Experience - Configuring Android ListView

I have configured my ListView differently than the standard Android example. This article is what I did and how it was accomplished. The biggest difference between the android example and mine is I didn't want a full screen ListView. This impacted both the code and the visuals of the ListView. In the standard example it is suggested that a ListActivity is created. I on the other hand already have an Activity that defines a screen and is bound to a XML layout file. In the layout file I added a ListView element with the id MessageList. I then reference this ListView in my Activity and add the needed components to it. Below are excerpts from the Activity.

public class MessageActivity extends Activity {

private ListView mMessageList;
//Additional properties ...

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.messagepage);

//Bind XML objects
mMessageList = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.MessageList);
//...

//Additional setup and configuation
//...

//MessageList is a dummy content string array
//located in res/values/strings.xml
String[] mMessages =  
getResources().getStringArray(R.array.MessageList);

//Simple way for example
mMessageList.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter(this,
android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, mMessages));

// mMessageList.setAdapter(
// new EfficientAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,
// android.R.id.text1, mMessages));
}
}
 

At this point I have a ListView defined on a page with other content. The ListView is connected to an ArrayAdapter which supplies it with dummy content through a string array in res/values/strings.xml. Next I wanted to add a border to the ListView to help define its size and make it clear where the edges of the ListView were. I was surprised that it was so difficult to figure out. There is no border property in ListView which was disappointing. I tried various options and found the solution I like the best is putting the ListView in a FrameLayout. I set the Background color of the FrameLayout to the color I want for my border and set the padding to the desired border width. The results look something like this.