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Copy to clipboard

In my upcoming app, I have codes which I display. These are some times lengthy, and I want the app to be able to copy this to clipboard. Once it is in clipboard, users can paste it anywhere.

So how do you copy some text from your app to clipboard.

You need to use clipboard manager.

Clipboard Manager

This class sets and gets data for the clipboard using Clipdata objects. 

You can get the object of this class using system service.  - using statement

context.getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE)

Example

I have a dummy project with a button, onclick of which copies content to clipboard.

Here is my activity file


package com.hegdeapps.testapp;

import android.content.ClipData;
import android.content.ClipboardManager;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        String str = "The 7 Cs of communication provide a checklist for making sure that your meetings  , emails  , conference calls  , reports  , and presentations   are well constructed and clear – so your audience gets your message.\n" +
                "\n" +
                "According to the 7 Cs, communication needs to be:\n" +
                "\n" +
                "    Clear.\n" +
                "    Concise.\n" +
                "    Concrete.\n" +
                "    Correct.\n" +
                "    Coherent.\n" +
                "    Complete.\n" +
                "    Courteous.\n" +
                "\n" +
                "In this article, we look at each of the 7 Cs of Communication, " +
                "and we'll illustrate each element with both good and bad examples.\n" ;

        TextView tv =(TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview);
        tv.setText(str);

    }
    public void copyToClipboard(View v)
    {
        ClipboardManager manager = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(this.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
        TextView tv =(TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview);
        String str = tv.getText().toString();
        ClipData data = ClipData.newPlainText("ds_soln", str);
        manager.setPrimaryClip(data);
    }
}

Now the layout file for this activity is shown below.

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

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="copyToClipboard"
        android:text="Copy Text"/>

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Hello World!" 
        android:id="@+id/textview" />

</LinearLayout>

Now on click of copy button the entire string is copied to clipboard.

Selecting text and copying

Some times users find part of our code interesting. They don't want the entire text. You see this in all the browsers. You select text by long clicking on it and grabbing the two end points. And you can copy the text or share it.

How do you make your app behave like this?

Simple. Just make the textview selectable.  

<TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Hello World!"
        android:textIsSelectable="true"
        android:id="@+id/textview" />

And now your text is selectable, copyable and shareable. Great!!!.


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