Get selected text from TextView

Question

I'm trying to get the text that the user selected in the TextView, i wan't use android:textIsSelectable="true" so that my user actions copy / paste

However, I have no clue on how to get the text after the action bar menu is displayed, the goal is to implement a Google book like behavior: you select a word and it gives you a definition.

Answer 1

I think you are looking for TextView.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback . This will allow you to create your own ActionMode.Callback when the text is selected. You can then use TextView.getSelectionStart and TextView.getSelectionEnd to retrieve the selected text when you select MenuItem . Here is a quick example:

  mTextView.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback(new Callback() { @Override public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) { // Remove the "select all" option menu.removeItem(android.R.id.selectAll); // Remove the "cut" option menu.removeItem(android.R.id.cut); // Remove the "copy all" option menu.removeItem(android.R.id.copy); return true; } @Override public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) { // Called when action mode is first created. The menu supplied // will be used to generate action buttons for the action mode // Here is an example MenuItem menu.add(0, DEFINITION, 0, "Definition").setIcon(R.drawable.ic_action_book); return true; } @Override public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) { // Called when an action mode is about to be exited and // destroyed } @Override public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode, MenuItem item) { switch (item.getItemId()) { case DEFINITION: int min = 0; int max = mTextView.getText().length(); if (mTextView.isFocused()) { final int selStart = mTextView.getSelectionStart(); final int selEnd = mTextView.getSelectionEnd(); min = Math.max(0, Math.min(selStart, selEnd)); max = Math.max(0, Math.max(selStart, selEnd)); } // Perform your definition lookup with the selected text final CharSequence selectedText = mTextView.getText().subSequence(min, max); // Finish and close the ActionMode mode.finish(); return true; default: break; } return false; } }); 

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