ListView's empty view is not showing when the list is empty

Question

My ListView is not showing empty view when the list is empty. Here is my code of Fragment and the Layout.

public class ViewSearchClientFragment extends BaseFragment implements
        OnItemClickListener {
    ArrayList<ClientDetails> clientArrayList;
    ListView lvClientList;
    ClientListAdapter adapter;
    ServerDetails serverDetails;
    long totalresult = 0;
    int totalpages = 0;

    Boolean flag_loading = false;

    EditText etTerm;
    TextView tvEmpty;

    private int limitstart = 0;
    private int limitnum = 30;
    private int totalresults;
    private int numreturned = 0;

    public static ViewSearchClientFragment newInstance(int groupPosition,
            int ChildPosition) {
        ViewSearchClientFragment fragment = new ViewSearchClientFragment();
        Bundle args = new Bundle();
        args.putInt("group_position", groupPosition);
        args.putInt("child_position", ChildPosition);
        args.putString("title", "View/Search Clients");
        fragment.setArguments(args);
        return fragment;
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_view_search_clients,
                container, false);

        lvClientList = (ListView) rootView.findViewById(R.id.lvClients);
        /*
         * lvClientList.addHeaderView(View.inflate(mActivity,
         * R.layout.client_listview_header, null));
         */
        tvEmpty = (TextView) rootView.findViewById(android.R.id.empty);
        tvEmpty.setText("");

        clientArrayList = new ArrayList<ClientDetails>();
        adapter = new ClientListAdapter(mActivity, clientArrayList);

        lvClientList.setAdapter(adapter);
        lvClientList.setEmptyView(tvEmpty);
        lvClientList.setOnItemClickListener(this);
        registerForContextMenu(lvClientList);
        lvClientList.setOnScrollListener(new OnScrollListener() {

            @Override
            public void onScrollStateChanged(AbsListView view, int scrollState) {

            }

            @Override
            public void onScroll(AbsListView view, int firstVisibleItem,
                    int visibleItemCount, int totalItemCount) {

                if (firstVisibleItem + visibleItemCount == totalItemCount
                        && totalItemCount != 0) {
                    if (!flag_loading) {

                        if ((limitstart + numreturned) < totalresults) {
                            limitstart += limitnum;
                            getClients(null);
                        }
                    }
                }

            }
        });
        serverDetails = new ServerDetails(mActivity);
        getClients(null);
        return rootView;
    }



    int positionLongClick;


    private void getClients(final String[] params) {

        flag_loading = true;
        ProgressDialogManager.showDialog(mActivity);
        Response.Listener<JSONObject> responseListner = new Response.Listener<JSONObject>() {

            @Override
            public void onResponse(JSONObject arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                try {
                    JSONObject jobj = arg0;
                    String result = jobj.getString("result");
                    if (result.contains("success")) {
                        totalresults = Integer.parseInt(jobj
                                .getString("totalresults"));
                        limitstart = Integer.parseInt(jobj
                                .getString("startnumber"));
                        numreturned = Integer.parseInt(jobj
                                .getString("numreturned"));

                        JSONObject temp = jobj.getJSONObject("clients");
                        JSONArray array = temp.getJSONArray("client");
                        for (int i = 0; i < array.length(); i++) {
                            JSONObject tempobject = array.getJSONObject(i);
                            ClientDetails detail = new ClientDetails();
                            clientArrayList.add(detail);
                            detail.name = (tempobject.getString("firstname")
                                    + " " + tempobject.getString("lastname"));
                            detail.id = Integer.parseInt((tempobject
                                    .getString("id")));
                            detail.company = (tempobject
                                    .getString("companyname"));
                            detail.email = (tempobject.getString("email"));
                            detail.status = (tempobject.getString("status"));
                        }

                    } else if (result.contains("error")) {
                        ProgressDialogManager.hideDialog();
                        Dialog d = new Dialog(mActivity,
                                jobj.getString("message"));
                        d.show();

                        return;
                    }
                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                    ProgressDialogManager.hideDialog();
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    return;

                }
                tvEmpty.setText("No Client Found");
                tvEmpty.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                ProgressDialogManager.hideDialog();
                adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
                flag_loading = false;

            }
        };

        JsonObjectRequest request = new JsonObjectRequest(Method.POST,
                serverDetails.getUrl(), null, responseListner,
                MyErrorListner.getListnerEmptyView(mActivity, tvEmpty,
                        "No Client Found")) {

            @Override
            public String getBodyContentType() {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                return "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
            }

            @Override
            public byte[] getBody() {
                Uri.Builder builder = serverDetails.getBodyBuilder();
                builder.appendQueryParameter("action", "getclients");
                if (params != null) {
                    builder.appendQueryParameter("search", params[0]);
                }
                builder.appendQueryParameter("limitstart", limitstart + "");
                builder.appendQueryParameter("limitnum", limitnum + "");
                return builder.build().getEncodedQuery().getBytes();
            }
        };
        AppController.getInstance().addToRequestQueue(request);
    }

    @Override
    public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position,
            long id) {


    }



}

And this is the Layout.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@drawable/gradiant_background"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/etFilterTerm"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="8dp"
        android:hint="Search Client"
        android:imeOptions="actionSearch"
        android:inputType="text" 
        android:drawableLeft="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"/>

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/lvClients"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:divider="@null"
        android:dividerHeight="5dp"
        android:padding="8dp" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@android:id/empty"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="No Clients Found"
        android:textAppearance="@android:style/TextAppearance.Large"
        android:visibility="gone" />

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

There was a problem in catch block of getClients method. The method was returning on exception and there was a silent exception. I removed the return statement from the catch block and my problem solved.

catch (JSONException e) {
                    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                    ProgressDialogManager.hideDialog();
                    e.printStackTrace();

                }
                tvEmpty.setText("No Client Found");
                tvEmpty.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                ProgressDialogManager.hideDialog();
                adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
                flag_loading = false;

            }

Answer 2

set setEmptyView() method before you set adapter

Answer 3

I can see 2 possible problems:

1) Your TextView (id==empty) may hide under the bottom of the screen - set visibility of your ListView to View.GONE when it's empty

OR to use ListView.setEmptyView() remove TextView from xml and just create it programmatically like

TextView tvEmpty = new TextView(context); 
tvEmpty .setText(...);
lvClientList.setEmptyView(tvEmpty);

2) You search your TextView like

 tvEmpty = (TextView) rootView.findViewById(android.R.id.empty);

android here is a misprint - replace it by

 tvEmpty = (TextView) rootView.findViewById(R.id.empty);