How to create Google + cards UI in a list view?

Question

I want to create a listView of cards, but after reading this blog post goolge-plus-layout, I'm cards are a viable solution for a list of anything. The animation part seems too memory intensive to load say a listview with more than 40 elements simultaneously.

Is there a better way to achieve a cards UI in listView?

Answer 1

As "android developer" briefly mentions in his answer, the CardView class can be used to easily create card views.

Just wrap you UI widgets in a CardView element and you are ready to go. See the short introduction to the CardView widget at https://developer.android.com/training/material/lists-cards.html#CardView.

The CardView class requires a v7 support library, remember to add the dependencies to your .gradle file!

compile 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:21.0.+'

Answer 2

EDIT: Google provides a nice class called CardView. I didn't check it but it looks promising.

Here's the previous way, which also works fine (that's what I wrote before the edit) :

There is a nice tutorial here and a nice sample of it here .

in short , these are the files you can create:

listView definition:

android:divider="@null"
android:dividerHeight="10dp"
android:listSelector="@android:color/transparent" 
android:cacheColorHint="@android:color/transparent"
android:headerDividersEnabled="true"
android:footerDividersEnabled="true"

also this:

m_list.addHeaderView(new View(this));
m_list.addFooterView(new View(this));

res/drawable/selector_card_background.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
   <item
      android:state_pressed="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/layer_card_background_selected" />

   <item android:drawable="@drawable/layer_card_background" />
</selector>

listView item :

res/layout/list_item_card.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout
   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:paddingLeft="15dp"
   android:paddingRight="15dp"
   android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants">

   <LinearLayout
      android:orientation="vertical"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:paddingLeft="15dp"
      android:paddingTop="15dp"
      android:paddingBottom="15dp"
      android:paddingRight="15dp"
      android:background="@drawable/selector_card_background"
      android:descendantFocusability="afterDescendants">

      <TextView
         android:id="@+id/text1"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

      <TextView
         android:id="@+id/text2"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

      <TextView
         android:id="@+id/text3"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
   </LinearLayout>
</FrameLayout>

res/drawable/layer_card_background_selected.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#CABBBBBB"/>
            <corners android:radius="2dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>

    <item
        android:left="0dp"
        android:right="0dp"
        android:top="0dp"
        android:bottom="2dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#CCCCCC"/>
            <corners android:radius="2dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

res/drawable/layer_card_background.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#CABBBBBB"/>
            <corners android:radius="2dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>

    <item
        android:left="0dp"
        android:right="0dp"
        android:top="0dp"
        android:bottom="2dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="@android:color/white"/>
            <corners android:radius="2dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Answer 3

If all you want is a ListView that simulates the cards-look you can use a 9-patch as background for your listitems to make them look like cards. You can find a 9-patch and some more tips and explanation here: http://www.tiemenschut.com/simply-get-cards-ui-look/

Answer 4

You can create a custom drawable, and apply that to each of your listview elements.

I use this one for cards in my UI. I don't think there is significant performance issues with this approach.

The drawable code (in drawable\big_card.xml) looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <solid android:color="@color/second_grey" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item
        android:bottom="10dp"
        android:left="10dp"
        android:right="10dp"
        android:top="10dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <corners android:radius="3dp" />

            <solid android:color="@color/card_shadow" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item
        android:bottom="12dp"
        android:left="10dp"
        android:right="10dp"
        android:top="10dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <corners android:radius="3dp" />

            <solid android:color="@color/card_white" />
        </shape>
    </item>


</layer-list>

I apply the background to my listview elements like this:

<ListView
    android:id="@+id/apps_fragment_list"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:listSelector="@drawable/big_card" />

If you want to add this as a background to any View (not just a list), you just make the custom drawable that View's background element:

<TextView
        android:id="@+id/any_view"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@drawable/big_card" />

Answer 5

Add divider for the Listview item and padding :

 android:divider="@android:color/transparent"
    android:dividerHeight="1dip"

Add RelativeLayout into your LinearLayout for ListItem with some desired padding :

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="100dp"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="3dp" >

    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"

        android:background="@drawable/rowshadow" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/title"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
...

Add Background to the listview item , like :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
     <item >
        <shape 
          android:shape="rectangle">
              <solid android:color="@android:color/darker_gray" />
              <corners android:radius="0dp"/>
        </shape>
     </item>
     <item android:right="1dp" android:left="1dp" android:bottom="2dp">
        <shape 
          android:shape="rectangle">
              <solid android:color="@android:color/white"/>
              <corners android:radius="0dp"/>
        </shape>
     </item>
   </layer-list>

Use https://github.com/elcrion/demo.cardlistview as an example. It is somehow close to google style