How to set focus on a view when a layout is created and displayed?

Question

Currently, I have a layout which contains a Button, a TextView and an EditText. When the layout is displayed, the focus will be automatically put on the EditText, which will trigger the keyboard to show up on Android phone. It is not what I want. Is there any way that I can set the focus on TextView or on nothing when a layout is displayed?

score 111 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 27 '10 at 22:11

111

Set focus: The framework will handled moving focus in response to user input. To force focus to a specific view, call requestFocus()

answered Jan 27 '10 at 22:11

Mark B

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score 17 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 11 '11 at 13:04

17

This works:

getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);

edited Mar 11 '11 at 13:04

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Dec 09 '10 at 18:52

Charles Mosndup

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What does it do? It seems like it's modifying some state for the entire activity, and not just a view or fragment, so I'd be cautious about this, and not use it unless I understand all its implications. – Kartick Vaddadi Oct 15 '14 at 05:12
Indeed I would not do this based on the original poster's request. This may solve the current issue, but using it has side-effects that could cause problems later. It's hacks like this that make their way into code bases that cause other hacks to be added later on to negate the original hack..the vicious cycle continues....and people wonder why code becomes unmaintainable. Yep, you guessed it....I work with others who do stuff like this and it makes my life very difficult. – dell116 Dec 02 '17 at 19:09

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 11 '11 at 13:04

8

You should add this:

android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

edited Mar 11 '11 at 13:04

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Mar 11 '11 at 10:38

arif jusoh

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Dan McNerthney · Answer 4 · 2011-12-19T18:26:31.207

To set focus, delay the requestFocus() using a Handler.

private Handler mHandler= new Handler();

public class HelloAndroid extends Activity {
   /** Called when the activity is first created. */
   @Override
   public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
     setContentView(R.layout.main);

     LinearLayout mainVw = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.main_layout);

     LinearLayout.LayoutParams params = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams( 
           LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
           LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

     EditText edit = new EditText(this);
     edit.setLayoutParams(params);
     mainVw.addView(edit);

     TextView titleTv = new TextView(this);
     titleTv.setText("test");
     titleTv.setLayoutParams(params);
     mainVw.addView(titleTv);

     mHandler.post(
       new Runnable() 
       {
          public void run() 
          {
            titleTv.requestFocus();
          } 
       }
     );
   }
}

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 11 '11 at 13:04

6

Set

 android:focusable="true"

in your <EditText/>

edited Mar 11 '11 at 13:04

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Sep 20 '10 at 13:09

ravi

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score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 27 '14 at 20:59

5

You can try just hidding the keyboard. Something like this:

InputMethodManager inputManager = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputManager.hideSoftInputFromWindow(this.getCurrentFocus().getWindowToken(), InputMethodManager.HIDE_NOT_ALWAYS);

edited Apr 27 '14 at 20:59

tomrozb

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answered Jan 18 '12 at 07:50

abeljus

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score 4 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 29 '16 at 07:38

4

Set these lines to OnResume as well and make sure if focusableInTouch is set to true while you initialize your controls

<controlName>.requestFocus();

<controlName>.requestFocusFromTouch();

edited Mar 29 '16 at 07:38

e-shfiyut

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answered May 30 '11 at 10:03

Pawan Maheshwari

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Thanks for `requestFocusFromTouch()`. I added `android:focusableInTouchMode="true"` and `android:focusable="true"` in a container (a problem appeared in API 24). – CoolMind Aug 27 '21 at 12:36

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 22 '10 at 08:43

3

Try

comp.requestFocusInWindow();

answered Jun 22 '10 at 08:43

JARC

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 27 '18 at 14:58

to change the focus make the textView in xml focusable

<TextView
            **android:focusable="true"**
            android:id="@+id/tv_id"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

and in java in on create

textView.requestFocus();

or simply hide the keyboard

public void hideKeyBoard(Activity act) {
    act.getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_HIDDEN);
    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) act.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
}

android:focusable="true" and textView.requestFocus(); worked for me. Thanks! — Werner, Jun 28 '18 at 11:43

