Implementing pagination with recyclerview

Velmurugan Murugesan
Howtodoandroid
Published in
6 min readOct 6, 2018

Pagination with Recyclerview allows the user to see the latest content as page by page. As we load the next ‘page’ by the time users scroll to the bottom, more content is loaded and available.

What is Recyclerview?

Android RecyclerView is a more advanced, powerful and flexible version of the ListView. Android RecyclerView is similar to ListView except that it forces us to use RecyclerView.ViewHolder class to hold the elements which are not a compulsion in ListView.

As the name suggests, Android RecyclerView is used to reuse cells when scrolling up and down by recycling the items in the list. Another improvement in RecyclerView is that it allows us to set the LayoutManagers dynamically at runtime, unlike the ListView which was only available in a Vertical scrolling List. RecyclerView allows us to set the following types of Layouts at runtime.

LinearLayoutManager: it supports both vertical and horizontal lists.
StaggeredLayoutManager: it supports staggered lists.
GridLayoutManager: it supports displaying grids as seen in GalleryView earlier.

I have explain recyclerview in details in the below link,

When to use Pagination?

I’m sure you have a pretty good idea by now on when to use it. If you have a ton of content that takes too long to load. This can be either from a local database or an API call. Then it makes sense to use Pagination. If you’re pulling from a database, request data in batches (say 20 per request). The same also holds true for an API call.

Now, done with explanation. Let’s get started into the coding part of the pagingation with recyclerview in android.

1. Setup dependency for the pagination with recyclerview

Add recyclerview, retrofit and glide dependencies into app build.gradle file.

implementation 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:27.1.1'
implementation 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:27.1.1'
implementation 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.1.0'
implementation 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.1.0'
implementation 'com.github.bumptech.glide:glide:4.7.1'

2. Prepare data for the recyclerview

In this example, I am using pagination with retrofit to load data from REST API.

Add Internet Permission to your Application in AndroidManifest.xml,

<uses-permission android:name=”android.permission.INTERNET”/>

Create the Retrofit instance

We need to create the Retrofit instance to send the network requests. we need to use the Retrofit Builder class and specify the base URL for the service.

public class ClientApi {

private static Retrofit retrofit = null;

public static Retrofit getClient() {
if (retrofit == null) {
retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
.addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
.baseUrl("https://velmm.com/apis/")
.build();
}
return retrofit;
}

}

Setting Up the Retrofit Interface

Retrofit provides the list of annotations for each HTTP methods:

@GET, @POST, @PUT, @DELETE, @PATCH or @HEAD.

The endpoints are defined inside of an interface using retrofit annotations to encode details about the parameters and request method. T return value is always a parameterized Call<T>.

public interface MovieService {
@GET("volley_array.json")
Call<List<Movie>> getMovies();
}

In my JSON response, I am having the list of movies with name, properties. So, My Model class will be like Movie as class name and name, year, director are properties.

public class Movie {

@SerializedName("title")
private String title;

@SerializedName("image")
private String imageUrl;

public Movie(){}

public Movie(String title, String imageUrl) {
this.title = title;
this.imageUrl = imageUrl;
}

public String getTitle() {
return title;
}

public void setTitle(String title) {
this.title = title;
}

public String getImageUrl() {
return imageUrl;
}

public void setImageUrl(String imageUrl) {
this.imageUrl = imageUrl;
}
}

3. Setup pagination with recyclerview

First, Add RecyclerView into activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity">

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
android:id="@+id/recyclerview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:clipToPadding="false"
android:paddingBottom="24dp"/>

<ProgressBar
android:id="@+id/progressbar"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"/>

</FrameLayout>

Recyclerview Adapter for Pagination

Create class PaginationAdapter extending RecyclerView.Adapter, and then create two RecyclerView.ViewHolder.

class MovieViewHolder() — Recyclerview items

class LoadingViewHolder() — Footer ProgressBar used for Pagination

public class PaginationAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> {

private Context context;
private List<Movie> movieList;
private static final int LOADING = 0;
private static final int ITEM = 1;
private boolean isLoadingAdded = false;

public PaginationAdapter(Context context) {
this.context = context;
movieList = new LinkedList<>();
}

public void setMovieList(List<Movie> movieList) {
this.movieList = movieList;
}

@NonNull
@Override
public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(@NonNull ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
RecyclerView.ViewHolder viewHolder = null;
LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext());

switch (viewType) {
case ITEM:
View viewItem = inflater.inflate(R.layout.item_list, parent, false);
viewHolder = new MovieViewHolder(viewItem);
break;
case LOADING:
View viewLoading = inflater.inflate(R.layout.item_progress, parent, false);
viewHolder = new LoadingViewHolder(viewLoading);
break;
}
return viewHolder;
}

