Android AutoCompleteTextView with '@' mentions filtering like twitter and facebook

Question

I have a requirement for implementing an edit text that the user can type in a anything but when they type in a new word that starts with '@' the autocomplete should start showing potential users.

I understand how to use the AutoCompleteTextView function for filtering. But I am not sure how to go about capturing the characters from the last word after the '@' symbol (ignoring any previous words).

Consequently when the user has been selected from the AutoCompleteTextView list, it should replace the the word with '@', eg.

"This is a message for @steve"

when the user clicks on "Steve" from the list, the text should replace to:

"This is a message for Steve"

I also need to obtain the string in a form that I can send off to the server. i.e. from the above example I would need to send off the string:

"This is a message for [username:steve@bloggs.com, id:44]."

I have looked at https://github.com/splitwise/TokenAutoComplete

Which seems great for typing emails in a list, but I am not sure how to cater it for my needs. Bare in mind, I need to support multiple/duplicate mentions:

eg

"This is a message for Steve and Bob. this is the second sentence in the message for Bob"

If anyone knows or has done anything like this, would really appreciate it!

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 16 '15 at 15:03

6

I ended up using the spyglass library from linkedin which does exactly what I was looking for. It provides a MentionsEditText (that can be customised). I also used a ListPopupWindow to show the suggestions in a list (like an AutoCompleteTextView).

Here is the link...

https://github.com/linkedin/Spyglass

answered Sep 16 '15 at 15:03

FlashAsh80

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how you obtain a string with this format? : "This is a message for [username:steve@bloggs.com, id:44]." – Ana Llera Mar 08 '16 at 11:18
1

@FlashAsh99 Could you please tell how you did replacing of the text after using spyglass – bala Sep 20 '16 at 17:28
@FlashAsh99 I too want to know how did you replace the text with spyglass – ranjitzade Apr 19 '17 at 12:07
@FlashAsh99: Right now, the code in git currently gets the user/city date from raw file. Is there any way to load dynamic array for this ? – Manu Aug 02 '17 at 13:16
Answer to @AnaLlera? – neobie Nov 17 '18 at 08:17
I have also used the same lib. But in my case edit text is at the bottom. The pop up window covers up the keyboard – Raghunandan Apr 29 '21 at 16:08

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '15 at 15:11

The following method will extract words starting with "@":

private void parseText(String text) {
    String[] words = text.split("[ \\.]");
    for (int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
        if (words[i].length() > 0
                && words[i].charAt(0) == '@') {
            System.out.println(words[i]);
        }
    }
}

Once you have the words, use your auto complete filter and finally replace text using String.replace.

Android AutoCompleteTextView with '@' mentions filtering like twitter and facebook

2 Answers2