How can I disable all views inside the layout?

Question

For example I have:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">
     <Button 
        android:id="@+id/backbutton"
        android:text="Back"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/my_layout"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/my_text_view"
            android:text="First Name"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/my_edit_view"
            android:width="100px"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> 
        <View .../>
        <View .../>
        ...
        <View .../>
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Is there a way to disable (setEnable(false)) all elements inside LinearLayout my_layout ?

score 141 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 14 '11 at 20:34

141

this one is recursive for ViewGroups

private void disableEnableControls(boolean enable, ViewGroup vg){
    for (int i = 0; i < vg.getChildCount(); i++){
       View child = vg.getChildAt(i);
       child.setEnabled(enable);
       if (child instanceof ViewGroup){ 
          disableEnableControls(enable, (ViewGroup)child);
       }
    }
}

answered Nov 14 '11 at 20:34

tütü

1,481
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6

Good snippet, but scrollviews will still be scrollable, some more code is needed for additional functionality – htafoya Jul 12 '12 at 02:25
Spinners not getting disabled not sure why :( – Vivek Singh Jun 16 '16 at 15:59
ViewPagers also don't get disabled, including views inside it. – Raphael C Jun 27 '16 at 12:24
2

It doesn't work because the implementation of setEnabled() lies on the subclass of the view, in other words it can be implemented differently for different views. So there is no way such approach will work for every view in existence – RexSplode Mar 29 '17 at 07:11

4e6 · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-09T18:19:10.343

103

Another way is to call setEnabled() on each child (for example if you want to do some extra check on child before disabling)

LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.my_layout);
for (int i = 0; i < layout.getChildCount(); i++) {
    View child = layout.getChildAt(i);
    child.setEnabled(false);
}

edited Oct 09 '12 at 18:19

answered Aug 15 '11 at 19:00

4e6

10,696
4
52
62

22

However this only works for the first level children, if you have nested views it won't work. – htafoya Jul 12 '12 at 02:22
One solution is making a recursive function, passing a ViewGroup as parameter. Check the class for its every children, disabled it if it's a EditText. – StoneLam Nov 21 '19 at 03:08

score 97 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 13 '15 at 21:55

97

tutu's answer is on the right track, but his recursion is a little awkward. I think this is cleaner:

private static void setViewAndChildrenEnabled(View view, boolean enabled) {
    view.setEnabled(enabled);
    if (view instanceof ViewGroup) {
        ViewGroup viewGroup = (ViewGroup) view;
        for (int i = 0; i < viewGroup.getChildCount(); i++) {
            View child = viewGroup.getChildAt(i);
            setViewAndChildrenEnabled(child, enabled);
        }
    }
}

answered Feb 13 '15 at 21:55

Eric Cochran

8,414
5
50
91

1

This is the right answer. It goes through recursively. The current accepted answer only goes one level deep. – Stealth Rabbi Feb 25 '16 at 15:28
1

This is the best answer. This disabled all touches inside the layout. That is what I wanted. Thanks! – Dinith Rukshan Kumara Dec 20 '20 at 21:03

score 27 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 06 '17 at 10:35

27

Actully what work for me is:

getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCHABLE, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCHABLE);

and to undo it:

getWindow().clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCHABLE);

answered Oct 06 '17 at 10:35

Idan Magled

2,186
1
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3

This solution would disable all views in the activity. Doesn't really address the question. What if the goal is to disable only certain ViewGroups in the activity? – AlanKley Oct 04 '18 at 17:09
2

that's exactly I was looking for, thanks!! But then I can detect if user want to click somewhere? – Skizo-ozᴉʞS ツ Mar 19 '19 at 20:59
1

best solution if u want to disable/enable only one or set of views use the setEnabled(bool) or if the views are all children of one view loop through all children of this view and disable them all but this solution I think is the best(I mean this answer) thanks Idan – Mohammad Elsayed Feb 22 '20 at 18:48
Interesting but is not correct in this case. The question is about all views in some layout, NOT whole activity – Vitaly Jul 26 '23 at 05:51

androidguy · Answer 5 · 2018-11-27T08:00:16.707

27

If you're interested in disabling views in a specific ViewGroup then you can use the interesting, perhaps slightly obscure duplicateParentState. A view state is a set of boolean attributes such as pressed, enabled, activated, and others. Just use this on each child you want to sync to parent ViewGroup:

android:duplicateParentState="true"

Note that it duplicates the entire state and not just the enabled state. This may be what you want! Of course, this approach is best if you're loading layout XML.

