How to retain RecyclerView's position after Orientation change, while using Firebase & ChildEventListener?

Issue

I'm working on a simple APOD app that implements:

• RecyclerView
• CardView
• Firebase
• Picasso

The app grabs images and text from Firebase and Firebase Storage, displays them in a CardView, and sets an OnClickListener to each View. When the user clicks on an image, I open a new Activity through an Intent. The second Activity displays the original clicked image, and more info about it.

I've implemented this all using a GridLayoutManager, 1 column if the user's phone is VERTICAL, 3 columns if the user's phone is HORIZONTAL.

The problem I'm having is I can't seem to save the RecyclerView's position on orientation change. I've tried every single option that I could find, but none seem to work. The only conclusion I could come up with, is that on rotation, I'm destroying Firebase's ChildEventListener to avoid a memory leak, and once orientation is complete, Firebase re-queries the database because of the new instance of ChildEventListener.

Is there any way I can save my RecyclerView's position on orientation change? I do not want android:configChanges as it won't let me change my layout, and I've already tried saving as a Parcelable, which was unsuccessful. I'm sure it's something easy I'm missing, but hey, I'm new to developing. Any help or suggestions on my code is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Below are my classes, which I have shortened only to the necessary code.

MainActivity

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

private RecyclerAdapter mRecyclerAdapter;
private DatabaseReference mDatabaseReference;
private RecyclerView mRecyclerView;
private Query query;


@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    PreferenceManager.setDefaultValues(this, R.xml.preferences, false);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    getWindow().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.TRANSPARENT));

    Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
    setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

    final int columns = getResources().getInteger(R.integer.gallery_columns);

    mDatabaseReference = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().getReference();
    query = mDatabaseReference.child("apod").orderByChild("date");

    mRecyclerView = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.recycler_view);
    mRecyclerView.setHasFixedSize(true);
    mRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(new GridLayoutManager(this, columns));


    mRecyclerAdapter = new RecyclerAdapter(this, query);
    mRecyclerView.setAdapter(mRecyclerAdapter);


  }

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    mRecyclerAdapter.cleanupListener();
  }

}

RecyclerAdapter

public class RecyclerAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerAdapter.ApodViewHolder> {

private final Context mContext;
private final ChildEventListener mChildEventListener;
private final Query mDatabaseReference;
private final List<String> apodListIds = new ArrayList<>();
private final List<Apod> apodList = new ArrayList<>();

public RecyclerAdapter(final Context context, Query ref) {
    mContext = context;
    mDatabaseReference = ref;


    ChildEventListener childEventListener = new ChildEventListener() {


        @Override
        public void onChildAdded(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot, String s) {
            int oldListSize = getItemCount();
            Apod apod = dataSnapshot.getValue(Apod.class);

            //Add data and IDs to the list
            apodListIds.add(dataSnapshot.getKey());
            apodList.add(apod);

            //Update the RecyclerView
            notifyItemInserted(oldListSize - getItemCount() - 1);
        }

        @Override
        public void onChildChanged(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot, String s) {

        }

        @Override
        public void onChildRemoved(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot) {
            String apodKey = dataSnapshot.getKey();
            int apodIndex = apodListIds.indexOf(apodKey);

            if (apodIndex > -1) {

                // Remove data and IDs from the list
                apodListIds.remove(apodIndex);
                apodList.remove(apodIndex);

                // Update the RecyclerView
                notifyDataSetChanged();
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void onChildMoved(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot, String s) {

        }

        @Override
        public void onCancelled(DatabaseError databaseError) {

        }

    };
    ref.addChildEventListener(childEventListener);
    mChildEventListener = childEventListener;

 }

   @Override
    public int getItemCount() {
    return apodList.size();
}
    public void cleanupListener() {
    if (mChildEventListener != null) {
        mDatabaseReference.removeEventListener(mChildEventListener);
    }
  }

}

Solution

EDIT:

I was finally able to make this work using multiple factors. If any one of these were left out, it simply would not work.

Create new GridLayoutManager in my onCreate

gridLayoutManager = new GridLayoutManager(getApplicationContext(), columns);

Save the RecyclerView state in onPause

private final String KEY_RECYCLER_STATE = "recycler_state"; 
private static Bundle mBundleRecyclerViewState;
private Parcelable mListState = null;

@Override
protected void onPause() {
    super.onPause();

    mBundleRecyclerViewState = new Bundle();
    mListState = mRecyclerView.getLayoutManager().onSaveInstanceState();
    mBundleRecyclerViewState.putParcelable(KEY_RECYCLER_STATE, mListState);
}

Include configChanges in the AndroidManifest.xml

Saving and restoring the RecyclerView state was not enough. I also had to go against the grain and change my AndroidManifest.xml to 'android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"'

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize">

Restore the RecyclerView state in onConfigurationChanged using a Handler

The handler was one of the most important parts, if it's not included, it simply will not work and the position of the RecyclerView will reset to 0. I guess this has been a flaw going back a few years, and was never fixed. I then changed the GridLayoutManager's setSpanCount depending on the orientation.

@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
    super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
    columns = getResources().getInteger(R.integer.gallery_columns);

    if (mBundleRecyclerViewState != null) {
        new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                mListState = mBundleRecyclerViewState.getParcelable(KEY_RECYCLER_STATE);
                mRecyclerView.getLayoutManager().onRestoreInstanceState(mListState);
            }
        }, 50);
    }

    // Checks the orientation of the screen
    if (newConfig.orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE) {
        gridLayoutManager.setSpanCount(columns);
    } else if (newConfig.orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT) {
        gridLayoutManager.setSpanCount(columns);
    }
    mRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(gridLayoutManager);
}

Like I said, all of these changes needed to be included, at least for me. I don't know if this is the most efficient way, but after spending many hours, it works for me.

Answered By - Drew Szurko