How to get the selected text in android webview

Question

I need to get the selected text from webview and have to highlight the text permanently. I tried as selecting the text and while i am attempting to get the text using clipboard it showing me null pointer exception at "clipboard.getText()". I have tried code as

ClipboardManager mClipboard =
        (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);

 KeyEvent shiftPressEvent = new KeyEvent(0, 0, KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN,
                                                    KeyEvent.KEYCODE_SHIFT_LEFT, 0, 0);
shiftPressEvent.dispatch(webview);
 if(mClipboard!=null)
     {
       String text = mClipboard.getText().toString();
       Toast.makeText(this, "select_text_now     "+text, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
     }

I need to get the selected text for highlight futher..please help me..

Its null pointer exception at String text = mClipboard.getText().toString(); — deepa, Feb 28 '12 at 11:59
mClipboard.getText() if this doen't contain any values then it will through nu point exception, may be you can put an if condition to check the getText() methord id returning a string or not, correct me if i am wrong — Triode, Feb 28 '12 at 12:19
null pointer exception occurs at Android4.0 but in android2.2 its showing correctly.i dont know why this happening.. — deepa, Feb 28 '12 at 12:24
String text = (mClipboard.getText() != null) ? mClipboard.getText().toString() : ""; this is not a solution for ur problem but null point exception can be avoided, thanks — Triode, Feb 28 '12 at 12:27
Do you found any way to get selected word from javascript that window.getSelection() returning null in android — Ravi, Nov 09 '12 at 06:32
me also facing the same problem tried a lot of things but all are useless still returning null — Ravi, Nov 09 '12 at 06:43

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 18 '14 at 15:38

2

I have filed an Android bug for this: Issue 24842: WebView should make getSelection public. If you look at the ticket, you'll see some various workarounds.

Note that the code you posted is roughly similar to emulateShiftHeld which is deprecated in 4.0, which is probably why it is working in 2.2 and not in 4.0.

edited Jun 18 '14 at 15:38

j-dexx

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answered Mar 10 '12 at 09:05

louielouie

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Any another alternative to get the selected word with tag name and id in android webview – Ravi Nov 09 '12 at 06:33

How to get the selected text in android webview

1 Answers1

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