Finding Links in Android is very simple you might have heard of Linkify which is a great class in which there are many static methods for getting a simple job done but the problem is that in Linkify you cannot specify the behavior that you require on clicking the links at the Most what Linkify does is that it simply finds the links based on the “Pattern” you provide and adds a “Scheme” string to complete the URL and created a Android Intent for Launching the Browser. The Linkify behavior cannot be overridden as all the methods in Linkify class are static final.
This was the issue that inspired me to create a Custom TextView Widget the one which collects the links in my scenario I also programmed it to collect the the Strings starting with “@” and “#” but this things can be changed by simply changing the Patterns that you require and giving the proper Regular Expression for them.
The LinkEnableTextView class is like this:
001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 068 069 070 071 072 073 074 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 | import java.util.ArrayList;import java.util.regex.Matcher;import java.util.regex.Pattern;import android.content.Context;import android.text.Spannable;import android.text.SpannableString;import android.text.style.ClickableSpan;import android.util.AttributeSet;import android.view.View;import android.widget.TextView;public class LinkEnabledTextView extends TextView{// The String Containing the Text that we have to gather links from private SpannableString linkableText;// Populating and gathering all the links that are present in the Textprivate ArrayList<Hyperlink> listOfLinks; // A Listener Class for generally sending the Clicks to the one which requires itTextLinkClickListener mListener;// Pattern for gathering @usernames from the TextPattern screenNamePattern = Pattern.compile('(@[a-zA-Z0-9_]+)');// Pattern for gathering #hasttags from the TextPattern hashTagsPattern = Pattern.compile('(#[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)');// Pattern for gathering http:// links from the TextPattern hyperLinksPattern = Pattern.compile('([Hh][tT][tT][pP][sS]?:\\/\\/[^ ,'\'>\\]\\)]*[^\\. ,'\'>\\]\\)])');public LinkEnabledTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs){ super(context, attrs); listOfLinks = new ArrayList<Hyperlink>();}public void gatherLinksForText(String text){ linkableText = new SpannableString(text); //gatherLinks basically collects the Links depending upon the Pattern that we supply //and add the links to the ArrayList of the links gatherLinks(listOfLinks, linkableText, screenNamePattern); gatherLinks(listOfLinks, linkableText, hashTagsPattern); gatherLinks(listOfLinks, linkableText, hyperLinksPattern); for(int i = 0; i< listOfLinks.size(); i++) { Hyperlink linkSpec = listOfLinks.get(i); android.util.Log.v('listOfLinks :: ' + linkSpec.textSpan, 'listOfLinks :: ' + linkSpec.textSpan); // this process here makes the Clickable Links from the text linkableText.setSpan(linkSpec.span, linkSpec.start, linkSpec.end, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE); } // sets the text for the TextView with enabled links setText(linkableText);} // sets the Listener for later click propagation purpose public void setOnTextLinkClickListener(TextLinkClickListener newListener){ mListener = newListener;} //The Method mainly performs the Regex Comparison for the Pattern and adds them to //listOfLinks array list private final void gatherLinks(ArrayList<Hyperlink> links, Spannable s, Pattern pattern){ // Matcher matching the pattern Matcher m = pattern.matcher(s); while (m.find()) { int start = m.start(); int end = m.end(); // Hyperlink is basically used like a structure for storing the information about // where the link was found. Hyperlink spec = new Hyperlink(); spec.textSpan = s.subSequence(start, end); spec.span = new InternalURLSpan(spec.textSpan.toString()); spec.start = start; spec.end = end; links.add(spec); }}// This is class which gives us the clicks on the links which we then can use. public class InternalURLSpan extends ClickableSpan{ private String clickedSpan; public InternalURLSpan (String clickedString) { clickedSpan = clickedString; } @Override public void onClick(View textView) { mListener.onTextLinkClick(textView, clickedSpan); }}// Class for storing the information about the Link Locationclass Hyperlink{ CharSequence textSpan; InternalURLSpan span; int start; int end;} |
Now, having this you require just another interface for propagating the clicks to the place you require to handle them in my case I implemented the interface in my Activity and simple wrote a Log Command there.