@Override
public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) {

Movie movie = movieList.get(position);
switch (getItemViewType(position)) {
case ITEM:
MovieViewHolder movieViewHolder = (MovieViewHolder) holder;
movieViewHolder.movieTitle.setText(movie.getTitle());
Glide.with(context).load(movie.getImageUrl()).apply(RequestOptions.centerCropTransform()).into(movieViewHolder.movieImage);
break;

case LOADING:
LoadingViewHolder loadingViewHolder = (LoadingViewHolder) holder;
loadingViewHolder.progressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
break;
}
}

@Override
public int getItemCount() {
return movieList == null ? 0 : movieList.size();
}

@Override
public int getItemViewType(int position) {
return (position == movieList.size() - 1 && isLoadingAdded) ? LOADING : ITEM;
}

public void addLoadingFooter() {
isLoadingAdded = true;
add(new Movie());
}

public void removeLoadingFooter() {
isLoadingAdded = false;

int position = movieList.size() - 1;
Movie result = getItem(position);

if (result != null) {
movieList.remove(position);
notifyItemRemoved(position);
}
}

public void add(Movie movie) {
movieList.add(movie);
notifyItemInserted(movieList.size() - 1);
}

public void addAll(List<Movie> moveResults) {
for (Movie result : moveResults) {
add(result);
}
}

public Movie getItem(int position) {
return movieList.get(position);
}


public class MovieViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {

private TextView movieTitle;
private ImageView movieImage;

public MovieViewHolder(View itemView) {
super(itemView);
movieTitle = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.movie_title);
movieImage = (ImageView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.movie_poster);
}
}

public class LoadingViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {

private ProgressBar progressBar;

public LoadingViewHolder(View itemView) {
super(itemView);
progressBar = (ProgressBar) itemView.findViewById(R.id.loadmore_progress);

}
}

}

In this post, I am using Glide to load data from URL.

To enable Pagination, we must detect the user reaching the end of the RecyclerView items. For that, PaginationScrollListener extends the RecyclerView.OnScrollListener and override the onScrolled() method.

public abstract class PaginationScrollListener extends RecyclerView.OnScrollListener {

private LinearLayoutManager layoutManager;

public PaginationScrollListener(LinearLayoutManager layoutManager) {
this.layoutManager = layoutManager;
}

@Override
public void onScrolled(RecyclerView recyclerView, int dx, int dy) {
super.onScrolled(recyclerView, dx, dy);

int visibleItemCount = layoutManager.getChildCount();
int totalItemCount = layoutManager.getItemCount();
int firstVisibleItemPosition = layoutManager.findFirstVisibleItemPosition();

if (!isLoading() && !isLastPage()) {
if ((visibleItemCount + firstVisibleItemPosition) >= totalItemCount
&& firstVisibleItemPosition >= 0) {
loadMoreItems();
}
}
}

protected abstract void loadMoreItems();

public abstract boolean isLastPage();

public abstract boolean isLoading();

}

Finally, Attach pagination with recyclerview to load more items when scroll.

LinearLayoutManager linearLayoutManager = new LinearLayoutManager(this, LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false);
paginationAdapter = new PaginationAdapter(this);
recyclerView.setLayoutManager(linearLayoutManager);
recyclerView.setAdapter(paginationAdapter);

recyclerView.addOnScrollListener(new PaginationScrollListener(linearLayoutManager) {
@Override
protected void loadMoreItems() {
isLoading = true;
currentPage += 1;
loadNextPage();
}

@Override
public boolean isLastPage() {
return isLastPage;
}

@Override
public boolean isLoading() {
return isLoading;
}
});

loadFirstPage();
}

private void loadNextPage() {

movieService.getMovies().enqueue(new Callback<List<Movie>>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(Call<List<Movie>> call, Response<List<Movie>> response) {
paginationAdapter.removeLoadingFooter();
isLoading = false;

List<Movie> results = response.body();
paginationAdapter.addAll(results);

if (currentPage != TOTAL_PAGES) paginationAdapter.addLoadingFooter();
else isLastPage = true;
}

@Override
public void onFailure(Call<List<Movie>> call, Throwable t) {
t.printStackTrace();
}
});
}


private void loadFirstPage() {

movieService.getMovies().enqueue(new Callback<List<Movie>>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(Call<List<Movie>> call, Response<List<Movie>> response) {
List<Movie> results = response.body();
progressBar.setVisibility(View.GONE);
paginationAdapter.addAll(results);

if (currentPage <= TOTAL_PAGES) paginationAdapter.addLoadingFooter();
else isLastPage = true;
}

@Override
public void onFailure(Call<List<Movie>> call, Throwable t) {

}

});
}

Now, we have implemented the recyclerview with pagination.

You can download the source code for this example in github.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading. Please try this example yourself and let me know your feedback in comments.

Originally published at velmm.com on October 6, 2018.

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Velmurugan Murugesan
Howtodoandroid

Lead Android Engineer @htcindia | @github contributor | Blog writer @howtodoandroid | Quick Learner