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 15 '15 at 05:12

2

The last suggestion is the correct solution. Just to repeat, first set android:focusable="true" in the layout xml file, then requestFocus() on the view in your code.

edited Jun 15 '15 at 05:12

Dhanuka

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answered Sep 27 '10 at 20:50

Reza Nezami

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1

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 16 '12 at 17:09

None of the answers above works for me. The only (let's say) solution has been to change the first TextView in a disabled EditText that receives focus and then add

getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);

in the onCreate callback to prevent keyboard to be shown. Now my first EditText looks like a TextView but can get the initial focus, finally.

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 07:55

1

i think a text view is not focusable. Try to set the focus on a button for example, or to set the property focusable to true.

answered Oct 07 '10 at 07:55

lapakrette

11
1

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 24 '17 at 14:34

You can start by adding android:windowSoftInputMode to your activity in AndroidManifest.xml file.

<activity android:name="YourActivity"
          android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden" />

This will make the keyboard to not show, but EditText is still got focus. To solve that, you can set android:focusableInTouchmode and android:focusable to true on your root view.

<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
              android:focusable="true"
              android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
              ...
              >
    <EditText
         ...
       />
    <TextView
         ...
       />
    <Button
         ...
       />
</LinearLayout>

The code above will make sure that RelativeLayout is getting focus instead of EditText

score 1 · Answer 14 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Focus is for selecting UI components when you are using something besides touch (ie, a d-pad, a keyboard, etc.). Any view can receive focus, though some are not focusable by default. (You can make a view focusable with setFocusable(true) and force it to be focused with requestFocus().)

However, it is important to note that when you are in touch mode, focus is disabled. So if you are using your fingers, changing the focus programmatically doesn't do anything. The exception to this is for views that receive input from an input editor. An EditText is such an example. For this special situation setFocusableInTouchMode(true) is used to let the soft keyboard know where to send input. An EditText has this setting by default. The soft keyboard will automatically pop up.

If you don't want the soft keyboard popping up automatically then you can temporarily suppress it as @abeljus noted:

InputMethodManager inputManager = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputManager.hideSoftInputFromWindow(this.getCurrentFocus().getWindowToken(), InputMethodManager.HIDE_NOT_ALWAYS);

When a user clicks on the EditText, it should still show the keyboard, though.

fun View.focusAndShowKeyboard() {
  /**
   * This is to be called when the window already has focus.
   */
  fun View.showTheKeyboardNow() {
    if (isFocused) {
      post {
        // We still post the call, just in case we are being notified of the windows focus
        // but InputMethodManager didn't get properly setup yet.
        val imm = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
        imm.showSoftInput(this, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT)
      }
    }
  }

  requestFocus()

  if (hasWindowFocus()) {
    // No need to wait for the window to get focus.
    showTheKeyboardNow()
  } else {
    // We need to wait until the window gets focus.
    viewTreeObserver.addOnWindowFocusChangeListener(
      object : ViewTreeObserver.OnWindowFocusChangeListener {
        override fun onWindowFocusChanged(hasFocus: Boolean) {
          // This notification will arrive just before the InputMethodManager gets set up.
          if (hasFocus) {
            this@focusAndShowKeyboard.showTheKeyboardNow()
            // It’s very important to remove this listener once we are done.
            viewTreeObserver.removeOnWindowFocusChangeListener(this)
          }
        }
      }
    )
  }
}

And just call your view.focusAndShowKeyboard() in override fun onViewCreated(..) or override fun OnCreate(..)

PS: For hiding Views use the following extension

fun View.hideKeyboard() {
  val imm = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
  imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(windowToken, 0)
}

Make sure the views are focusable before that using the following android XML attributes, u can also do it programmatically

android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
android:focusable="true"

How to set focus on a view when a layout is created and displayed?

17 Answers17

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