Maintain/Save/Restore scroll position when returni

Question

I have a long ListView that the user can scroll around before returning to the previous screen. When the user opens this ListView again, I want the list to be scrolled to the same point that it was previously. Any ideas on how to achieve this?

Answer 1

You can maintain the scroll state after a reload if you save the state before you reload and restore it after. In my case I made a asynchronous network request and reloaded the list in a callback after it completed. This is where I restore state. Code sample is Kotlin.

val state = myList.layoutManager.onSaveInstanceState()

getNewThings() { newThings: List<Thing> ->

    myList.adapter.things = newThings
    myList.layoutManager.onRestoreInstanceState(state)
}

Answer 2

For some looking for a solution to this problem, the root of the issue may be where you are setting your list views adapter. After you set the adapter on the listview, it resets the scroll position. Just something to consider. I moved setting the adapter into my onCreateView after we grab the reference to the listview, and it solved the problem for me. =)

Answer 3

If you are saving/restoring scroll position of ListView yourself you are essentially duplicating the functionality already implemented in android framework. The ListView restores fine scroll position just well on its own except one caveat: as @aaronvargas mentioned there is a bug in AbsListView that won't let to restore fine scroll position for the first list item. Nevertheless the best way to restore scroll position is not to restore it. Android framework will do it better for you. Just make sure you have met the following conditions:

• make sure you have not called setSaveEnabled(false) method and not set android:saveEnabled="false" attribute for the list in the xml layout file
• for ExpandableListView override long getCombinedChildId(long groupId, long childId) method so that it returns positive long number (default implementation in class BaseExpandableListAdapter returns negative number). Here are examples:

.

@Override
public long getChildId(int groupPosition, int childPosition) {
    return 0L | groupPosition << 12 | childPosition;
}

@Override
public long getCombinedChildId(long groupId, long childId) {
    return groupId << 32 | childId << 1 | 1;
}

@Override
public long getGroupId(int groupPosition) {
    return groupPosition;
}

@Override
public long getCombinedGroupId(long groupId) {
    return (groupId & 0x7FFFFFFF) << 32;
}

• if ListView or ExpandableListView is used in a fragment do not recreate the fragment on activity recreation (after screen rotation for example). Obtain the fragment with findFragmentByTag(String tag) method.
• make sure the ListView has an android:id and it is unique.

To avoid aforementioned caveat with first list item you can craft your adapter the way it returns special dummy zero pixels height view for the ListView at position 0. Here is the simple example project shows ListView and ExpandableListView restore their fine scroll positions whereas their scroll positions are not explicitly saved/restored. Fine scroll position is restored perfectly even for the complex scenarios with temporary switching to some other application, double screen rotation and switching back to the test application. Please note, if you are explicitly exiting the application (by pressing the Back button) the scroll position won't be saved (as well as all other Views won't save their state). https://github.com/voromto/RestoreScrollPosition/releases

Answer 4

Isn't simply android:saveEnabled="true" in the ListView xml declaration enough?

Answer 5

A very simple way:

/** Save the position **/
int currentPosition = listView.getFirstVisiblePosition();

//Here u should save the currentPosition anywhere

/** Restore the previus saved position **/
listView.setSelection(savedPosition);

The method setSelection will reset the list to the supplied item. If not in touch mode the item will actually be selected if in touch mode the item will only be positioned on screen.

A more complicated approach:

listView.setOnScrollListener(this);

//Implements the interface:
@Override
public void onScroll(AbsListView view, int firstVisibleItem,
            int visibleItemCount, int totalItemCount) {
    mCurrentX = view.getScrollX();
    mCurrentY = view.getScrollY();
}

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

}

//Save anywere the x and the y

/** Restore: **/
listView.scrollTo(savedX, savedY);

Answer 6

If you're using fragments hosted on an activity you can do something like this:

public abstract class BaseFragment extends Fragment {
     private boolean mSaveView = false;
     private SoftReference<View> mViewReference;

     @Override
     public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
          if (mSaveView) {
               if (mViewReference != null) {
                    final View savedView = mViewReference.get();
                    if (savedView != null) {
                         if (savedView.getParent() != null) {
                              ((ViewGroup) savedView.getParent()).removeView(savedView);
                              return savedView;
                         }
                    }
               }
          }

          final View view = inflater.inflate(getFragmentResource(), container, false);
          mViewReference = new SoftReference<View>(view);
          return view;
     }

     protected void setSaveView(boolean value) {
           mSaveView = value;
     }
}

public class MyFragment extends BaseFragment {
     @Override
     public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
          setSaveView(true);
          final View view = super.onCreateView(inflater, container, savedInstanceState);
          ListView placesList = (ListView) view.findViewById(R.id.places_list);
          if (placesList.getAdapter() == null) {
               placesList.setAdapter(createAdapter());
          }
     }
}