Decorating RecyclerView (with GridLayoutManager) to display divider between items

I don't know why do you need that, but this UI is quite easy to implement with RecyclerView decorator.

<!--Integer Value that number of column in RecyclerView-->
<integer name="photo_list_preview_columns">3</integer>

<!-- inter spacing between RecyclerView's Item-->
<dimen name="photos_list_spacing">10dp</dimen>

You can change photo_list_preview_columns and photos_list_spacing according to your needs.

mRecylerView.addItemDecoration(new ItemDecorationAlbumColumns(
    getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.photos_list_spacing), 
    getResources().getInteger(R.integer.photo_list_preview_columns)));

and decorator (needs some refatoring)

import android.graphics.Rect;
import android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView;
import android.view.View;

public class ItemDecorationAlbumColumns extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int mSizeGridSpacingPx;
    private int mGridSize;

    private boolean mNeedLeftSpacing = false;

    public ItemDecorationAlbumColumns(int gridSpacingPx, int gridSize) {
        mSizeGridSpacingPx = gridSpacingPx;
        mGridSize = gridSize;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        int frameWidth = (int) ((parent.getWidth() - (float) mSizeGridSpacingPx * (mGridSize - 1)) / mGridSize);
        int padding = parent.getWidth() / mGridSize - frameWidth;
        int itemPosition = ((RecyclerView.LayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams()).getViewAdapterPosition();
        if (itemPosition < mGridSize) {
            outRect.top = 0;
        } else {
            outRect.top = mSizeGridSpacingPx;
        }
        if (itemPosition % mGridSize == 0) {
            outRect.left = 0;
            outRect.right = padding;
            mNeedLeftSpacing = true;
        } else if ((itemPosition + 1) % mGridSize == 0) {
            mNeedLeftSpacing = false;
            outRect.right = 0;
            outRect.left = padding;
        } else if (mNeedLeftSpacing) {
            mNeedLeftSpacing = false;
            outRect.left = mSizeGridSpacingPx - padding;
            if ((itemPosition + 2) % mGridSize == 0) {
                outRect.right = mSizeGridSpacingPx - padding;
            } else {
                outRect.right = mSizeGridSpacingPx / 2;
            }
        } else if ((itemPosition + 2) % mGridSize == 0) {
            mNeedLeftSpacing = false;
            outRect.left = mSizeGridSpacingPx / 2;
            outRect.right = mSizeGridSpacingPx - padding;
        } else {
            mNeedLeftSpacing = false;
            outRect.left = mSizeGridSpacingPx / 2;
            outRect.right = mSizeGridSpacingPx / 2;
        }
        outRect.bottom = 0;
    }
}

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Here's a simpler and more user-friendly implementation:

public class MediaSpaceDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {
    private final int spacing;
    private final List<Integer> allowedViewTypes = Arrays.asList(
            R.layout.item_image,
            R.layout.item_blur);

    public MediaSpaceDecoration(int spacing) {
        this.spacing = spacing;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect,
                               View view,
                               RecyclerView parent,
                               RecyclerView.State state) {
        final int position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view);
        if (!isMedia(parent, position)) {
            return;
        }

        final int totalSpanCount = getTotalSpanCount(parent);
        int spanSize = getItemSpanSize(parent, position);
        if (totalSpanCount == spanSize) {
            return;
        }

        outRect.top = isInTheFirstRow(position, totalSpanCount) ? 0 : spacing;
        outRect.left = isFirstInRow(position, totalSpanCount) ? 0 : spacing / 2;
        outRect.right = isLastInRow(position, totalSpanCount) ? 0 : spacing / 2;
        outRect.bottom = 0; // don't need
    }

    private boolean isInTheFirstRow(int position, int spanCount) {
        return position < spanCount;
    }

    private boolean isFirstInRow(int position, int spanCount) {
        return position % spanCount == 0;
    }

    private boolean isLastInRow(int position, int spanCount) {
        return isFirstInRow(position + 1, spanCount);
    }

    private int getTotalSpanCount(RecyclerView parent) {
        final RecyclerView.LayoutManager layoutManager = parent.getLayoutManager();
        return layoutManager instanceof GridLayoutManager
            ? ((GridLayoutManager) layoutManager).getSpanCount()
            : 1;
    }

