How to put GridView inside ScrollView

I found a way to give the GridView a fixed size inside ScrollView, and enable scrolling it. That allows you to see the entire ScrollView without having to scroll all elements of the GridView, and it makes more sense to me that using an ExpandableHeightGridView.

To do so, you would have to implement a new class extending GridView and override onTouchEvent() to call requestDisallowInterceptTouchEvent(true). Thus, the parent view will leave the Grid intercept touch events.

GridViewScrollable.java:

package com.example;
import android.content.Context;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.widget.GridView;

public class GridViewScrollable extends GridView {

    public GridViewAdjuntos(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public GridViewAdjuntos(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public GridViewAdjuntos(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev){
        // Called when a child does not want this parent and its ancestors to intercept touch events.
        requestDisallowInterceptTouchEvent(true);
        return super.onTouchEvent(ev);
    }
}

Add it in your layout with the characteristics and margins you want, inside a ScrollView:

<ScrollView 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"
android:isScrollContainer="true" >

    <com.example.GridViewScrollable
    android:id="@+id/myGVS"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:numColumns="auto_fit"
    android:stretchMode="columnWidth" />

</ScrollView>

And just get it in your activity:

GridViewScrollable myGridView = (GridViewScrollable) findViewById(R.id.myGVS);

I hope it helps =)

In Kotlin:

class GridViewScrollable @JvmOverloads constructor(
    context: Context,
    attrs: AttributeSet? = null,
    defStyleAttr: Int = 0
) : GridView(context, attrs, defStyleAttr) {

    override fun onTouchEvent(ev: MotionEvent?): Boolean {
        // Called when a child does not want this parent and its ancestors to intercept touch events.
        requestDisallowInterceptTouchEvent(true)
        return super.onTouchEvent(ev)
    }
}

There is an annoying warning: "Custom view GridViewScrollable overrides onTouchEvent but not performClick". Please, resolve yourself if you want.

I know I'm late but I have another solution which I must share and which works flawlessly. Here, the method calculates the GridView height based on the number of items it contains and sets the height to the GridView at run time.

public void setGridViewHeightBasedOnChildren(GridView gridView, int columns) {
        ListAdapter listAdapter = gridView.getAdapter(); 
        if (listAdapter == null) {
            // pre-condition
            return;
        }

        int totalHeight = 0;
        int items = listAdapter.getCount();
        int rows = 0;

        View listItem = listAdapter.getView(0, null, gridView);
        listItem.measure(0, 0);
        totalHeight = listItem.getMeasuredHeight();

        float x = 1;
        if( items > columns ){
            x = items/columns;
            rows = (int) (x + 1);
            totalHeight *= rows;
        }

        ViewGroup.LayoutParams params = gridView.getLayoutParams();
        params.height = totalHeight;
        gridView.setLayoutParams(params);

}

After you have called setAdapter on your gridview, just call

setGridViewHeightBasedOnChildren( <yourGridView> , <no of grid view columns> )

and it'll work.

You can the define the gridview in your xml as you normally do

and let the code take care of it. :)

There are definitely benefits to a GridView beside the inherent scrolling. For example, a consistent, dynamic layout of cells that will expand and contract based on the data you pass into it. So, when people say it's not good to desire such a functionality, I think that's wrong because you could want the dynamic grid of images (views) inside of a scrolling view, but want that entire scrolling view to contain other things than just the grid cells.

Now, here is how you can do this. Check the answer here. It is an expandable height GridView, which you will want to import / create in your project. What that basically means is that as more items are added to the GridView, it will just expand its height, as opposed to keeping its height set and using scrolling. This is exactly what you want.

Once you have the ExpandableHeightGridView in your project, go to your XML layout where you want the GridView to be. You can then do something like this (paraphrasing):

<ScrollView ...>
    <RelativeLayout ...>
        <com.example.ExpandableHeightGridView ... />
        <other view items />
    </RelativeLayout>
</ScrollView>

Then, in your activity where you set the GridView's adapter, you want to make sure you set it to expand. So:

ExpandableHeightGridView gridView = (ExpandableHeightGridView) findViewById(R.id.myId);
gridView.setAdapter(yourAdapter);
gridView.setExpanded(true);

The reason you want this expandable GridView is because, the fact that a standard GridView doesn't expand is what causes it to scroll. It sticks to a certain height, and then as more items fill it past its view bounds, it becomes scrollable. Now, with this, your GridView will always expand its height to fit the content within it, thus never allowing it to enter its scrolling mode. This enables you to use it inside of the ScrollView and use other view elements above or below it within the ScrollView, and have them all scroll.

This should give you the result you're looking for. Let me know if you have any questions.