edited Nov 27 '18 at 08:00

answered Nov 27 '18 at 07:53

androidguy

3,005
2
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38

So much easier and more specific than a recursive function, thanks for sharing! I added it to a `@style` of a certain button type and magic happened . – TWiStErRob May 23 '23 at 09:55

score 19 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 17 '19 at 20:42

19

I personally use something like this (vertical tree traversal using recursion)

fun ViewGroup.deepForEach(function: View.() -> Unit) {
    this.forEach { child ->
        child.function()
        if (child is ViewGroup) {
            child.deepForEach(function)
        }
    }
}

usage :

   viewGroup.deepForEach { isEnabled = false }

answered Jun 17 '19 at 20:42

Achraf Amil

1,275
16
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Is missing the `forEach` method I guess – Skizo-ozᴉʞS ツ Aug 01 '20 at 15:00
@Skizo-ozᴉʞS it's an `androidx.core.view` method : https://developer.android.com/reference/kotlin/androidx/core/view/package-summary#foreach_1 – Achraf Amil Aug 07 '20 at 08:48

boburShox · Answer 7 · 2014-06-06T09:44:31.343

Let's change tütü's code

private void disableEnableControls(boolean enable, ViewGroup vg){
for (int i = 0; i < vg.getChildCount(); i++){
   View child = vg.getChildAt(i);
   if (child instanceof ViewGroup){ 
      disableEnableControls(enable, (ViewGroup)child);
   } else {
     child.setEnabled(enable);
   }
 }
}

I think, there is no point in just making viewgroup disable. If you want to do it, there is another way I have used for exactly the same purpose. Create view as a sibling of your groupview :

<View
    android:visibility="gone"
    android:id="@+id/reservation_second_screen"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="bottom"
    android:background="#66ffffff"
    android:clickable="false" />

and at run-time, make it visible. Note: your groupview's parent layout should be either relative or frame layout. Hope this will help.

Your code won't disable e.g. Spinner, because Spinner extends ViewGroup — jakub, Jan 30 '14 at 14:50

score 13 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 18 '17 at 17:23

13

If some desperate developer scrolls down here, I have another option to do it. Which also disables scrolling as far as I experimented with it. The idea is to use View element like this one in a RelativeLayout, under all your UI elements.

<View
                android:id="@+id/shade"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:background="@color/primaryShadow"
                android:visibility="gone"/>

So it is set to be "gone" before some condition. And then you set it's visibility to VISIBLE when you want to disable your UI. Also you have to implement OnClickListener for this View. This onClickListener will catch click event and won't pass it to the underlying elements.

edited Mar 18 '17 at 17:23

halfer

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answered Jan 14 '16 at 13:50

RexSplode

1,475
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1

That's what I was looking for, yes I was desperate and found your solution scrolling like crazy :D – Skizo-ozᴉʞS ツ Mar 19 '19 at 21:04
1

Pretty nice solution, actually I had it in my mind and I was looking for someone else having the same idea so I'm not a crazy loner ;D – Ricard May 21 '19 at 10:50

score 9 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 02 '17 at 00:26

Although not quite the same as disabling views within a layout, it is worth mentioning that you can prevent all children from receiving touches (without having to recurse the layout hierarchy) by overriding the ViewGroup#onInterceptTouchEvent(MotionEvent) method:

public class InterceptTouchEventFrameLayout extends FrameLayout {

    private boolean interceptTouchEvents;

    // ...

    public void setInterceptTouchEvents(boolean interceptTouchEvents) {
        this.interceptTouchEvents = interceptTouchEvents;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onInterceptTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev) {
        return interceptTouchEvents || super.onInterceptTouchEvent(ev);
    }

}

Then you can prevent children from receiving touch events:

InterceptTouchEventFrameLayout layout = (InterceptTouchEventFrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.layout);
layout.setInterceptTouchEvents(true);

If you have a click listener set on layout, it will still be triggered.

Love this answer. Pretty light weight and efficient compared to constantly traversing ViewGroup to disable all children! To solve the issue with the layout still responding to clicks, you can just disable/enable the layout in setInterceptTouchEvents() — AlanKley, Oct 04 '18 at 17:20
how about passing context to cinstructor? You cant create view without context — Waldmann, Jan 11 '21 at 20:38

score 9 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 22:39

Details

Android studio 3.1.4
Kotlin 1.2.70
checked in minSdkVersion 19

Solution

fun View.forEachChildView(closure: (View) -> Unit) {
    closure(this)
    val groupView = this as? ViewGroup ?: return
    val size = groupView.childCount - 1
    for (i in 0..size) {
        groupView.getChildAt(i).forEachChildView(closure)
    }
}

Usage

val layout = LinearLayout(context!!)
layout.forEachChildView {  it.isEnabled = false  }

val view = View(context!!)
view.forEachChildView {  it.isEnabled = false  }

val fragment = Fragment.instantiate(context, "fragment_id")
fragment.view?.forEachChildView {  it.isEnabled = false  }

score 6 · Answer 11 · edited Mar 30 '22 at 09:38

6

  private void disableLL(ViewGroup layout){
    for (int i = 0; i < layout.getChildCount(); i++) {
        View child = layout.getChildAt(i);
        child.setEnabled(false);
        child.setClickable(false);
        if (child instanceof ViewGroup)
            disableLL((ViewGroup) child);
    }
}

and call method like this :

