[android] RecyclerView expand/collapse items

Not saying this is the best approach, but it seems to work for me.

The full code may be found at: Example code at: https://github.com/dbleicher/recyclerview-grid-quickreturn

First off, add the expanded area to your cell/item layout, and make the enclosing cell layout animateLayoutChanges="true". This will ensure that the expand/collapse is animated:

<LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/llCardBack"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@android:color/white"
    android:animateLayoutChanges="true"
    android:padding="4dp"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/tvTitle"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center|fill_horizontal"
        android:padding="10dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:background="@android:color/holo_green_dark"
        android:text="This is a long title to show wrapping of text in the view."
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textSize="16sp" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/tvSubTitle"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center|fill_horizontal"
        android:background="@android:color/holo_purple"
        android:padding="6dp"
        android:text="My subtitle..."
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textSize="12sp" />

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/llExpandArea"
        android:visibility="gone"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:orientation="horizontal">

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="6dp"
            android:text="Item One" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="6dp"
            android:text="Item Two" />

    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Then, make your RV Adapter class implement View.OnClickListener so that you can act on the item being clicked. Add an int field to hold the position of the one expanded view, and initialize it to a negative value:

private int expandedPosition = -1;

Finally, implement your ViewHolder, onBindViewHolder() methods and override the onClick() method. You will expand the view in onBindViewHolder if it's position is equal to "expandedPosition", and hide it if not. You set the value of expandedPosition in the onClick listener:

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

    int colorIndex = randy.nextInt(bgColors.length);
    holder.tvTitle.setText(mDataset.get(position));
    holder.tvTitle.setBackgroundColor(bgColors[colorIndex]);
    holder.tvSubTitle.setBackgroundColor(sbgColors[colorIndex]);

    if (position == expandedPosition) {
        holder.llExpandArea.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    } else {
        holder.llExpandArea.setVisibility(View.GONE);
    }
}

@Override
public void onClick(View view) {
    ViewHolder holder = (ViewHolder) view.getTag();
    String theString = mDataset.get(holder.getPosition());

    // Check for an expanded view, collapse if you find one
    if (expandedPosition >= 0) {
        int prev = expandedPosition;
        notifyItemChanged(prev);
    }
    // Set the current position to "expanded"
    expandedPosition = holder.getPosition();
    notifyItemChanged(expandedPosition);

    Toast.makeText(mContext, "Clicked: "+theString, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}

/**
 * Create a ViewHolder to represent your cell layout
 * and data element structure
 */
public static class ViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {
    TextView tvTitle;
    TextView tvSubTitle;
    LinearLayout llExpandArea;

    public ViewHolder(View itemView) {
        super(itemView);

        tvTitle = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.tvTitle);
        tvSubTitle = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.tvSubTitle);
        llExpandArea = (LinearLayout) itemView.findViewById(R.id.llExpandArea);
    }
}

This should expand only one item at a time, using the system-default animation for the layout change. At least it works for me. Hope it helps.