;

        list = new UpdateListAdapter(this, R.layout.update_row, lookupDb.getUpdateItems());
        setListAdapter(list);

        Button btnEnterRegCode = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnUpdateRegister);
        btnEnterRegCode.setVisibility(View.GONE);

        Button btnSelectAll = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnSelectAll);
        btnSelectAll.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                allSelected = !allSelected;

                for(int i=0; i < lookupDb.getUpdateItems().size(); i++) {
                    lookupDb.getUpdateItem(i).setSelected(!lookupDb.getUpdateItem(i).isSelected());
                }

                list.notifyDataSetChanged();
                // loop through each UpdateItem and set the selected attribute to the inverse 

            } // end onClick
        }); // end setOnClickListener

        Button btnUpdate = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnUpdate);
        btnUpdate.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
            } // end onClick
        }); // end setOnClickListener

        lookupDb.close();
    } // end onCreate


    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();

        for (UpdateItem item : lookupDb.getUpdateItems()) {
            item.getDatabase().close();        
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
        super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);

        UpdateItem item = lookupDb.getUpdateItem(position);

        if (item != null) {
            item.setSelected(!item.isSelected());
            list.notifyDataSetChanged();
        }
    }

    private class UpdateListAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<UpdateItem> {
        private List<UpdateItem> items;

        public UpdateListAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId, List<UpdateItem> items) {
            super(context, textViewResourceId, items);
            this.items = items;
        }

        @Override
        public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
            View row = null;

            if (convertView == null) {
                LayoutInflater li = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                row = li.inflate(R.layout.update_row, null);
            } else {
                row = convertView;
            }

            UpdateItem item = items.get(position);

            if (item != null) {
                TextView upper = (TextView)row.findViewById(R.id.UpdateNameText);
                TextView lower = (TextView)row.findViewById(R.id.UpdateStatusText);
                CheckBox cb = (CheckBox)row.findViewById(R.id.UpdateCheckBox);

                upper.setText(item.getName());
                lower.setText(item.getStatusText());

                if (item.getStatusCode() == UpdateItem.UP_TO_DATE) {
                    cb.setVisibility(View.GONE);
                } else {
                    cb.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                    cb.setChecked(item.isSelected());
                }

                ProgressBar pb = (ProgressBar)row.findViewById(R.id.UpdateProgress);
                pb.setVisibility(View.GONE);
            }
            return row;
        }

    } // end inner class UpdateListAdapter
}

edit: I'm still having this problem. I'm cheating and adding onClick handlers to the textviews but it seems extremely stupid that my onListItemClick() function is not being called at all when I am not clicking on my checkbox.

Crackpot

Answer 1

The issue is that Android doesn't allow you to select list items that have elements on them that are focusable. I modified the checkbox on the list item to have an attribute like so:

android:focusable="false"

Now my list items that contain checkboxes (works for buttons too) are "selectable" in the traditional sense (they light up, you can click anywhere in the list item and the "onListItemClick" handler will fire, etc).

EDIT: As an update, a commenter mentioned "Just a note, after changing the visibility of the button I had to programmatically disable the focus again."

Crackpot

Appears this solution doesn't work when ImageButton is used in the list item. :( – Kittykitwe

Ok but what if I want my checkbox and my list view click to be mutually exclusive? If I select the ListView Item I don't necessarily want to check the checkBox. Is this possible with this solution? – Tergal

@Mike Yes, this solution still requires the checkbox to be explicitly clicked in order to be interacted with. It just re-enables functionality in the ListView that mysteriously gets bypassed when you have focusable elements in your list item layout. – Crackpot

Great answer thanks, works well with ImageButtons too. Just a note, after changing the visibility of the button I had to programatically disable the focus again. – Guileful

you may also need to set android:clickable="false" – Fullback

@MinaSamy I wanted the items to still be able to be interacted with (ie the checkboxes), but I wanted them to stop overriding the onListItemClick handler. – Crackpot

Good answer, I just want to ask all of you if you think that specifying android:focusableInTouchMode="false" on the button or checkbox would be recomendable to solve it too? – Apprehensible

@OscarS I hadn't tried it but reading the API docs makes it sound like that would work too. Only one way to find out ;) – Crackpot

Answer 2

In case you have ImageButton inside the list item you should set the descendantFocusability value to 'blocksDescendants' in the root list item element.

android:descendantFocusability="blocksDescendants"

And the focusableInTouchMode flag to true in the ImageButton view.

android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

Spine

This works perfectly for listitem having imagebuttons. But this might work except ImageButton – Competent

Answer 3

I've had a similar issue occur and found that the CheckBox is rather finicky in a ListView. What happens is it imposes it's will on the entire ListItem, and sort of overrides the onListItemClick. You may want to implement a click handler for that, and set the text property for the CheckBox as well, instead of using the TextViews.

I'd say look into this View object as well, it may work better than the CheckBox

Checked Text View

Julenejulep

I've found that if you set the "focusable" setting to false for the focusable items in list, you can use your onListItemClick function again. – Crackpot

However the checkbox turns orange like the list item. Anyone know a solution? – Paragraph

Answer 4

use this line in the root view of the list item

android:descendantFocusability="blocksDescendants"

Flycatcher