B4A Library [B4X] PreoptimizedCLV - Lazy loading extension for xCustomListView

This is a cross platform class that extends xCustomListView and makes it "lazier".
Lazy loading is explained here: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...ew-lazy-loading-virtualization.87930/#content and here: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/💡-part-1-basics-creating-long-lists-using-xcustomlistview-with-lazy-loading-newer-developers.114096/#content
This is a performance optimization. Instead of creating all items with all the views when the app starts, we create the views as the items become visible.

There are all kinds of lazy loading methods.
An incomplete list:
  • Level 0: No lazy loading at all. Most applications should choose this one. It is simplest to implement and the easiest one to customize. This method is good for up to several hundred items, depending of course on the items content.
  • Level 1: Creating all layout except of the "heavy parts", usually bitmaps.
  • Level 2: Only creating layouts for the visible items.
There are several variants for level 2, you can load a new layout each time and discard old layouts or you can cache the layouts and reuse them (example: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...-imageviews-and-many-rows.101431/#post-636920).

When you add items to xCLV, each item is made of two panels. The first panel is an internal panel and the second one is the panel passed in the CLV.Add call.
This is true even with lazy loading. If you are creating lists with thousands of items or more than these panels become an issue. PreoptimizedCLV solves this issue.
PreoptimizedCLV implements the level 2 method without the need to create the two panels. The internal panel is reused and the second panel is created for visible items only.

Edit: When I first developed this library I was a bit skeptic about its usefulness, as users will never scroll more than a few hundred items at most. However Klaus suggested to add fast scrolling feature and it was a great idea! With fast scrolling this library becomes useful.

It looks like this:


Full example:
B4X:
Sub Globals
    Private CustomListView1 As CustomListView
    Private PCLV As PreoptimizedCLV
    Private xui As XUI
    Private Label1 As B4XView
End Sub

Sub Activity_Create(FirstTime As Boolean)
    Activity.LoadLayout("1")
    PCLV.Initialize(Me, "PCLV", CustomListView1)
    Dim words As List = File.ReadList(File.DirAssets, "english.txt")
    For Each word As String In words
        PCLV.AddItem(100dip, xui.Color_White, word)
    Next
    PCLV.Commit
End Sub

Sub PCLV_HintRequested (Index As Int) As Object
    Dim word As String = CustomListView1.GetValue(Index)
    Return word
End Sub

Sub CustomListView1_VisibleRangeChanged (FirstIndex As Int, LastIndex As Int)
    For Each i As Int In PCLV.VisibleRangeChanged(FirstIndex, LastIndex)
        Dim item As CLVItem = CustomListView1.GetRawListItem(i)
        Dim pnl As B4XView = xui.CreatePanel("")
        item.Panel.AddView(pnl, 0, 0, item.Panel.Width, item.Panel.Height)
        'Create the item layout
        pnl.LoadLayout("Item")
        Label1.Text = item.Value
    Next
End Sub

Step #1:
Add the items with PCLV.AddItem. You need to pass the item size (height for vertical lists and width for horizontal lists), background color and value. Value can be any object you like including complex custom types that hold all the data needed to later build the layout.

Step #2:
Call PCLV.Commit.

Step #3:
Implement the VisibleRangeChanged event. The code should look like:
B4X:
For Each i As Int In PCLV.VisibleRangeChanged(FirstIndex, LastIndex)
  Dim item As CLVItem = CustomListView1.GetRawListItem(i)
  'Create the layout for item i and add it to item.Panel.
Next

Step #4:
Implement the HintRequested event and return the string or CSBuilder that will be displayed when the user scrolls the list.

That's it.

Once the items are committed you can add or remove items by modifying CLV directly and calling PCLV.
B4X:
CustomListView1.InsertAtTextItem(Index, "New Item", "")
PCLV.ListChangedExternally
PCLV ignores these items.

Notes

  • The item layout should have a transparent background.
  • Better to remove AutoScaleAll and set the animation duration to 0 in the item layout.
  • The list should scroll very smoothly in release mode.
  • Make sure that "Show Scrollbar" option is unchecked in CLV custom properties.
  • PCLV.pnlOvarlay is the panel that hides the list when it fast scrolls. PCLV.lblHint is the label that appears. Both can be customized.
  • You can change the seek bar interval by setting PCLV.NumberOfSteps, before calling PCLV.Commit. The default value is 20. Don't set it to be too high as it will be difficult for the user to select a specific point.
  • ScrollView height in Android is limited to 16,777,215 pixels. The exact limit depends on the device scale and the items height. As a rule of thumb you can show up to 50,000 100dip tall items. Such lists are not practical anyway: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...ension-for-xcustomlistview.115289/post-721157

Example #1 shows the 10,000 most frequent English words. Source: https://github.com/first20hours/google-10000-english
Example #2 is a port of the "Corona cases" cross platform example based on B4XTable + xChart. It depends on xChart library.
Data source: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-source-data

This is an internal library.

