How to show an empty view with a RecyclerView?

I am used to put an special view inside the layout file as described in the ListActivity documentation to be displayed when there is no data. This view has the id "android:id/empty".

<TextView
    android:id="@android:id/empty"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/no_data" />

I wonder how this can be done with the new RecyclerView?

On the same layout where is defined the RecyclerView, add the TextView:

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
    android:id="@+id/recycler_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:scrollbars="vertical" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/empty_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:visibility="gone"
    android:text="@string/no_data_available" />

At the onCreate or the appropriate callback you check if the dataset that feeds your RecyclerView is empty. If the dataset is empty, the RecyclerView is empty too. In that case, the message appears on the screen. If not, change its visibility:

private RecyclerView recyclerView;
private TextView emptyView;

// ...

recyclerView = (RecyclerView) rootView.findViewById(R.id.recycler_view);
emptyView = (TextView) rootView.findViewById(R.id.empty_view);

// ...

if (dataset.isEmpty()) {
    recyclerView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
    emptyView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}
else {
    recyclerView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    emptyView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}

For my projects I made this solution (RecyclerView with setEmptyView method):

public class RecyclerViewEmptySupport extends RecyclerView {
    private View emptyView;

    private AdapterDataObserver emptyObserver = new AdapterDataObserver() {


        @Override
        public void onChanged() {
            Adapter<?> adapter =  getAdapter();
            if(adapter != null && emptyView != null) {
                if(adapter.getItemCount() == 0) {
                    emptyView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                    RecyclerViewEmptySupport.this.setVisibility(View.GONE);
                }
                else {
                    emptyView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
                    RecyclerViewEmptySupport.this.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                }
            }

        }
    };

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

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

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

    @Override
    public void setAdapter(Adapter adapter) {
        super.setAdapter(adapter);

        if(adapter != null) {
            adapter.registerAdapterDataObserver(emptyObserver);
        }

        emptyObserver.onChanged();
    }

    public void setEmptyView(View emptyView) {
        this.emptyView = emptyView;
    }
}

And you should use it instead of RecyclerView class:

<com.maff.utils.RecyclerViewEmptySupport android:id="@+id/list1"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    />

<TextView android:id="@+id/list_empty"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Empty"
    />

and

RecyclerViewEmptySupport list = 
    (RecyclerViewEmptySupport)rootView.findViewById(R.id.list1);
list.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(context));
list.setEmptyView(rootView.findViewById(R.id.list_empty));