How is the getView() method used and where is it getting called?

Question

I am new to Android development and have been following the tutorials available on the Android website. I am currently on the section of tutorials for Views, specifically the one for Grid Views: Hello, Grid View Tutorial.

I am having trouble understanding how views are made through an adapter. I understand that you must override the getView() method in your adapter class and in this method is where you define how your Views are set up. What I don't understand is where does getView() actually get called? Perhaps I've got the wrong kind of mentality here, but in the code below (the Grid View tutorial) I don't see any calls to getView() (or any other things used in the adapter class such as getCount()).

Main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GridView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
    android:id="@+id/gridview"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:columnWidth="90dp"
    android:numColumns="auto_fit"
    android:verticalSpacing="10dp"
    android:horizontalSpacing="10dp"
    android:stretchMode="columnWidth"
    android:gravity="center" />

Start.java

package com.examples.hellogridlayout;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.Toast;
import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemClickListener;

public class Start extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    GridView gridview = (GridView)findViewById(R.id.gridview);
    gridview.setAdapter(new ImageAdapter(this));

    gridview.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener(){
        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent,View v, int position, long     id){
            Toast.makeText(Start.this, "" + position,Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }

      });
    }
}

ImageAdapter.java

package com.examples.hellogridlayout;

import android.content.Context;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.BaseAdapter;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.ImageView;

public class ImageAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
    private Context mContext;

    public ImageAdapter(Context c) {
        mContext = c;
    }

    public int getCount() {
    return mThumbIds.length;
    }

    public Object getItem(int position) {
    return null;
    }

    public long getItemId(int position) {
        return 0;
    }

    // create a new ImageView for each item referenced by the Adapter
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        ImageView imageView;
        if (convertView == null) {  // if it's not recycled, initialize some attributes
            imageView = new ImageView(mContext);
            imageView.setLayoutParams(new GridView.LayoutParams(85, 85));
            imageView.setScaleType(ImageView.ScaleType.CENTER_CROP);
            imageView.setPadding(8, 8, 8, 8);
        } else {
            imageView = (ImageView) convertView;
        }

        imageView.setImageResource(mThumbIds[position]);
        return imageView;
    }

    // references to our images
    private Integer[] mThumbIds = {
            R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
            R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
            R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7,
            R.drawable.sample_0, R.drawable.sample_1,
            R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
            R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
            R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7,
            R.drawable.sample_0, R.drawable.sample_1,
            R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
            R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
            R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7
    };
}

Answer 1

By setting Adapter, you are telling GridView to fetch views from the Adapter to fill up all the grids. So getView is internally called by GridView to fill up the layout.

Thats why all the adapters implements Adapter interface so that any AdapterView can request the Adapter.

Answer 2

Adapter.getView is called inside ObtainView method, inherited from GridView parent class AbsListView, with ScrapView objects passed in when available:

child = mAdapter.getView(position, scrapView, this);

Then ObtainView is implemented in GridView.onMeasure directly but also in several more callbacks that invoke GridView.layoutChildren, including inherited onTouchEvent method which handles scroll, fling and other touch navigation.