Adding headers and footers to RecyclerView.

In adapting an app I've been working on for Android-L and transitioning from ListViews to RecyclerViews, I ran into an issue: a lack of native support in RecyclerView.Adapter for headers and footers. I saw a few solutions on StackOverflow.com, but nothing quite as flexible as I wanted (most hard-coded the number of headers/footers).

While an ideal solution might be handled by the LayoutManager instead of the Adapter, I put together a relatively easy-to-implement adapter, which builds on the paradigm of ListView header/footers being View arguments, that accepts multiple headers and footers without adversely affecting performance (in my limited testing).

Add header: adapter.addHeader(View)
Remove header: adapter.removeHeader(View)

Add footer: adapter.addFooter(View)
Remove footer: adapter.removeFooter(View)

Let me know if you have any feedback/ideas for improvement. Thanks!

package cc.tg.JJChat.Adapter;

import android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.FrameLayout;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import cc.tg.JJChat.R;

/**
 * Created by Nero on 2015/8/10.
 */
public class CustomAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>{
    //our items
    List<GridHolder> items = new ArrayList<>();
    //headers
    List<View> headers = new ArrayList<>();
    //footers
    List<View> footers = new ArrayList<>();

    public static final int TYPE_HEADER = 111;
    public static final int TYPE_FOOTER = 222;
    public static final int TYPE_ITEM = 333;

    @Override
    public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup viewGroup, int type) {
        //if our position is one of our items (this comes from getItemViewType(int position) below)
        if(type == TYPE_ITEM) {
            View view = LayoutInflater.from(viewGroup.getContext())
                    .inflate(R.layout.GridHolder_layout, viewGroup, false);
            return new GridHolderViewHolder(view);
            //else we have a header/footer
        }else{
            //create a new framelayout, or inflate from a resource
            FrameLayout frameLayout = new FrameLayout(viewGroup.getContext());
            //make sure it fills the space
            frameLayout.setLayoutParams(new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT));
            return new HeaderFooterViewHolder(frameLayout);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(final RecyclerView.ViewHolder vh, int position) {
        //check what type of view our position is
        if(position < headers.size()){
            View v = headers.get(position);
            //add our view to a header view and display it
            prepareHeaderFooter((HeaderFooterViewHolder) vh, v);
        }else if(position >= headers.size() + items.size()){
            View v = footers.get(position-items.size()-headers.size());
            //add oru view to a footer view and display it
            prepareHeaderFooter((HeaderFooterViewHolder) vh, v);
        }else {
            //it's one of our items, display as required
            prepareGridHolder((GridHolderViewHolder) vh, position - headers.size());
        }
    }

    @Override
    public int getItemCount() {
        //make sure the adapter knows to look for all our items, headers, and footers
        return headers.size() + items.size() + footers.size();
    }

    private void prepareHeaderFooter(HeaderFooterViewHolder vh, View view){
        //empty out our FrameLayout and replace with our header/footer
        vh.base.removeAllViews();
        vh.base.addView(view);
    }

    private void prepareGridHolder(GridHolderViewHolder vh, int position){
        //do whatever we need to for our other type
    }

    @Override
    public int getItemViewType(int position) {
        //check what type our position is, based on the assumption that the order is headers > items > footers
        if(position < headers.size()){
            return TYPE_HEADER;
        }else if(position >= headers.size() + items.size()){
            return TYPE_FOOTER;
        }
        return TYPE_ITEM;
    }

    //add a header to the adapter
    public void addHeader(View header){
        if(!headers.contains(header)){
            headers.add(header);
            //animate
            notifyItemInserted(headers.size()-1);
        }
    }

    //remove a header from the adapter
    public void removeHeader(View header){
        if(headers.contains(header)){
            //animate
            notifyItemRemoved(headers.indexOf(header));
            headers.remove(header);
        }
    }

    //add a footer to the adapter
    public void addFooter(View footer){
        if(!footers.contains(footer)){
            footers.add(footer);
            //animate
            notifyItemInserted(headers.size()+items.size()+footers.size()-1);
        }
    }

    //remove a footer from the adapter
    public void removeFooter(View footer){
        if(footers.contains(footer)) {
            //animate
            notifyItemRemoved(headers.size()+items.size()+footers.indexOf(footer));
            footers.remove(footer);
        }
    }

    //our header/footer RecyclerView.ViewHolder is just a FrameLayout
    public static class HeaderFooterViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder{
        FrameLayout base;
        public HeaderFooterViewHolder(View itemView) {
            super(itemView);
            this.base = (FrameLayout) itemView;
        }
    }
}