    private int getItemSpanSize(RecyclerView parent, int position) {
        final RecyclerView.LayoutManager layoutManager = parent.getLayoutManager();
        return layoutManager instanceof GridLayoutManager
            ? ((GridLayoutManager) layoutManager).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanSize(position)
            : 1;
    }

    private boolean isMedia(RecyclerView parent, int viewPosition) {
        final RecyclerView.Adapter adapter = parent.getAdapter();
        final int viewType = adapter.getItemViewType(viewPosition);
        return allowedViewTypes.contains(viewType);
    }
}

I also check before setting the outRect because I have various spanSizes for each viewType and I need to add an extra middle-space only for allowedViewTypes. You can easily remove that verification and the code would be even simpler. It looks like this for me: GridLayout with a different spanSize for each viewType


You may got your answer but i'm still posting my solution that can help others. This can be used for vertical, horizontal lists or grid views by passing the orientation.

import android.content.Context;
import android.content.res.TypedArray;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Rect;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.support.v7.widget.LinearLayoutManager;
import android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView;
import android.view.View;

public class DividerItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private static final int[] ATTRS = new int[]{
            android.R.attr.listDivider
    };

    public static final int HORIZONTAL_LIST = LinearLayoutManager.HORIZONTAL;
    public static final int VERTICAL_LIST = LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL;
    public static final int GRID = 2;

    private Drawable mDivider;

    private int mOrientation;

    public DividerItemDecoration(Context context, int orientation) {
        final TypedArray a = context.obtainStyledAttributes(ATTRS);
        mDivider = a.getDrawable(0);
        a.recycle();
        setOrientation(orientation);
    }

    public void setOrientation(int orientation) {
        if (orientation != HORIZONTAL_LIST && orientation != VERTICAL_LIST && orientation != GRID) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("invalid orientation");
        }
        mOrientation = orientation;
    }

    @Override
    public void onDrawOver(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        if (mOrientation == VERTICAL_LIST) {
            drawVertical(c, parent);
        } else if(mOrientation == HORIZONTAL_LIST){
            drawHorizontal(c, parent);
        } else {
            drawVertical(c, parent);
            drawHorizontal(c, parent);
        }
    }

    public void drawVertical(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent) {
        if (parent.getChildCount() == 0) return;

        final int left = parent.getPaddingLeft();
        final int right = parent.getWidth() - parent.getPaddingRight();

        final View child = parent.getChildAt(0);
        if (child.getHeight() == 0) return;

        final RecyclerView.LayoutParams params =
                (RecyclerView.LayoutParams) child.getLayoutParams();
        int top = child.getBottom() + params.bottomMargin + mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight();
        int bottom = top + mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight();

        final int parentBottom = parent.getHeight() - parent.getPaddingBottom();
        while (bottom < parentBottom) {
            mDivider.setBounds(left, top, right, bottom);
            mDivider.draw(c);

            top += mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight() + params.topMargin + child.getHeight() + params.bottomMargin + mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight();
            bottom = top + mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight();
        }
    }

    public void drawHorizontal(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent) {
        final int top = parent.getPaddingTop();
        final int bottom = parent.getHeight() - parent.getPaddingBottom();

        final int childCount = parent.getChildCount();
        for (int i = 0; i < childCount; i++) {
            final View child = parent.getChildAt(i);
            final RecyclerView.LayoutParams params =
                    (RecyclerView.LayoutParams) child.getLayoutParams();
            final int left = child.getRight() + params.rightMargin + mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight();
            final int right = left + mDivider.getIntrinsicWidth();
            mDivider.setBounds(left, top, right, bottom);
            mDivider.draw(c);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        if (mOrientation == VERTICAL_LIST) {
            outRect.set(0, 0, 0, mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight());
        } else if(mOrientation == HORIZONTAL_LIST) {
            outRect.set(0, 0, mDivider.getIntrinsicWidth(), 0);
        } else {
            outRect.set(0, 0, mDivider.getIntrinsicWidth(), mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight());
        }
    }
}