RelativeLayout rl_root = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.rl_root);
disableLL(rl_root);

edited Mar 30 '22 at 09:38

AKTanara

230
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11

answered Nov 10 '17 at 07:36

abbasalim

3,118
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45

The recursion is aesthetically pleasing :) – NightStorm Jun 03 '22 at 13:47

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 11 '19 at 10:08

In Kotlin, you can use isDuplicateParentStateEnabled = true before the View is added to the ViewGroup.

As documented in the setDuplicateParentStateEnabled method, if the child view has additional states (like checked state for a checkbox), these won't be affected by the parent.

The xml analogue is android:duplicateParentState="true".

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Mar 19 '18 at 13:42

I improved the tütü response to properly disable EditText and RadioButton componentes. Besides, I'm sharing a way that I found to change the view visibility and add transparency in the disabled views.

private static void disableEnableControls(ViewGroup view, boolean enable){
    for (int i = 0; i < view.getChildCount(); i++) {
        View child = view.getChildAt(i);
        child.setEnabled(enable);
        if (child instanceof ViewGroup){
            disableEnableControls((ViewGroup)child, enable);
        }
        else if (child instanceof EditText) {
            EditText editText = (EditText) child;
            editText.setEnabled(enable);
            editText.setFocusable(enable);
            editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(enable);
        }
        else if (child instanceof RadioButton) {
            RadioButton radioButton = (RadioButton) child;
            radioButton.setEnabled(enable);
            radioButton.setFocusable(enable);
            radioButton.setFocusableInTouchMode(enable);
        }
    }
}

public static void setLayoutEnabled(ViewGroup view, boolean enable) {
    disableEnableControls(view, enable);
    view.setEnabled(enable);
    view.setAlpha(enable? 1f: 0.3f);
}

public static void setLayoutEnabled(ViewGroup view, boolean enable, boolean visibility) {
    disableEnableControls(view, enable);
    view.setEnabled(enable);
    view.setAlpha(enable? 1f: 0.3f);
    view.setVisibility(visibility? View.VISIBLE: View.GONE);
}

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 22 '18 at 05:45

This is a pretty delayed answer.But it might help someone. Many answers mentioned above seem to be good. But if your layout.xml has nested viewgroups. Then above answers may not provide full result. Hence i have posted my opinion as a snippet. With the code below one can disable all views (Including Nested ViewGroups).

NOTE: Try avoiding nested ViewGroups as they are not recommended.

 private void setEnableView(boolean b) {
    LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.parent_container);
    ArrayList<ViewGroup> arrVg = new ArrayList<>();
    for (int i = 0; i < layout.getChildCount(); i++) {
        View child = layout.getChildAt(i);
        if (child instanceof ViewGroup) {
            ViewGroup vg = (ViewGroup) child;
            arrVg.add(vg);
        }
        child.setEnabled(b);
    }

    for (int j=0;j< arrVg.size();j++){
        ViewGroup vg = arrVg.get(j);
        for (int k = 0; k < vg.getChildCount(); k++) {
         vg.getChildAt(k).setEnabled(b);
        }
    }
}

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Nov 20 '20 at 21:30

You can have whichever children that you want to have the same state as the parents include android:duplicateParentState="true".  Then if you disable the parent, whatever children you have that set on will follow suit.

This will allow you to dynamically control all states at once from the parent view.

<LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/some_parent_something"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
     <Button 
        android:id="@+id/backbutton"
        android:text="Back"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:duplicateParentState="true"/>
    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/my_layout"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:duplicateParentState="true">
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/my_text_view"
            android:text="First Name"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
            android:duplicateParentState="true" />
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/my_edit_view"
            android:width="100px"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
            android:duplicateParentState="true" /> 
        <View .../>
        <View .../>
        ...
           <View .../>
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Oct 11 '16 at 12:34

Use below recursive function to make your child views visible or gone. First argument is your parent view and second argument decides if you want childs of parent view visible or gone. true = visible false = gone

private void layoutElemanlarininGorunumunuDegistir(View view, boolean gorunur_mu_olsun) {
    ViewGroup view_group;
    try {
        view_group = (ViewGroup) view;
        Sabitler.konsolaYazdir(TAG, "View ViewGroup imiş!" + view.getId());
    } catch (ClassCastException e) {
        Sabitler.konsolaYazdir(TAG, "View ViewGroup değilmiş!" + view.getId());
        return;
    }

    int view_eleman_sayisi = view_group.getChildCount();
    for (int i = 0; i < view_eleman_sayisi; i++) {
        View view_group_eleman = view_group.getChildAt(i);
        if (gorunur_mu_olsun) {
            view_group_eleman.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        } else {
            view_group_eleman.setVisibility(View.GONE);
        }
        layoutElemanlarininGorunumunuDegistir(view_group_eleman, gorunur_mu_olsun);
    }
}

question was about disabling, not hiding views – Waldmann Jan 11 '21 at 19:56 — Waldmann, Jan 11 '21 at 19:56

