How to keep onItemSelected from firing off on a ne

Question

I've thought of some less than elegant ways to solve this, but I know I must be missing something.

My onItemSelected fires off immediately without any interaction with the user, and this is undesired behavior. I wish for the UI to wait until the user selects something before it does anything.

I even tried setting up the listener in the onResume(), hoping that would help, but it doesn't.

How can I stop this from firing off before the user can touch the control?

public class CMSHome extends Activity { 

private Spinner spinner;

@Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    // Heres my spinner ///////////////////////////////////////////
    spinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);
    ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(
            this, R.array.pm_list, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
    adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
    };

public void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new MyOnItemSelectedListener());
}

    public class MyOnItemSelectedListener implements OnItemSelectedListener {

    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent,
        View view, int pos, long id) {

     Intent i = new Intent(CMSHome.this, ListProjects.class);
     i.putExtra("bEmpID", parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString());
        startActivity(i);

        Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(), "The pm is " +
          parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView parent) {
      // Do nothing.
    }
}
}

Answer 1

I need to use mSpinner in ViewHolder, so the flag mOldPosition is set in the anonymous inner class.

mSpinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
            int mOldPosition = mSpinner.getSelectedItemPosition();

            @Override
            public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long l) {
                if (mOldPosition != position) {
                    mOldPosition = position;
                    //Do something
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {
                //Do something
            }
        });

Answer 2

After pulling my hair out for a long time now I've created my own Spinner class. I've added a method to it which disconnects and connects the listener appropriately.

public class SaneSpinner extends Spinner {
    public SaneSpinner(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public SaneSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public SaneSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
    }

    // set the ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent argument to true to avoid firing an event
    public void setSelection(int position, boolean animate, boolean ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent) {
        OnItemSelectedListener l = getOnItemSelectedListener();
        if (ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent) {
            setOnItemSelectedListener(null);
        }

        super.setSelection(position, animate);

        if (ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent) {
            setOnItemSelectedListener(l);
        }
    }
}

Use it in your XML like this:

<my.package.name.SaneSpinner
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@+id/mySaneSpinner"
    android:entries="@array/supportedCurrenciesFullName"
    android:layout_weight="2" />

All you have to do is retrieve the instance of SaneSpinner after inflation and call set selection like this:

mMySaneSpinner.setSelection(1, true, true);

With this, no event is fired and user interaction is not interrupted. This reduced my code complexity a lot. This should be included in stock Android since it really is a PITA.

Answer 3

I created a small utility method for changing Spinner selection without notifying the user:

private void setSpinnerSelectionWithoutCallingListener(final Spinner spinner, final int selection) {
    final OnItemSelectedListener l = spinner.getOnItemSelectedListener();
    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(null);
    spinner.post(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            spinner.setSelection(selection);
            spinner.post(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(l);
                }
            });
        }
    });
}

It disables the listener, changes the selection, and re-enables the listener after that.

The trick is that calls are asynchronous to the UI thread, so you have to do it in consecutive handler posts.

Answer 4

Unfortunately it seems that the two most commonly suggested solutions to this issue, namely counting callback occurrences and posting a Runnable to set the callback at a later time can both fail when for example accessibility options are enabled. Here's a helper class that works around these issues. Further explenation is in the comment block.

import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import android.widget.SpinnerAdapter;

/**
 * Spinner Helper class that works around some common issues 
 * with the stock Android Spinner
 * 
 * A Spinner will normally call it's OnItemSelectedListener
 * when you use setSelection(...) in your initialization code. 
 * This is usually unwanted behavior, and a common work-around 
 * is to use spinner.post(...) with a Runnable to assign the 
 * OnItemSelectedListener after layout.
 * 
 * If you do not call setSelection(...) manually, the callback
 * may be called with the first item in the adapter you have 
 * set. The common work-around for that is to count callbacks.
 * 
 * While these workarounds usually *seem* to work, the callback
 * may still be called repeatedly for other reasons while the 
 * selection hasn't actually changed. This will happen for 
 * example, if the user has accessibility options enabled - 
 * which is more common than you might think as several apps 
 * use this for different purposes, like detecting which 
 * notifications are active.
 * 
 * Ideally, your OnItemSelectedListener callback should be
 * coded defensively so that no problem would occur even
 * if the callback was called repeatedly with the same values
 * without any user interaction, so no workarounds are needed.
 * 
 * This class does that for you. It keeps track of the values
 * you have set with the setSelection(...) methods, and 
 * proxies the OnItemSelectedListener callback so your callback
 * only gets called if the selected item's position differs 
 * from the one you have set by code, or the first item if you
 * did not set it.
 * 
 * This also means that if the user actually clicks the item
 * that was previously selected by code (or the first item
 * if you didn't set a selection by code), the callback will 
 * not fire.
 * 
 * To implement, replace current occurrences of:
 * 
 *     Spinner spinner = 
 *         (Spinner)findViewById(R.id.xxx);
 *     
 * with:
 * 
 *     SpinnerHelper spinner = 
 *         new SpinnerHelper(findViewById(R.id.xxx))
 *         
 * SpinnerHelper proxies the (my) most used calls to Spinner
 * but not all of them. Should a method not be available, use: 
 * 
 *      spinner.getSpinner().someMethod(...)
 *
 * Or just add the proxy method yourself :)
 * 
 * (Quickly) Tested on devices from 2.3.6 through 4.2.2
 * 
 * @author Jorrit "Chainfire" Jongma
 * @license WTFPL (do whatever you want with this, nobody cares)
 */
public class SpinnerHelper implements OnItemSelectedListener {
    private final Spinner spinner;

