realm

In previous blog Storing Recorded Sensor Data in Realm Database we have stored the data fetched from sensors into the Realm Database by defining model classes.

In this blog, we will use the data stored in the Realm to display a list of recorded experiments in the form of well defining card view items so that it is easier for the user to understand.

For showing the list we will make use of RecyclerView  widget provided by Android which is a more advanced version of the List view and is used to display large data sets in a vertical list, horizontal list, grid, staggered grid etc.

RecyclerView  works in accordance with RecyclerView Adapter which is core engine that is responsible of inflating the layout of list items, populating the items with data, recycling of list item views when they go out of viewing screen and much more.

For this blog, we are going to use a special RecyclerView Adapter provided by Realm itself because it integrates properly with the Realm Database and handles modifying, addition, deletion or updating of Realm data automatically and efficiently.   

Step 1 Adding the dependencies

As always first we need to add the following code in our build.gradle file to add the dependency of Realm database and RealmRecyclerViewAdapter.

dependencies {
   implementation"com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:27.1.1 "
   implementation 'io.realm:android-adapters:2.1.1'
}

Step 2 Adding RecyclerView widget in our Activity layout file

First, we need to create an activity and name it as “DataLoggerActivity”, inside the layout of the Activity add the <RecyclerView> widget. This RecyclerView will act as a container of our list item.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 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"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    tools:context=".activity.DataLoggerActivity">

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:layout_below="@id/top_app_bar_layout"
        android:id="@+id/recycler_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</RelativeLayout>

Step 3 Creating the layout and View holder for the list item

We have to create the layout of the list item which will be inflated by the Adapter. So for this create an XML file in res folder and name it “data_list_item.xml”. For the list of the experiments, we want to show Name of the experiment, recording time, recording date for every list item. For this we will make use of <CardView> and <TextView>. This gist shows the code of xml file.

The layout of the list item created is shown in Figure 2

Now we need to create a view holder for this layout which we need to pass to the Adapter, the following code shows the implementation of View Holder for above list item layout.

public class ViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {
   private TextView sensor, dateTime;
   ImageView deleteIcon;
   private CardView cardView;

   public ViewHolder(View itemView) {
       super(itemView);
       dateTime = itemView.findViewById(R.id.date_time);
       sensor = itemView.findViewById(R.id.sensor_name);
       deleteIcon = itemView.findViewById(R.id.delete_item);
       cardView = itemView.findViewById(R.id.data_item_card);
   }
}

Step 4 Creating the adapter for RecyclerView  

In this step, we will start by creating a class called “SensorLoggedListAdpater” and for using use the RecyclerView adapter provided by Realm we need to make this class extend the RealmRecyclerViewAdpater class.

But for that we need to pass two generic parameter:

1. Model Class : This is class which define a Realm model, for this, we will pass a reference of “SensorLogged.class” which is defined in the previous blog as we want to show the list experiments which are stored using “SensorLogged” model class.
   
2. ViewHolder : For this, we will pass the ViewHolder that we have created in Step 3.

As every RecyclerView Adapter needs a arraylist which contains the list of object containing information which we have to populate on the list item, the RealmRecyclerViewAdpater needs data in form of RealmResult to operate on, so we will create a constructor and pass in the RealmResult list in the super() method which we need to provide when we initialize this adapter in our “DataLoggerActivity” class.

public SensorLoggerListAdapter(RealmResults<SensorLogged> list, Activity context) {
   super(list, true, true);
   this.context = context;
   realm = Realm.getDefaultInstance();
}

Now we need to override two methods provided by RealmRecyclerViewAdapter class that are:

1. public ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(@NonNull ViewGroup parent, int viewType): In which we will inflate the layout of list item “dta_list_tem.xml” which we have created in Step 3.
2. public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull final ViewHolder holder, int position): In which we will populate the list item view using references stored in the ViewHolder with the data which we have provided while initializing the adapter.

@NonNull
@Override
public ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(@NonNull ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
   View itemView = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.logger_data_item, parent, false);
   return new ViewHolder(itemView);
}

@Override
public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull final ViewHolder holder, int position) {
   SensorLogged temp = getItem(position);
   holder.sensor.setText(temp.getSensor());
   Date date = new Date(temp.getDateTimeStart());
   holder.dateTime.setText(String.valueOf(sdf.format(date)));
}

Step 5 Initializing the Adapter in Data Logger Activity and connecting with RecyclerView

Now we head to our Data Logger Activity, here in OnCreate() method first we will create a object of RecyclerView, then we will initialize our adapter by passing the RealmResult<SensorLogged> list which we have queried from the Realm Database.

Then we will set the LinearLayoutManager and finally, we will connect the the Adapter with the RecyclerView.

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
   super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
   setContentView(R.layout.activity_data_logger);
   ButterKnife.bind(this);

   Realm realm = Realm.getDefaultInstance();

   RealmResults<SensorLogged> results;
   String title;
  
   results = realm.where(SensorLogged.class)
           .findAll()
           .sort("dateTimeStart", Sort.DESCENDING);

   SensorLoggerListAdapter adapter = new SensorLoggerListAdapter(results, this);
   LinearLayoutManager linearLayoutManager = new LinearLayoutManager(this, LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false);

   recyclerView.setLayoutManager(linearLayoutManager);

   recyclerView.setAdapter(adapter);
}

After following all the above steps we have finally a activity as shown in Figure 4.

Thus we have successfully displayed a list of the experiments from the data stored in the Realm Database using RealmRecyclerViewAdapter.

Resources

1. https://academy.realm.io/posts/android-realm-listview/ – Blog on creating a To-do list on Realm official website
2. https://gist.github.com/Avjeet/2f350feeafff17ec855a39891d8c2d66  Gist of layout of list item used