Updates:

v1.21 - Fixes an issue with horizontal orientation in B4i.
 

Attachments

  • PCLV_Example1.zip
    40.1 KB · Views: 1,752
  • PCLV_Example2.zip
    43.8 KB · Views: 1,681
  • PreoptimizedCLV.b4xlib
    6.3 KB · Views: 676
Last edited:

klaus

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
However I realize that not all developers agree with the above statement so I've created PreoptimizedCLV. You can use it to build lists with millions of items. It takes 30ms to create a 100,000 items list.
Have these guys ever tried to use what they want in REAL conditions !?
I'm sure that they haven't !
As Erel says, more than several hundred items is simply none sense.

To be a bit more positive, it would for sure be useful to have a fast scroll functionality.
I have a B4A application, my personal juke box, with a list of about 500 songs, at the first time I used a ListView, but I was missing some functionalities so I wrote my own.
One of the first functionalities I added was fast scroll!!!
 
Last edited:

LucaMs

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Longtime User
Have these guys ever tried to use what they want in REAL conditions !?
I'm sure that they haven't !
As Erel says, more than several hundred items is simply none sense.

To be a bit more positive, it would for sure be useful to have a fast scroll functionality.
I have a B4A application, my personal juke box, with a list of about 500 songs, at the first time I used a ListView, but I was missing some functionalities so I wrote my own.
One of the first functionalities I added was fast scroll!!!
fast scroll but... then you use a search functionality, I think; scrolling through hundreds or thousands of "records", my eyes go on strike! 😄
 

AnandGupta

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
There is a saying in Hebrew that translates to: Authors jealousy brings wisdom.
True in non-Hebrew world too :)
Car makers compete with each other to make better and comfortable cars for user.
If not, then we (users) will be stuck with basic functional cars.

Same goes for apps and tools to make it.

Regards,

Anand
 

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
*** New version with significant changes will soon be uploaded ***

In terms of operation, what does this affirmation mean?
PCLV removes items automatically and tells you which items you need to add. The items that are added "externally" are not part of this process. PCLV will not remove them and will not include them in the list of items that you need to add.
 

LucaMs

Expert
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Longtime User
As all of you know, sometimes I like to... "disturb" 😇

Would it be possible to manage this part internally? It would be much better, obviously.
Full example:
B4X:
Sub CustomListView1_VisibleRangeChanged (FirstIndex As Int, LastIndex As Int)
    For Each i As Int In PCLV.VisibleRangeChanged(FirstIndex, LastIndex)
        Dim item As CLVItem = CustomListView1.GetRawListItem(i)
        Dim pnl As B4XView = xui.CreatePanel("")
        item.Panel.AddView(pnl, 0, 0, item.Panel.Width, item.Panel.Height)
        pnl.LoadLayout("Item")
        Label1.Text = item.Value
    Next
End Sub
[CODE]
[/QUOTE]

*** New version with significant changes will soon be uploaded ***
So I await the new version, before downloading 😊
[A nice animated gif (or video) is always appreciated]


(fighting with the post format :mad:)
P.S. the Editor wons!
 
Last edited:

KZero

Active Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
I have a little concern about VisibleRangeChange event
if we have 10 visible items (0..9) and user scrolled 1 item down
now the visible range will be (1..10)
the current code will loop on the 10 items, creates 10 panels and load the layout instead of loading only the new item "#10" because (1..9) is already loaded

the change maybe not noticeable at all, I'm just wondering why clv uses the visible range instead
 

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
the current code will loop on the 10 items, creates 10 panels and load the layout instead of loading only the new item "#10" because (1..9) is already loaded
No. The relevant line is this one:
B4X:
For Each i As Int In PCLV.VisibleRangeChanged(FirstIndex, LastIndex)
PCLV.VisibleRangeChanged returns the indices of the items missing layouts. In the case of (slow) scrolling it will return a single index each time.
 

klaus

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hi Erel,
I really appreciate the fast scroll feature :) !

Just a small point.
When loading one of the latest projects and run it I get following message:
Le fichier 'D:\B4X\B4XLibraries\PreoptimizedCLV\PCLV_Example2\Objects\b4xlibs\Files\b4xinputtemplate.bal' est introuvable.
Missing b4xinputtemplate.bal file.
After selecting the XUI Views library it works OK.
Shouldn't this bal file be found automatically ?
 
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