The TextLinkClickListener interface is like this:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 | import android.view.View;public interface TextLinkClickListener{ // This method is called when the TextLink is clicked from LinkEnabledTextView public void onTextLinkClick(View textView, String clickedString)} |
After doing all this you just require to create an Activity using the Custom LinkEnabledTextView and check the things out yourself. There are a few things that you must do while creating a object of the Custom LinkEnabledTextView those are mentioned and described in the Code of the Activity below:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 | import android.text.method.MovementMethod;import com.umundoinc.Tvider.Component.LinkEnabledTextView.LinkEnabledTextView;import com.umundoinc.Tvider.Component.LinkEnabledTextView.TextLinkClickListener;import android.app.Activity;import android.graphics.Color;import android.os.Bundle;import android.text.method.LinkMovementMethod;import android.view.View;//Here the Activity is implementing the TextLinkClickListener the one we have created//the Clicks over the Links are forwarded over here from the LinkEnabledTextView public class TextViewActivity extends Activity implements TextLinkClickListener {private LinkEnabledTextView check;protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstance){ super.onCreate(savedInstance); String text = "This is a #test of regular expressions with http://example.com/ links as used in @twitter for performing various operations based on the links this handles multiple links like http://this_is_fun.com/ and #Awesomess and @Cool"; check = new LinkEnabledTextView(this, null); check.setOnTextLinkClickListener(this); check.gatherLinksForText(text); check.setTextColor(Color.WHITE); check.setLinkTextColor(Color.GREEN); MovementMethod m = check.getMovementMethod(); if ((m == null) || !(m instanceof LinkMovementMethod)) { if (check.getLinksClickable()) { check.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance()); } } setContentView(check);}public void onTextLinkClick(View textView, String clickedString){ android.util.Log.v('Hyperlink clicked is :: ' + clickedString, 'Hyperlink clicked is :: ' + clickedString);} |
Here, is the Screenshot describing the output in my Listener method I programmed it to display a Toast but anything can be achieved in same method.
Now that’s pretty much all that you’ll need that makes the Custom LinkEnabledTextView working, try it out and share your views and reviews over it.
Reference: Android Custom Hyperlinked TextView from our JCG partner Y Kamesh Rao at the OrangeApple blog.
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Good article. setLinkTextColor changes the color of all the links in the TextView. Is there a way to change the color of the clicked link alone while being touched? (just like a button pressed state). That feedback is an essential user experience.
setLinkTextColor is a method of TextView, so you can use the other version: setLinkTextColor(ColorStateList colors)
Thanks mate, this was exactly what I was looking for. Just made a few tweaks to it that might be useful like sending the type of link that was clicked. This is my code: import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; import android.content.Context; import android.text.Spannable; import android.text.SpannableString; import android.text.style.ClickableSpan; import android.util.AttributeSet; import android.view.View; import android.widget.TextView; public class LinkEnabledTextView extends TextView { // The String Containing the Text that we have to gather links from private SpannableString linkableText; // Populating and gathering all the links that are present in the Text private ArrayList listOfLinks; private SpannableString linkableText; // The type of tag… Read more »
This Post is Actually Contributed by Y. Ramesh Rao
(http://stackoverflow.com/users/92039/y-ramesh-rao)
Just wanted to get the credits right.
Thanks.
:D
The matching and colouring is working OK for me.
However nothing happens when a touch a link.
What part of the code calls InternalURLSpan? I can’t find that.
Hi, When I am using LinkableTextView with setting tag with in ListView row, its showing me error again and again.
I am not able to use it with cursor adapter or array adapter to have lazy list loading.
Can you please let me know how to fix this.
Regards
Nitin
Hi,
I am not able to use it with cursor adapter or array adapter to have lazy list loading.
Can you please let me know how to fix this.
Regards
Nitin