Question

I am trying to create contact bubbles in the MultiAutoCompleteTextView similiar to how it is implemented in the Google+ app. Below is a screen shot:

.

I have tried to extend the DynamicDrawableSpan class in order to get a spannable drawable in the background of a span of text

public class BubbleSpan extends DynamicDrawableSpan {
  private Context c;

  public BubbleSpan(Context context) {
    super();
    c = context;
  }

  @Override
  public Drawable getDrawable() {
    Resources res = c.getResources();
    Drawable d = res.getDrawable(R.drawable.oval);
    d.setBounds(0, 0, 100, 20);
    return d;
  }
}

Where my oval.xml drawable is defined as so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle">
  <solid android:color="#352765"/>
  <padding android:left="7dp" android:top="7dp"
    android:right="7dp" android:bottom="7dp" />
  <corners android:radius="6dp" />
</shape>

In my Activity class that has the MulitAutoCompleteTextView, I set the bubble span like so:

final Editable e = tv.getEditableText();
final SpannableStringBuilder sb = new SpannableStringBuilder();
sb.append("some sample text");
sb.setSpan(new BubbleSpan(getApplicationContext()), 0, 6, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
e.append(sb); 

However, instead of the oval shape displaying behind the first 6 characters in the string, the characters are not visible and there is no oval drawable in the background.

If i change the BubbleSpan’s getDrawable() method to use a .png instead of a shape drawable:

public Drawable getDrawable() {
  Resources res = c.getResources();
  Drawable d = res.getDrawable(android.R.drawable.bottom_bar);
  d.setBounds(0, 0, 100, 20);
  return d;
}

Then the .png will show up but the characters in the string that are a part of the span will not show up. How can I make it so that the characters in the span are displayed in the foreground, meanwhile a custom shape drawable gets displayed in the background?

I attempted to also use an ImageSpan instead of subclassing DynamicDrawableSpan but was unsuccessful.

Answer 1

Thanks @chrish for all the help. So here is how i did it:

final SpannableStringBuilder sb = new SpannableStringBuilder();
TextView tv = createContactTextView(contactName);
BitmapDrawable bd = (BitmapDrawable) convertViewToDrawable(tv);
bd.setBounds(0, 0, bd.getIntrinsicWidth(),bd.getIntrinsicHeight());

sb.append(contactName + ",");
sb.setSpan(new ImageSpan(bd), sb.length()-(contactName.length()+1), sb.length()-1,Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
to_input.setText(sb);

public TextView createContactTextView(String text){
  //creating textview dynamically
  TextView tv = new TextView(this);
  tv.setText(text);
  tv.setTextSize(20);
  tv.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.oval);
  tv.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds(0, 0, R.drawable.ic_clear_search_api_holo_light, 0);
  return tv;
}

public static Object convertViewToDrawable(View view) {
  int spec = MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
  view.measure(spec, spec);
  view.layout(0, 0, view.getMeasuredWidth(), view.getMeasuredHeight());
  Bitmap b = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getMeasuredWidth(), view.getMeasuredHeight(),
            Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
  Canvas c = new Canvas(b);
  c.translate(-view.getScrollX(), -view.getScrollY());
  view.draw(c);
  view.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
  Bitmap cacheBmp = view.getDrawingCache();
  Bitmap viewBmp = cacheBmp.copy(Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888, true);
  view.destroyDrawingCache();
  return new BitmapDrawable(viewBmp);

}