Call getLayoutInflater() in places not in activity

Question

What does need to be imported or how can I call the Layout inflater in places other than activity?

public static void method(Context context){
    //this doesn't work the getLayoutInflater method could not be found
    LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
    // this also doesn't work 
    LayoutInflater inflater = context.getLayoutInflater();
}

I am able to call getLayoutInflater only in activity, is that an restriction? What if I want to create custom dialog and I want to inflate view for it, or what if I want to have Toast message with custom view that is shown from a service, I only have the context from the service I do not have any activity but I want to show custom message.

I need the inflater in places in the code that isn't in the activity class.

How can I do this ?

Solution 1

You can use this outside activities - all you need is to provide a Context:

LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService( Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE );

Then to retrieve your different widgets, you inflate a layout:

View view = inflater.inflate( R.layout.myNewInflatedLayout, null );
Button myButton = (Button) view.findViewById( R.id.myButton );

---

EDIT as of July 2014

Davide's answer on how to get the LayoutInflater is actually more correct than mine (which is still valid though).

Solution 2

Or ...

LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(context);

Solution 3

or

View.inflate(context, layout, parent)

Solution 4

Using context object you can get LayoutInflater from following code

LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);

Solution 5

LayoutInflater.from(context).inflate(R.layout.row_payment_gateway_item, null);

View more solutions

Comments

[Lukap]

Great, But now the findViewById doesn't work, do you have any ideas about that ? inflater.inflate(R.layout.some_layout, (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.parent));

[Lukap]

nop, the inflater.inflate() method doen't have overloaded method with just one int param, but I guess the next one could be null.

[Raanan]

Very late, but actually a better answer as the from function also checks with assert that you actually get an inflater back and throws an error otherwise - which will be much easier to deal with then a null pointer excpetion somewhere in the code. grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/…

[Danyal Aytekin]

So brief, much inflater

[DenisGL]

That's fine ; however, with this method, I cannot provide the boolean "attachToRoot"

[Prakash Nadar]

It is based on the requirement, if you do not need attachToRoot then this is a convenient helper method or pass getRootView() as the parent to the method.

[Rohan Bhatia]

@kaspermoerch why did you say David's answer is more correct?

[kaspermoerch]

@RohanBhatia Davides answer does not require casting which mine does. If the call to getSystemService for some (unlikely) reason does not return an object of type LayoutInflater then my code would cause a runtime exception.

[HansHirse]

You're encouraged to provide some explanatory text along with your code.

[CodeFluid]

Worked for me. Thanks

[Tamás Bolvári]

@kaspermoerch Does this quote mean that your solution is better than Davide's? "It is never used directly. Instead, use getLayoutInflater() or getSystemService(Class ) to retrieve a standard LayoutInflater instance that is already hooked up to the current context and correctly configured for the device you are running on." developer.android.com/reference/android/view/LayoutInflater

[Tamás Bolvári]

@Davide Does this quote mean that kaspermoerch's solution is better than yours? "It is never used directly. Instead, use getLayoutInflater() or getSystemService(Class ) to retrieve a standard LayoutInflater instance that is already hooked up to the current context and correctly configured for the device you are running on." developer.android.com/reference/android/view/LayoutInflater

[Davide]

@TamásBolvári Is only more easy and clear, in fact the internal implementation is the same as Kaspermoerch write.

[kaspermoerch]

@TamásBolvári No. Both solutions are equaly valid. Davide's solution is simpler than mine and you avoid casting the result to LayoutInflater which could potentially fail (although it is unlikely).