Handle Button click inside a row in RecyclerView

this is how I handle multiple onClick events inside a recyclerView:

Edit : Updated to include callbacks (as mentioned in other comments). I have used a WeakReference in the ViewHolder to eliminate a potential memory leak.

Define interface :

public interface ClickListener {

    void onPositionClicked(int position);
    
    void onLongClicked(int position);
}

Then the Adapter :

public class MyAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<MyAdapter.MyViewHolder> {
    
    private final ClickListener listener;
    private final List<MyItems> itemsList;

    public MyAdapter(List<MyItems> itemsList, ClickListener listener) {
        this.listener = listener;
        this.itemsList = itemsList;
    }

    @Override public MyViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
        return new MyViewHolder(LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.my_row_layout), parent, false), listener);
    }

    @Override public void onBindViewHolder(MyViewHolder holder, int position) {
        // bind layout and data etc..
    }

    @Override public int getItemCount() {
        return itemsList.size();
    }

    public static class MyViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder implements View.OnClickListener, View.OnLongClickListener {

        private ImageView iconImageView;
        private TextView iconTextView;
        private WeakReference<ClickListener> listenerRef;

        public MyViewHolder(final View itemView, ClickListener listener) {
            super(itemView);

            listenerRef = new WeakReference<>(listener);
            iconImageView = (ImageView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.myRecyclerImageView);
            iconTextView = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.myRecyclerTextView);

            itemView.setOnClickListener(this);
            iconTextView.setOnClickListener(this);
            iconImageView.setOnLongClickListener(this);
        }

        // onClick Listener for view
        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {

            if (v.getId() == iconTextView.getId()) {
                Toast.makeText(v.getContext(), "ITEM PRESSED = " + String.valueOf(getAdapterPosition()), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            } else {
                Toast.makeText(v.getContext(), "ROW PRESSED = " + String.valueOf(getAdapterPosition()), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
            
            listenerRef.get().onPositionClicked(getAdapterPosition());
        }


        //onLongClickListener for view
        @Override
        public boolean onLongClick(View v) {

            final AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(v.getContext());
            builder.setTitle("Hello Dialog")
                    .setMessage("LONG CLICK DIALOG WINDOW FOR ICON " + String.valueOf(getAdapterPosition()))
                    .setPositiveButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                        @Override
                        public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {

                        }
                    });

            builder.create().show();
            listenerRef.get().onLongClicked(getAdapterPosition());
            return true;
        }
    }
}

Then in your activity/fragment - whatever you can implement : Clicklistener - or anonymous class if you wish like so :

MyAdapter adapter = new MyAdapter(myItems, new ClickListener() {
            @Override public void onPositionClicked(int position) {
                // callback performed on click
            }

            @Override public void onLongClicked(int position) {
                // callback performed on click
            }
        });

To get which item was clicked you match the view id i.e. v.getId() == whateverItem.getId()

Hope this approach helps!


I find that typically:

  • I need to use multiple listeners because I have several buttons.
  • I want my logic to be in the activity and not the adapter or viewholder.

So @mark-keen's answer works well but having an interface provides more flexibility:

public static class MyViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {

    public ImageView iconImageView;
    public TextView iconTextView;

    public MyViewHolder(final View itemView) {
        super(itemView);

        iconImageView = (ImageView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.myRecyclerImageView);
        iconTextView = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.myRecyclerTextView);

        iconTextView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                onClickListener.iconTextViewOnClick(v, getAdapterPosition());
            }
        });
        iconImageView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                onClickListener.iconImageViewOnClick(v, getAdapterPosition());
            }
        });
    }
}

Where onClickListener is defined in your adapter:

public MyAdapterListener onClickListener;

public interface MyAdapterListener {

    void iconTextViewOnClick(View v, int position);
    void iconImageViewOnClick(View v, int position);
}

And probably set through your constructor:

public MyAdapter(ArrayList<MyListItems> newRows, MyAdapterListener listener) {

    rows = newRows;
    onClickListener = listener;
}

Then you can handle the events in your Activity or wherever your RecyclerView is being used:

mAdapter = new MyAdapter(mRows, new MyAdapter.MyAdapterListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void iconTextViewOnClick(View v, int position) {
                        Log.d(TAG, "iconTextViewOnClick at position "+position);
                    }

                    @Override
                    public void iconImageViewOnClick(View v, int position) {
                        Log.d(TAG, "iconImageViewOnClick at position "+position);
                    }
                });
mRecycler.setAdapter(mAdapter);

I wanted a solution that did not create any extra objects (ie listeners) that would have to be garbage collected later, and did not require nesting a view holder inside an adapter class.

In the ViewHolder class

private static class MyViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder implements View.OnClickListener {

        private final TextView ....// declare the fields in your view
        private ClickHandler ClickHandler;

        public MyHolder(final View itemView) {
            super(itemView);
            nameField = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.name);
            //find other fields here...
            Button myButton = (Button) itemView.findViewById(R.id.my_button);
            myButton.setOnClickListener(this);
        }
        ...
        @Override
        public void onClick(final View view) {
            if (clickHandler != null) {
                clickHandler.onMyButtonClicked(getAdapterPosition());
            }
        }

Points to note: the ClickHandler interface is defined, but not initialized here, so there is no assumption in the onClick method that it was ever initialized.

