Android EditText with custom font and clear button

C’mon, admit it, you’ve always wanted this. Have you ever felt that text clearing in your android application on EditTexts feels… wrong ?

So, what do we want to achive?

Plain and simple, a TextView, based on the same principle as the previous TextView tutorial, with custom fonts (from assets folder) and with a Clear button.

Proceed with caution…

  Of course, if you get a request to use custom fonts in you app, this does not apply only to TextViews, but to all items like Buttons, List Items and EditTexts.

First we need to create our own custom control, extending EditText and adding the following:

• an image resource for the Clear button
• an TextChangedListener so we only show the Clear button when the EditText contains something
• method for setting our custom TypeFace
• TouchListener so we detect if the user taped on the Clear button area.

Our project will contain a few things:

1. Main activity: AndroidTutorialActivity.java
2. Our custom control: MyEditText
3. Custom fonts in assets folder
4. Clear_button_image resource for the button 
5. Main.xml as the main layout.

I’ll just post the entire code with comments and I’m sure you’ll understand it in a second:

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public class MyEditText extends EditText{
 
    //The image we are going to use for the Clear button
    private Drawable imgCloseButton = getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.clear_button_image);
     
    public MyEditText(Context context) {
        super(context);
        init();
    }
 
    public MyEditText(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        init();
    }
 
    public MyEditText(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        init();
    }
     
    void init() {
         
        // Set bounds of the Clear button so it will look ok
        imgCloseButton.setBounds(0, 0, imgCloseButton.getIntrinsicWidth(), imgCloseButton.getIntrinsicHeight());
 
        // There may be initial text in the field, so we may need to display the  button
        handleClearButton();
 
        //if the Close image is displayed and the user remove his finger from the button, clear it. Otherwise do nothing
        this.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
 
                MyEditText et = MyEditText.this;
 
                if (et.getCompoundDrawables()[2] == null)
                    return false;
                 
                if (event.getAction() != MotionEvent.ACTION_UP)
                    return false;
                 
                if (event.getX() > et.getWidth() - et.getPaddingRight() - imgCloseButton.getIntrinsicWidth()) {
                    et.setText("");
                    MyEditText.this.handleClearButton();
                }
                return false;
            }
        });
 
        //if text changes, take care of the button
        this.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
            @Override
            public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
 
                MyEditText.this.handleClearButton();
            }
 
            @Override
            public void afterTextChanged(Editable arg0) {
            }
 
            @Override
            public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
            }
        });
    }
     
    //intercept Typeface change and set it with our custom font
    public void setTypeface(Typeface tf, int style) {
        if (style == Typeface.BOLD) {
            super.setTypeface(Typeface.createFromAsset(getContext().getAssets(), "fonts/Vegur-B 0.602.otf"));
        } else {
            super.setTypeface(Typeface.createFromAsset(getContext().getAssets(), "fonts/Vegur-R 0.602.otf"));
        }
    }
     
    void handleClearButton() {
        if (this.getText().toString().equals(""))
        {
            // add the clear button
            this.setCompoundDrawables(this.getCompoundDrawables()[0], this.getCompoundDrawables()[1], null, this.getCompoundDrawables()[3]);
        }
        else
        {
            //remove clear button
            this.setCompoundDrawables(this.getCompoundDrawables()[0], this.getCompoundDrawables()[1], imgCloseButton, this.getCompoundDrawables()[3]);
        }
    }
}

Don’t forget to add it in your main layout

 

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<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
 
    <com.alinberce.app.MyEditText
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="My cool edit text" />
</LinearLayout>

Run it and see the result: