Android how to use adapter for listView without extending listActivity

Question

I have an application with tabs. In one tab I need to put data (strings) in rows. To do so I chose tableLayout but when I wanted to use a contextmenu on its rows it doesn't work.

I can show the contextmenu onLongClick but the problem is that I can't get the info about the selected row to edit or delete the selected row. Then I read in a discussion that using listView is better than tablelayout if we have many rows. But the examples I saw extend listactivity but I don't want to do this.

So when I try working on a listView without extending listactivity I don't know how to do it what I mean is that I've never used listView before so I try different examples I found on the internet to understand it but it's not working. Here's what I did so far for the listView:

String [] items=getRessources().getStringArray(R.arra.resolution);
 //Resolution is an array of strings
ListView lv=(ListeView) findViewById(R.id.listView);
v.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<string>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, items);

When I compile it I get a list with elements of my array in it but first, I want to change the color of text which I can't. And secondly I want to add rows dynamically to the list which I don't know how to do either. I think I have to use an adapter to do it but I don't know how. Can someone please guide me through this. I just want to know how to attach my list to an adapter which'll allow me to dynamically add rows, add contextMenu etc.

Solution

main Activity class:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.ListView;

public class SelectedActivity extends Activity {

private SelectedAdapter selectedAdapter;
private ArrayList<String> list;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.selected_example);

    // populate the model - a simple a list
    list = new ArrayList<String>();
    list.add("Apple");
    list.add("Orange");
    list.add("Grape");
    list.add("Grape1");
    list.add("Grape2");
    list.add("Grape3");
    list.add("Grape4");
    list.add("Grape5");
    list.add("Grape6");

    // create our SelectedAdapter
    selectedAdapter = new SelectedAdapter(this,0,list);
    selectedAdapter.setNotifyOnChange(true);

    ListView listview = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listExample);
    listview.setAdapter(selectedAdapter);

    listview.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {
        //@Override
        public void onItemClick(AdapterView arg0, View view,
                                       int position, long id) {
            // user clicked a list item, make it "selected"
            selectedAdapter.setSelectedPosition(position);
        }
    });
}

Adapter class:

   import java.util.List;
    import android.content.Context;
    import android.graphics.Color;
    import android.view.LayoutInflater;
    import android.view.View;
    import android.view.ViewGroup;
    import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
    import android.widget.Button;
    import android.widget.TextView;

    public class SelectedAdapter extends ArrayAdapter{

        // used to keep selected position in ListView
        private int selectedPos = -1;   // init value for not-selected

        public SelectedAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId,
                       List objects) {
             super(context, textViewResourceId, objects);
        }
        public void setSelectedPosition(int pos){
        selectedPos = pos;
             // inform the view of this change
             notifyDataSetChanged();
        }
        public int getSelectedPosition(){
             return selectedPos;
        }
        @Override
        public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
                 View v = convertView;
                 // only inflate the view if it's null
                 // if (v == null) {
                        LayoutInflater vi =   (LayoutInflater)this.getContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                        v = vi.inflate(R.layout.selected_row, null);
                 //  }

                 // get text view
                     TextView label = (TextView)v.findViewById(R.id.txtExample);
                     Button btn=(Button)v.findViewById(R.id.btn1);

                     // change the row color based on selected state
                     if(selectedPos == position){
                        label.setBackgroundColor(Color.CYAN);
                        btn.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.next);
                     }
                     else{
                        label.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE);
                     }

                     label.setText(this.getItem(position).toString());       
                     return(v);
        }
}

Comments

[Anila]

Thanks a lot for the answer just one question what does selected_Row refer to in vi.inflate(R.layout.selected_row, null).

[Anila]

Same question for selected_example. Are these the layouts you've created? If yes what do they contain?

[Anila]

Ok I created two layouts: one with the listView and the other with the button and the testView and I get no compilation errors but nothing happens when I click a row. :s