    private int lastPosition = -1;
    private OnItemSelectedListener proxiedItemSelectedListener = null;  

    public SpinnerHelper(Object spinner) {
         this.spinner = (spinner != null) ? (Spinner)spinner : null;        
    }

    public Spinner getSpinner() {
        return spinner;
    }

    public void setSelection(int position) { 
        lastPosition = Math.max(-1, position);
        spinner.setSelection(position);     
    }

    public void setSelection(int position, boolean animate) {
        lastPosition = Math.max(-1, position);
        spinner.setSelection(position, animate);        
    }

    public void setOnItemSelectedListener(OnItemSelectedListener listener) {
        proxiedItemSelectedListener = listener;
        spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(listener == null ? null : this);
    }   

    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
        if (position != lastPosition) {
            lastPosition = position;
            if (proxiedItemSelectedListener != null) {
                proxiedItemSelectedListener.onItemSelected(
                        parent, view, position, id
                );
            }
        }
    }

    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {
        if (-1 != lastPosition) {
            lastPosition = -1;
            if (proxiedItemSelectedListener != null) {
                proxiedItemSelectedListener.onNothingSelected(
                        parent
                );
            }
        }
    }

    public void setAdapter(SpinnerAdapter adapter) {
        if (adapter.getCount() > 0) {
            lastPosition = 0;
        }
        spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
    }

    public SpinnerAdapter getAdapter() { return spinner.getAdapter(); } 
    public int getCount() { return spinner.getCount(); }    
    public Object getItemAtPosition(int position) { return spinner.getItemAtPosition(position); }   
    public long getItemIdAtPosition(int position) { return spinner.getItemIdAtPosition(position); }
    public Object getSelectedItem() { return spinner.getSelectedItem(); }
    public long getSelectedItemId() { return spinner.getSelectedItemId(); }
    public int getSelectedItemPosition() { return spinner.getSelectedItemPosition(); }
    public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) { spinner.setEnabled(enabled); }
    public boolean isEnabled() { return spinner.isEnabled(); }
}

Answer 5

Lots of answers already, here's mine.

I extend AppCompatSpinner and add a method pgmSetSelection(int pos) that allows programmatic selection setting without triggering a selection callback. I've coded this with RxJava so that the selection events are delivered via an Observable.

package com.controlj.view;

import android.content.Context;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;

import io.reactivex.Observable;

/**
 * Created by clyde on 22/11/17.
 */

public class FilteredSpinner extends android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatSpinner {
    private int lastSelection = INVALID_POSITION;


    public void pgmSetSelection(int i) {
        lastSelection = i;
        setSelection(i);
    }

    /**
     * Observe item selections within this spinner. Events will not be delivered if they were triggered
     * by a call to setSelection(). Selection of nothing will return an event equal to INVALID_POSITION
     *
     * @return an Observable delivering selection events
     */
    public Observable<Integer> observeSelections() {
        return Observable.create(emitter -> {
            setOnItemSelectedListener(new OnItemSelectedListener() {
                @Override
                public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int i, long l) {
                    if(i != lastSelection) {
                        lastSelection = i;
                        emitter.onNext(i);
                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {
                    onItemSelected(adapterView, null, INVALID_POSITION, 0);
                }
            });
        });
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, int mode) {
        super(context, mode);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr, int mode) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr, mode);
    }
}

An example of its usage, called in onCreateView() in a Fragment for example:

    mySpinner = view.findViewById(R.id.history);
    mySpinner.observeSelections()
        .subscribe(this::setSelection);

where setSelection() is a method in the enclosing view that looks like this, and which is called both from user selection events via the Observable and also elsewhere programmatically, so the logic for handling selections is common to both selection methods.

private void setSelection(int position) {
    if(adapter.isEmpty())
        position = INVALID_POSITION;
    else if(position >= adapter.getCount())
        position = adapter.getCount() - 1;
    MyData result = null;
    mySpinner.pgmSetSelection(position);
    if(position != INVALID_POSITION) {
        result = adapter.getItem(position);
    }
    display(result);  // show the selected item somewhere
}

Answer 6

I've found much more elegant solution to this. It involves counting how many times the ArrayAdapter (in your case "adapter")has been invoked. Let's say you have 1 spinner and you call:

int iCountAdapterCalls = 0;

ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(
            this, R.array.pm_list, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter);

Declare an int counter after the onCreate and then inside onItemSelected() method put an "if" condition to check how many times the atapter has been called. In your case you have it called just once so:

if(iCountAdapterCalls < 1)
{
  iCountAdapterCalls++;
  //This section executes in onCreate, during the initialization
}
else
{
  //This section corresponds to user clicks, after the initialization
}