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 22 '18 at 09:28

If you want to disable a set of, or say a particular kind of view.Let's say you want to disable a fixed number of buttons with some particular text of or no text then you can use array of that type and loop through the array elements while disabling the buttons using setEnabled(false) property You can do it on a function call like this:

public void disable(){
        for(int i=0;i<9;i++){
                if(bt[i].getText().equals("")){//Button Text condition
                    bt[i].setEnabled(false);
            }
        }
}

midoriiro · Answer 18 · 2020-01-06T00:58:29.963

My two cents function without recursion

    package io.chord.ui.utils

import android.view.View
import android.view.ViewGroup
import androidx.core.view.forEach

class ViewUtils
{
    companion object
    {
        fun setViewState(view: View, state: Boolean)
        {
            var depth = 0
            val views: MutableMap<Int, MutableList<View>> = mutableMapOf()
            views[depth] = mutableListOf(view)

            while(true)
            {
                val currentViews = views[depth]
                val nextViews = mutableListOf<View>()

                currentViews!!.forEach { view ->
                    if(view is ViewGroup)
                    {
                        view.forEach { children ->
                            nextViews.add(children)
                        }
                    }
                }

                if(nextViews.size == 0)
                {
                    break
                }

                depth++

                views[depth] = nextViews
            }

            views.flatMap {
                it.value
            }.forEach {
                it.isEnabled = state
            }
        }
    }
}

t3chb0t · Answer 19 · 2022-07-07T08:20:10.190

I like to have a control over the root view so I added the includeSelf flag to deepForEach

fun ViewGroup.deepForEach(includeSelf: Boolean = true, function: View.() -> Unit) {
    if (includeSelf) function()
    forEach {
        it.apply {
            function()
            (this as? ViewGroup)?.apply { deepForEach(includeSelf, function) }
        }
    }
}

usage :

   viewGroup.deepForEach (includeSelf: true) { isEnabled = false }

score -1 · Answer 20 · answered Apr 29 '15 at 11:08

-1

Set

android:descendantFocusability="blocksDescendants"

for yor ViewGroup view. All descendants will not take focus.

answered Apr 29 '15 at 11:08

Maratu13

25
3

1

He's not asking about focus. – Stealth Rabbi Feb 25 '16 at 15:26

score -1 · Answer 21 · answered Sep 18 '19 at 17:32

For me RelativeLayout or any other layout at the end of the xml file with width and height set to match_parent with attribute focusable and clickable set to true.

 <RelativeLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:clickable="true"
            android:focusable="true">

        <ProgressBar
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_centerInParent="true" />

    </RelativeLayout>

score -1 · Answer 22 · answered Nov 17 '22 at 11:53

Many answers are good here. But if child views may be change during initialization (e.g. in the case of RecyclerView) you can use the Handler:

fun ViewGroup.setEnabledDeep(enabled: Boolean) {
    Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).post {
        isEnabled = enabled
        for (i: Int in 0..childCount) {
            val child: View = getChildAt(i) ?: continue
            child.isEnabled = enabled
            if (child is ViewGroup) {
                child.setEnabledDeep(enabled)
            }
        }
    }
}

Then:

recyclerView.setEnabledDeep(false)

score -2 · Answer 23 · answered Mar 16 '15 at 13:05

-2

to disable a view, you must call the method setEnabled with false for argument. ex:

Button btn = ...
btn.setEnabled(false);

answered Mar 16 '15 at 13:05

Eric Ningabiye

15
2

score -2 · Answer 24 · answered Aug 14 '20 at 21:31

The easiest way is creating a <View in your xml, with match_parent for height and width, make sure the view is above every other views, then when you want to prevent clicks, make it visible add an onClickListener to that view with null as parameter.

Example:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">
     <Button 
        android:id="@+id/backbutton"
        android:text="Back"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/my_layout"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/my_text_view"
            android:text="First Name"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/my_edit_view"
            android:width="100px"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> 
        
        <View
            android:id="@+id/disable_layout_view"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:visibility="gone"/>
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Then in your code:

val disableLayoutView = rootView.find<View>(R.id.disable_layout_view)
disableLayoutView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
disableLayoutView.setOnClickListener(null)

How can I disable all views inside the layout?

24 Answers24

Details

Solution

Usage

Linked