How to set drawable variable with ArrayAdapter to display it in ListView in android

If you want to make your listview element dynamic, for instance with image & package name, create your object class :

public class AppIcon {

    private Drawable mDrawable;

    private String mPackageName;

    public AppIcon(Drawable drawable, String packageName) {
        this.mDrawable = drawable;
        this.mPackageName = packageName;
    }

    public Drawable getmDrawable() {
        return mDrawable;
    }

    public String getmPackageName() {
        return mPackageName;
    }
}

Create the following custom RecyclerView adapter :

public class ImageArrayAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<ImageArrayAdapter.ViewHolder> {

    /**
     * list of devices
     */
    private List<AppIcon> imageList = new ArrayList<>();

    private Context mContext;

    private IViewHolderClickListener mListener;

    public ImageArrayAdapter(Context context, List<AppIcon> objects, IViewHolderClickListener listener) {
        this.mContext = context;
        this.imageList = objects;
        this.mListener = listener;
    }

    @Override
    public ImageArrayAdapter.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
        View inflater = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.listview_item, parent, false);
        return new ViewHolder(inflater, mListener);
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(ViewHolder holder, int position) {
        AppIcon item = imageList.get(position);

        holder.image.setImageDrawable(item.getmDrawable());
        holder.packageName.setText(item.getmPackageName());
    }

    @Override
    public long getItemId(int position) {
        return position;
    }

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

    public class ViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder implements View.OnClickListener {

        public ImageView image;

        public TextView packageName;

        public IViewHolderClickListener mListener;

        /**
         * ViewHolder
         *
         * @param v
         * @param listener
         */
        public ViewHolder(View v, IViewHolderClickListener listener) {
            super(v);
            mListener = listener;
            image = (ImageView) v.findViewById(R.id.image);
            packageName = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.package_name);
            v.setOnClickListener(this);
        }

        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            mListener.onClick(v);
        }
    }
}

This is better to use RecyclerView especially if you deal with a large list of image.

build.gradle :

compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:24.0.0'
compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:+'

You can see that ViewHolder holds all your nested fields in your listview items and will dispatch click event too with :

public interface IViewHolderClickListener {

    void onClick(View v);
}

In your activity, create your adapter and set it as adapter's RecyclerView. Also, initialize your adapter with list of image :

public class DescriptionActivity extends Activity {

    private RecyclerView imageRecyclerView = null;

    private ImageArrayAdapter imageAdapter = null;

    private SwipeRefreshLayout mSwipeRefreshLayout;

    private ArrayList<AppIcon> imageList;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity);

        //setup recyclerview
        imageRecyclerView = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.image_list);

        imageList = new ArrayList<>();

        try {
            Drawable icon = getPackageManager().getApplicationIcon(getPackageName());
            imageList.add(new AppIcon(icon, getPackageName()));
        } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        imageAdapter = new ImageArrayAdapter(DescriptionActivity.this, imageList, new IViewHolderClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {

                runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        Toast.makeText(DescriptionActivity.this, "click on item detected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    }
                });
            }
        });

        //set layout manager
        imageRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(new GridLayoutManager(this, 1, LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false));

        imageRecyclerView.setAdapter(imageAdapter);

        //setup swipe refresh
        mSwipeRefreshLayout = (SwipeRefreshLayout) findViewById(R.id.swiperefresh);

        mSwipeRefreshLayout.setOnRefreshListener(new SwipeRefreshLayout.OnRefreshListener() {
            @Override
            public void onRefresh() {
                runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        //refresh list here
                        imageAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
                        mSwipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(false);
                    }
                });
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
    }

}

activity.xml looks like :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <android.support.v4.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout
        android:id="@+id/swiperefresh"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">

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

    </android.support.v4.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout>

</FrameLayout>

and listview_item.xml which contain the layout for each your image/package name listview item :

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/image"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:scaleType="center"
    android:layout_weight="0.5" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/package_name"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight="0.5"
    android:fontFamily="sans-serif"
    android:textSize="18sp" />

Also, note that optionnaly I added a SwipeRefreshLayout to swipe refresh your listview in a material style