The ClickHandler interface looks like this:

private interface ClickHandler {
    void onMyButtonClicked(final int position);
} 

In the adapter, set an instance of 'ClickHandler' in the constructor, and override onBindViewHolder, to initialize `clickHandler' on the view holder:

private class MyAdapter extends ...{

    private final ClickHandler clickHandler;

    public MyAdapter(final ClickHandler clickHandler) {
        super(...);
        this.clickHandler = clickHandler;
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(final MyViewHolder viewHolder, final int position) {
        super.onBindViewHolder(viewHolder, position);
        viewHolder.clickHandler = this.clickHandler;
    }

Note: I know that viewHolder.clickHandler is potentially getting set multiple times with the exact same value, but this is cheaper than checking for null and branching, and there is no memory cost, just an extra instruction.

Finally, when you create the adapter, you are forced to pass a ClickHandlerinstance to the constructor, as so:

adapter = new MyAdapter(new ClickHandler() {
    @Override
    public void onMyButtonClicked(final int position) {
        final MyModel model = adapter.getItem(position);
        //do something with the model where the button was clicked
    }
});

Note that adapter is a member variable here, not a local variable


Just wanted to add another solution if you already have a recycler touch listener and want to handle all of the touch events in it rather than dealing with the button touch event separately in the view holder. The key thing this adapted version of the class does is return the button view in the onItemClick() callback when it's tapped, as opposed to the item container. You can then test for the view being a button, and carry out a different action. Note, long tapping on the button is interpreted as a long tap on the whole row still.

public class RecyclerItemClickListener implements RecyclerView.OnItemTouchListener
{
    public static interface OnItemClickListener
    {
        public void onItemClick(View view, int position);
        public void onItemLongClick(View view, int position);
    }

    private OnItemClickListener mListener;
    private GestureDetector mGestureDetector;

    public RecyclerItemClickListener(Context context, final RecyclerView recyclerView, OnItemClickListener listener)
    {
        mListener = listener;

        mGestureDetector = new GestureDetector(context, new GestureDetector.SimpleOnGestureListener()
        {
            @Override
            public boolean onSingleTapUp(MotionEvent e)
            {
                // Important: x and y are translated coordinates here
                final ViewGroup childViewGroup = (ViewGroup) recyclerView.findChildViewUnder(e.getX(), e.getY());

                if (childViewGroup != null && mListener != null) {
                    final List<View> viewHierarchy = new ArrayList<View>();
                    // Important: x and y are raw screen coordinates here
                    getViewHierarchyUnderChild(childViewGroup, e.getRawX(), e.getRawY(), viewHierarchy);

                    View touchedView = childViewGroup;
                    if (viewHierarchy.size() > 0) {
                        touchedView = viewHierarchy.get(0);
                    }
                    mListener.onItemClick(touchedView, recyclerView.getChildPosition(childViewGroup));
                    return true;
                }

                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public void onLongPress(MotionEvent e)
            {
                View childView = recyclerView.findChildViewUnder(e.getX(), e.getY());

                if(childView != null && mListener != null)
                {
                    mListener.onItemLongClick(childView, recyclerView.getChildPosition(childView));
                }
            }
        });
    }

    public void getViewHierarchyUnderChild(ViewGroup root, float x, float y, List<View> viewHierarchy) {
        int[] location = new int[2];
        final int childCount = root.getChildCount();

        for (int i = 0; i < childCount; ++i) {
            final View child = root.getChildAt(i);
            child.getLocationOnScreen(location);
            final int childLeft = location[0], childRight = childLeft + child.getWidth();
            final int childTop = location[1], childBottom = childTop + child.getHeight();

            if (child.isShown() && x >= childLeft && x <= childRight && y >= childTop && y <= childBottom) {
                viewHierarchy.add(0, child);
            }
            if (child instanceof ViewGroup) {
                getViewHierarchyUnderChild((ViewGroup) child, x, y, viewHierarchy);
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onInterceptTouchEvent(RecyclerView view, MotionEvent e)
    {
        mGestureDetector.onTouchEvent(e);

        return false;
    }

    @Override
    public void onTouchEvent(RecyclerView view, MotionEvent motionEvent){}

    @Override
    public void onRequestDisallowInterceptTouchEvent(boolean disallowIntercept) {

    }
}

Then using it from activity / fragment:

recyclerView.addOnItemTouchListener(createItemClickListener(recyclerView));

    public RecyclerItemClickListener createItemClickListener(final RecyclerView recyclerView) {
        return new RecyclerItemClickListener (context, recyclerView, new RecyclerItemClickListener.OnItemClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onItemClick(View view, int position) {
                if (view instanceof AppCompatButton) {
                    // ... tapped on the button, so go do something
                } else {
                    // ... tapped on the item container (row), so do something different
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void onItemLongClick(View view, int position) {
            }
        });
    }