Make EditText ReadOnly

Question

I want to make a read-only EditText view. The XML to do this code seems to be android:editable=\"false\", but I want to do this in code.

H

Answer 1

This worked for me, taking several of the suggestions above into account. Makes the TextEdit focusable, but if user clicks or focuses, we show a list of selections in a PopupWindow. (We are replacing the wacky Spinner widget). TextEdit xml is very generic...

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    ....  
    fEditState = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.state_edit);

    fEditState.setLongClickable(false);
    fEditState.setKeyListener(null);
    fEditState.setFocusable(true);

    fEditState.setOnFocusChangeListener(new View.OnFocusChangeListener() {
        public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus)
        {
            if (hasFocus)
            {
               showStatesPopup();

            }
        }
    });

    fEditState.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener(){

        public void onClick(View arg0)
        {
           showStatesPopup();
        }
    });
    ....
}

private void showStatesPopup()
{
    // fPopupWindowStates instantiated in OnCreate()

    if (!fPopupWindowStates.isShowing()) {
        // show the list view as dropdown
        fPopupWindowStates.showAsDropDown(fEditState, -5, 0);
    }
}  

Answer 2

Try overriding the onLongClick listener of the edit text to remove context menu:

EditText myTextField = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.my_edit_text_id);
myTextField.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
        return true;
    }
});

Answer 3

Use this code:

editText.setEnabled(false);
editText.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.black);

Disabling editText gives a read-only look and behavior but also changes the text-color to gray so setting its text color is needed.

Answer 4

this is my implementation (a little long, but useful to me!): With this code you can make EditView Read-only or Normal. even in read-only state, the text can be copied by user. you can change the backgroud to make it look different from a normal EditText.

public static TextWatcher setReadOnly(final EditText edt, final boolean readOnlyState, TextWatcher remove) {
    edt.setCursorVisible(!readOnlyState);
    TextWatcher tw = null;
    final String text = edt.getText().toString();
    if (readOnlyState) {
            tw = new TextWatcher();

            @Override
            public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {

            }
            @Override
            //saving the text before change
            public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
            }

            @Override
            // and replace it with content if it is about to change
            public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,int before, int count) {
                edt.removeTextChangedListener(this);
                edt.setText(text);
                edt.addTextChangedListener(this);
            }
        };
        edt.addTextChangedListener(tw);
        return tw;
    } else {
        edt.removeTextChangedListener(remove);
        return remove;
    }
}

the benefit of this code is that, the EditText is displayed as normal EditText but the content is not changeable. The return value should be kept as a variable to one be able revert back from read-only state to normal.

to make an EditText read-only, just put it as:

TextWatcher tw = setReadOnly(editText, true, null);

and to make it normal use tw from previous statement:

setReadOnly(editText, false, tw);

Answer 5

set in XML

android:inputType="none" 

Answer 6

This was the only full simple solution for me.

editText.setEnabled(false);   // Prevents data entry
editText.setFocusable(false); // Prevents being able to tab to it from keyboard