Making TextView scrollable on Android

Question

I am displaying text in a textview that appears to be too long to fit into one screen. I need to make my TextView scrollable. How can I do that?

Here is the code:

final TextView tv = new TextView(this);
tv.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.splash);
tv.setTypeface(face);
tv.setTextSize(18);
tv.setTextColor(R.color.BROWN);
tv.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL| Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);
tv.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() {
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent e) {
        Random r = new Random();
        int i = r.nextInt(101);
        if (e.getAction() == e.ACTION_DOWN) {
            tv.setText(tips[i]);
            tv.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.inner);
        }
        return true;
    }
});
setContentView(tv);

Answer 1

You can either

1. surround the TextView by a ScrollView; or
2. set the Movement method to ScrollingMovementMethod.getInstance();.

Answer 2

All that is really necessary is the setMovementMethod(). Here's an example using a LinearLayout.

File main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tv1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:text="@string/hello"
    />
</LinearLayout>

File WordExtractTest.java

public class WordExtractTest extends Activity {

    TextView tv1;

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

        tv1 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.tv1);

        loadDoc();
    }

    private void loadDoc() {

        String s = "";

        for(int x=0; x<=100; x++) {
            s += "Line: " + String.valueOf(x) + "\n";
        }

        tv1.setMovementMethod(new ScrollingMovementMethod());

        tv1.setText(s);
    }
}

Answer 3

You don't need to use a ScrollView actually.

Just set the

android:scrollbars = "vertical"

properties of your TextView in your layout's xml file.

Then use:

yourTextView.setMovementMethod(new ScrollingMovementMethod());

in your code.

Bingo, it scrolls!

Answer 4

This is how I did it purely in XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <ScrollView
        android:id="@+id/SCROLLER_ID"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:scrollbars="vertical"
        android:fillViewport="true">

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/TEXT_STATUS_ID"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"/>
    </ScrollView>
</LinearLayout>

NOTES:

1. android:fillViewport="true" combined with android:layout_weight="1.0" will make the textview take up all available space.

2. When defining the Scrollview, DO NOT specify android:layout_height="fill_parent" otherwise the scrollview doesn't work! (this has caused me to waste an hour just now! FFS).

PRO TIP:

To programmatically scroll to the bottom after appending text, use this:

mTextStatus = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.TEXT_STATUS_ID);
mScrollView = (ScrollView) findViewById(R.id.SCROLLER_ID);

private void scrollToBottom()
{
    mScrollView.post(new Runnable()
    {
        public void run()
        {
            mScrollView.smoothScrollTo(0, mTextStatus.getBottom());
        }
    });
}

Answer 5

Simple. This is how I did it:

1. XML Side:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
       android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
       tools:context="com.mbh.usbcom.MainActivity">
       <TextView
           android:id="@+id/tv_log"
           android:layout_width="match_parent"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:scrollbars="vertical"
           android:text="Log:" />
   </RelativeLayout>
   

2. Java side:

   tv_log = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.tv_log);
   tv_log.setMovementMethod(new ScrollingMovementMethod());
   

Bonus:

To let the text view scroll down as the text fill it, you have to add:

    android:gravity="bottom"

to the TextView xml file. It will scroll down automatically as more text comes in.

Of course you need to add the text using the append function instead of set text:

    tv_log.append("\n" + text);

I used it for Log purpose.

I hope this helps ;)

Answer 6

I didn't find TextView scrolling to support the 'fling' gesture, where it continues scrolling after a flick up or down. I ended up implementing that myself because I didn't want to use a ScrollView for various reasons, and there didn't seem to be a MovementMethod that both allowed me to select text and click on links.