Android Text Controls

Text controls include: <br /><br />1. TextView.<br /><br />2. EditText<br /><br />3. AutoCompleteEditText<br /><br />4. MultiCompleteTextView<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">TextView</span> <br />The <span style="color: blue;">TextView</span> represent an un-editable text. It resembles the Label control in C# or ASP.NET but it has an interesting feature which is the ability to highlight the text if its is an URL, an e-mail or a phone number so that when the user clicks on the textview the default intent whether it is the web browser or the dialer launches<br /><pre class="brush:xml"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br /><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"<br /> android:orientation="vertical"<br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br /> android:layout_height="fill_parent"<br /> ><br /><TextView <br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent" <br /> android:layout_height="wrap_content" <br /> android:text="Visit Http://www.android-pro.blogspot.com"<br /> android:autoLink="web"<br /> android:id="@+id/txtURL"<br /> /><br /> <br /> <TextView <br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent" <br /> android:layout_height="wrap_content" <br /> android:text="Dial 1 650-253-0000"<br /> android:autoLink="all"<br /> /><br /></LinearLayout><br /><br /></pre><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls1.JPG" width="226" wt="true" /></a></div>you can see that the TextViews containing URLs or Phone numbers are highlighted, and when the user presses on them the default intent (the browser or the dialer launches)<br /><br /><br />this is done by using the property <span style="color: purple;">android:autoLink</span> which can have the values: <br /><pre>web, email ,phone, map</pre>or <br /><pre>All</pre>this can be achieved from code by using the following code:<br /><pre class="brush:java">TextView txtURL=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtURL);<br />Linkify.addLinks(txtURL, Linkify.ALL);<br /></pre><br /><span style="font-size: large;">EditText</span><br />The EditText is a subclass of the TextView it is like the TextBox in C#. it enables users to edit text.<br /><br /><br />We can use the autoText property to make the EditText to correct the common spelling mistakes.<br /><br /><pre class="brush:xml"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br /><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"<br /> android:orientation="vertical"<br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br /> android:layout_height="fill_parent"<br /> ><br /><EditText<br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:autoText="true"<br /><br />/><br /></LinearLayout><br /><br /><br /></pre><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls2.JPG" width="224" wt="true" /></a></div>We can use the <span style="color: blue;">capitalize</span> property to make the text capitalized like this:<br /><pre class="brush:xml"><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"<br /> android:orientation="vertical"<br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br /> android:layout_height="fill_parent"<br /> ><br /><br /><EditText<br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:capitalize="characters"<br /><br />/><br /><EditText<br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:capitalize="none"<br />/><br /><EditText<br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:capitalize="words"<br />/><br /></LinearLayout><br /><br /><br /></pre><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls3.JPG" width="225" wt="true" /></a></div>we can use the <span style="color: blue;">password</span> property to make the control accepts phone numbers input:<br /><pre class="brush:xml"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br /><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"<br /> android:orientation="vertical"<br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br /> android:layout_height="fill_parent"<br /> ><br /><br /><EditText<br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:password="true"<br /><br />/><br /><br /></LinearLayout><br /><br /><br /></pre><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls4.JPG" width="223" wt="true" /></a></div>We can enforce the Control to wrap all the text in a single line by setting <span style="color: purple;">android:singleLine</span> property to true.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">AutoCompleteTextView</span><br />The autoCompleteTextView is an EditText with auto complete functionality. The auto complete functionality can be achieved by attaching an Adapter with the auto complete values to the control like this:<br /><pre class="brush:xml"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br /><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"<br /> android:orientation="vertical"<br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br /> android:layout_height="fill_parent"<br /> ><br /><br /><AutoCompleteTextView<br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:id="@+id/act"<br /><br />/><br /><br /></LinearLayout><br /><br /><br /></pre><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls5.JPG" width="223" wt="true" /></a></div>Then attach the adapter from the code like this:<br /><pre class="brush:java">AutoCompleteTextView act=(AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.act);<br /> ArrayAdapter<string> arr=new ArrayAdapter<string>(this,android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line,new String []{"Hello","Hi","Alloha"});<br /> act.setAdapter(arr);<br /><br /></pre>in a search program for example you can obtain the auto complete words from a web service and populate the adapter with these words.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">MultiAutoCompleteTextView</span><br /><br />The <span style="color: blue;">AutoCompleteTextView</span> can suggest auto complete for the entire text in the control, meaning that if you type more than one word it would try to match the whole sentence not the single words.<br />The <span style="color: blue;">MultiAutoCompleteTextView</span> works the same way as the AutoCompleteTextView except you can add a Tokenizer that parses the text and allows you to suggest where to start suggesting words like this:<br /><pre class="brush:xml"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br /><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"<br /> android:orientation="vertical"<br /> android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br /> android:layout_height="fill_parent"<br /> ><br /><br /><MultiAutoCompleteTextView <br />android:layout_width="fill_parent"<br />android:layout_height="wrap_content"<br />android:id="@+id/act"<br /><br />/><br /><br /></LinearLayout><br /><br /></pre><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2624328/Android%20Pro/2010/Mars/Text%20Controls/TextControls6.JPG" width="224" wt="true" /></a></div>then from code:<br /><pre class="brush:java">MultiAutoCompleteTextView mact=(MultiAutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.act);<br /> ArrayAdapter<string> arr=new ArrayAdapter<string>(this,android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line,new String []{"Hello","Hi","Alloha"});<br /> mact.setAdapter(arr);<br /> mact.setTokenizer(new MultiAutoCompleteTextView.CommaTokenizer());<br /><br /></pre>The tokenizer tells the control to start suggesting for words separated by a comma.

Text controls include: 1. TextView. 2. EditText 3. AutoCompleteEditText 4. MultiCompleteTextView TextView The TextView represent an un-edi...