Android – Handle “Enter” in an EditText

androidandroid-edittexttextview

I am wondering if there is a way to handle the user pressing Enter while typing in an EditText, something like the onSubmit HTML event.

Also wondering if there is a way to manipulate the virtual keyboard in such a way that the "Done" button is labeled something else (for example "Go") and performs a certain action when clicked (again, like onSubmit).

Best Answer

I am wondering if there is a way to handle the user pressing Enter while typing in an EditText, something like the onSubmit HTML event.

Yes.

Also wondering if there is a way to manipulate the virtual keyboard in such a way that the "Done" button is labeled something else (for example "Go") and performs a certain action when clicked (again, like onSubmit).

Also yes.

You will want to look at the android:imeActionId and android:imeOptions attributes, plus the setOnEditorActionListener() method, all on TextView.

For changing the text of the "Done" button to a custom string, use:

mEditText.setImeActionLabel("Custom text", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER);

Related Solutions

Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

You can force Android to hide the virtual keyboard using the InputMethodManager, calling hideSoftInputFromWindow, passing in the token of the window containing your focused view.

// Check if no view has focus:
View view = this.getCurrentFocus();
if (view != null) {  
    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
    imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.getWindowToken(), 0);
}

This will force the keyboard to be hidden in all situations. In some cases, you will want to pass in InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY as the second parameter to ensure you only hide the keyboard when the user didn't explicitly force it to appear (by holding down the menu).

Note: If you want to do this in Kotlin, use: context?.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager

Kotlin Syntax

// Only runs if there is a view that is currently focused
this.currentFocus?.let { view ->
    val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as? InputMethodManager
    imm?.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.windowToken, 0)
}

Android – How to stop EditText from gaining focus at Activity startup in Android

Excellent answers from Luc and Mark. However, a good code sample is missing. Adding the tags android:focusableInTouchMode="true" and android:focusable="true" to the parent layout (e.g. LinearLayout or ConstraintLayout) like in the following example, will fix the problem.

<!-- Dummy item to prevent AutoCompleteTextView from receiving focus -->
<LinearLayout
    android:focusable="true" 
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
    android:layout_width="0px" 
    android:layout_height="0px"/>

<!-- :nextFocusUp and :nextFocusLeft have been set to the id of this component
to prevent the dummy from receiving focus again -->
<AutoCompleteTextView android:id="@+id/autotext"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:nextFocusUp="@id/autotext" 
    android:nextFocusLeft="@id/autotext"/>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

Android – How to stop EditText from gaining focus at Activity startup in Android

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