Change the text color of a single ClickableSpan when pressed without affecting other ClickableSpans in the same TextView

Question

I have a TextView with multiple ClickableSpans in it. When a ClickableSpan is pressed, I want it to change the color of its text.

I have tried setting a color state

Answer 1

I finally found a solution that does everything I wanted. It is based on this answer.

This is my modified LinkMovementMethod that marks a span as pressed on the start of a touch event (MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN) and unmarks it when the touch ends or when the touch location moves out of the span.

public class LinkTouchMovementMethod extends LinkMovementMethod {
    private TouchableSpan mPressedSpan;

    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(TextView textView, Spannable spannable, MotionEvent event) {
        if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN) {
            mPressedSpan = getPressedSpan(textView, spannable, event);
            if (mPressedSpan != null) {
                mPressedSpan.setPressed(true);
                Selection.setSelection(spannable, spannable.getSpanStart(mPressedSpan),
                        spannable.getSpanEnd(mPressedSpan));
            }
        } else if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE) {
            TouchableSpan touchedSpan = getPressedSpan(textView, spannable, event);
            if (mPressedSpan != null && touchedSpan != mPressedSpan) {
                mPressedSpan.setPressed(false);
                mPressedSpan = null;
                Selection.removeSelection(spannable);
            }
        } else {
            if (mPressedSpan != null) {
                mPressedSpan.setPressed(false);
                super.onTouchEvent(textView, spannable, event);
            }
            mPressedSpan = null;
            Selection.removeSelection(spannable);
        }
        return true;
    }

    private TouchableSpan getPressedSpan(
            TextView textView,
            Spannable spannable,
            MotionEvent event) {

            int x = (int) event.getX() - textView.getTotalPaddingLeft() + textView.getScrollX();
            int y = (int) event.getY() - textView.getTotalPaddingTop() + textView.getScrollY();

            Layout layout = textView.getLayout();
            int position = layout.getOffsetForHorizontal(layout.getLineForVertical(y), x);

            TouchableSpan[] link = spannable.getSpans(position, position, TouchableSpan.class);
            TouchableSpan touchedSpan = null;
            if (link.length > 0 && positionWithinTag(position, spannable, link[0])) {
                touchedSpan = link[0];
            }

            return touchedSpan;
        }

        private boolean positionWithinTag(int position, Spannable spannable, Object tag) {
            return position >= spannable.getSpanStart(tag) && position <= spannable.getSpanEnd(tag);
        }
    }

This needs to be applied to the TextView like so:

    yourTextView.setMovementMethod(new LinkTouchMovementMethod());

And this is the modified ClickableSpan that edits the draw state based on the pressed state set by the LinkTouchMovementMethod: (it also removes the underline from the links)

public abstract class TouchableSpan extends ClickableSpan {
    private boolean mIsPressed;
    private int mPressedBackgroundColor;
    private int mNormalTextColor;
    private int mPressedTextColor;

    public TouchableSpan(int normalTextColor, int pressedTextColor, int pressedBackgroundColor) {
        mNormalTextColor = normalTextColor;
        mPressedTextColor = pressedTextColor;
        mPressedBackgroundColor = pressedBackgroundColor;
    }

    public void setPressed(boolean isSelected) {
        mIsPressed = isSelected;
    }

    @Override
    public void updateDrawState(TextPaint ds) {
        super.updateDrawState(ds);
        ds.setColor(mIsPressed ? mPressedTextColor : mNormalTextColor);
        ds.bgColor = mIsPressed ? mPressedBackgroundColor : 0xffeeeeee;
        ds.setUnderlineText(false);
    }
}