How to Create a Custom Listview without extending List Activity? - xamarin

Question

I Want to Create a List View with a Custom layout which will contain A image and text
But all the tutorials i find all extend List Activity but i cant extend List Activity because i need to add buttons and other things to the layout.
I need to use the ListView using a custom item layout
any ideas on how to do it?

Answer 1

You are not bound to use ListActivity in order to have a ListView in your layout. All the samples using ListActivity are there because people are lazy ;)
So just use a regular Activity and then you simply have to add the ListView to the layout you are setting as content view. This could look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ListView
android:id="#+id/listView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/somethingButton"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Do something" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/elseButton"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Do something else" />
</LinearLayout>
Then in like any other Activity in your OnCreate method you do:
SetContentView(Resource.Layout.myLayout); // myLayout.axml
var listView = FindViewById<ListView>(Resource.Id.listView);
listView.Adapter = new MyAdapter(context, itemsSource);
var somethingButton = FindViewById<Button>(Resource.Id.somethingButton);
var elseButton = FindViewById<Button>(Resource.Id.elseButton);
... more code ...
ListView is just a layout just like any other, so there is nothing magic about it. MyAdapter in this sample is ofcourse something you implement, which takes your data and presents it in the desired image and text layout.
For more information about ListView and Adapter please refer to the excellent documentation which Xamarin provides.