title: How is the getView() method used and where is it getting called?
body: <p>I am new to Android development and have been following the tutorials available on the Android website. I am currently on the section of tutorials for Views, specifically the one for Grid Views: <a href="http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-gridview.html" rel="noreferrer">Hello, Grid View Tutorial</a>.</p>
  
  <p>I am having trouble understanding how views are made through an adapter. I understand that you must override the getView() method in your adapter class and in this method is where you define how your Views are set up. What I don't understand is where does getView() actually get called? Perhaps I've got the wrong kind of mentality here, but in the code below (the Grid View tutorial) I don't see any calls to getView() (or any other things used in the adapter class such as getCount()).</p>
  
  <p>Main.xml</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
  &lt;GridView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
      android:id="@+id/gridview"
      android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
      android:layout_height="fill_parent"
      android:columnWidth="90dp"
      android:numColumns="auto_fit"
      android:verticalSpacing="10dp"
      android:horizontalSpacing="10dp"
      android:stretchMode="columnWidth"
      android:gravity="center" /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Start.java</p>
  
  <pre><code>package com.examples.hellogridlayout;
  
  import android.app.Activity;
  import android.os.Bundle;
  import android.view.View;
  import android.widget.AdapterView;
  import android.widget.GridView;
  import android.widget.Toast;
  import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemClickListener;
  
  public class Start extends Activity {
  /** Called when the activity is first created. */
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.main);
      GridView gridview = (GridView)findViewById(R.id.gridview);
      gridview.setAdapter(new ImageAdapter(this));
  
      gridview.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener(){
          public void onItemClick(AdapterView&lt;?&gt; parent,View v, int position, long     id){
              Toast.makeText(Start.this, "" + position,Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
          }
  
        });
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>ImageAdapter.java</p>
  
  <pre><code>package com.examples.hellogridlayout;
  
  import android.content.Context;
  import android.view.View;
  import android.view.ViewGroup;
  import android.widget.BaseAdapter;
  import android.widget.GridView;
  import android.widget.ImageView;
  
  public class ImageAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
      private Context mContext;
  
      public ImageAdapter(Context c) {
          mContext = c;
      }
  
      public int getCount() {
      return mThumbIds.length;
      }
  
      public Object getItem(int position) {
      return null;
      }
  
      public long getItemId(int position) {
          return 0;
      }
  
      // create a new ImageView for each item referenced by the Adapter
      public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
          ImageView imageView;
          if (convertView == null) {  // if it's not recycled, initialize some attributes
              imageView = new ImageView(mContext);
              imageView.setLayoutParams(new GridView.LayoutParams(85, 85));
              imageView.setScaleType(ImageView.ScaleType.CENTER_CROP);
              imageView.setPadding(8, 8, 8, 8);
          } else {
              imageView = (ImageView) convertView;
          }
  
          imageView.setImageResource(mThumbIds[position]);
          return imageView;
      }
  
      // references to our images
      private Integer[] mThumbIds = {
              R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
              R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
              R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7,
              R.drawable.sample_0, R.drawable.sample_1,
              R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
              R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
              R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7,
              R.drawable.sample_0, R.drawable.sample_1,
              R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
              R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
              R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7
      };
  }
  </code></pre>