Soft keyboard open and close listener in an activity in Android

Asked 9/8, 2014 at 8:37 Answered 9/6, 2022 at 18:41

Solved android android-activity android-edittext android-softkeyboard

174

I have an Activity where there are 5 EditTexts. When the user clicks on the first EditText, the soft keyboard opens to enter some value in it. I want to set some other View's visibility to Gone when the soft keyboard opens and also when the user clicks on the first EditText and also when the soft keyboard closes from the same EditText on the back button press. Then I want to set some other View's visibility to visible.

Is there any listener or callback or any hack for when the soft keyboard opens from a click on the first EditText in Android?

Hoary answered 9/8, 2014 at 8:37 Comment(15)

No. There are no such listeners. There are hacks to achieve what you are trying to. Here's a possible approach: How to send out pointer event in Android. – Kathiekathleen 9/8, 2014 at 8:40

@Kathiekathleen I am not looking for trying to detect the virtual keyboard height in Android. – Hoary 9/8, 2014 at 8:44

I know. If you go through the code, you will see how the height is being determined. A pointer event is being sent -> two cases => 1. if the keyboard is open => & if the pointer's X and Y location falls on/over the keyboard => SecurityException => decrement Y and try again => until no exception is thrown => current Y value is the keyboard height. 2. if the keyboard is not open => no SecurityException. – Kathiekathleen 9/8, 2014 at 8:50

How does it apply to your scenario? Send a pointer event at let's say 2/3 of screen's height. If a SecurityException is thrown => keyboard is open. Else, keyboard is closed. – Kathiekathleen 9/8, 2014 at 8:51

@Kathiekathleen I only want this for first EditText not other EditText. How I can distinguish this ? – Hoary 9/8, 2014 at 8:53

I see. You really do mean listener. I'm quite sure that android doesn't provide any. Probably, someone else can offer another hack. – Kathiekathleen 9/8, 2014 at 8:59

@Kathiekathleen Yeah let's wait for other answer. – Hoary 9/8, 2014 at 9:0

Try adding listener to your first edit text – Indicatory 5/9, 2014 at 5:41

@Indicatory I am not sure what listener you are talking. – Hoary 5/9, 2014 at 5:46

@Williams - I was saying about addTextChangedListener. manu also has specified 1 way using Focus Listener. – Indicatory 7/9, 2014 at 7:22

Look at this link it will works perfect #2150578 – Catchascatchcan 10/9, 2014 at 10:20

try the library.. works for me! android-arsenal.com/details/1/2519 – Jammiejammin 23/11, 2016 at 17:52

Possible duplicate of Getting notified when virtual keyboard shown / dismissed for an EditText? – Renaldo 26/1, 2019 at 14:38

Possible duplicate of Android: Detect softkeyboard open – Scornful 14/11, 2019 at 12:56

This question has only one proper answer: https://mcmap.net/q/36356/-soft-keyboard-open-and-close-listener-in-an-activity-in-android – Mordred 24/11, 2022 at 20:57

100

This only works when android:windowSoftInputMode of your activity is set to adjustResize in the manifest. You can use a layout listener to see if the root layout of your activity is resized by the keyboard.

I use something like the following base class for my activities:

public class BaseActivity extends Activity {
    private ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener keyboardLayoutListener = new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
        @Override
        public void onGlobalLayout() {
            int heightDiff = rootLayout.getRootView().getHeight() - rootLayout.getHeight();
            int contentViewTop = getWindow().findViewById(Window.ID_ANDROID_CONTENT).getTop();

            LocalBroadcastManager broadcastManager = LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(BaseActivity.this);

            if(heightDiff <= contentViewTop){
                onHideKeyboard();

                Intent intent = new Intent("KeyboardWillHide");
                broadcastManager.sendBroadcast(intent);
            } else {
                int keyboardHeight = heightDiff - contentViewTop;
                onShowKeyboard(keyboardHeight);

                Intent intent = new Intent("KeyboardWillShow");
                intent.putExtra("KeyboardHeight", keyboardHeight);
                broadcastManager.sendBroadcast(intent);
            }
        }
    };

    private boolean keyboardListenersAttached = false;
    private ViewGroup rootLayout;

    protected void onShowKeyboard(int keyboardHeight) {}
    protected void onHideKeyboard() {}

    protected void attachKeyboardListeners() {
        if (keyboardListenersAttached) {
            return;
        }

        rootLayout = (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.rootLayout);
        rootLayout.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(keyboardLayoutListener);

        keyboardListenersAttached = true;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();

        if (keyboardListenersAttached) {
            rootLayout.getViewTreeObserver().removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(keyboardLayoutListener);
        }
    }
}

The following example activity uses this to hide a view when the keyboard is shown and show it again when the keyboard is hidden.

The xml layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              android:id="@+id/rootLayout"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="match_parent"
              android:orientation="vertical">              

    <ScrollView
        android:id="@+id/scrollView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        >

        <!-- omitted for brevity -->

    </ScrollView>

    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/bottomContainer"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        >

        <!-- omitted for brevity -->

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

And the activity:

public class TestActivity extends BaseActivity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.test_activity);

        attachKeyboardListeners();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onShowKeyboard(int keyboardHeight) {
        // do things when keyboard is shown
        bottomContainer.setVisibility(View.GONE);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onHideKeyboard() {
        // do things when keyboard is hidden
        bottomContainer.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    }        
}

Overgrowth answered 5/9, 2014 at 8:2 Comment(15)

I suppose this will work as a solution for the given problem. – Astra 12/9, 2014 at 5:38

+1 Yeah This is the perfect solution for my problem. – Hoary 14/9, 2014 at 11:42

Hi, you used getTop() on the Window.ID_ANDROID_CONTENT. Get top doesn't work for me. it's always 0 here, it works like it is supposed to using getHeight() instead. – Anesthesia 23/2, 2015 at 18:4

hi, I have used your solution, but in onShowKeyboard(), after bottomcontainer.setVisibility(GONE), I try to scroll above ScrollView to show editText in ScrollView, and I failed , the code following – Civism 18/3, 2015 at 7:30

: protected void onShowKeyboard(final int keyboardHeight) { if (selectedFragment.getTagText().equals(PersonalInfoFragment.class.getSimpleName())){ mRgBottomBanner.setVisibility(View.GONE); final ScrollView bsv = ButterKnife.findById(this, R.id.bsv); if (bsv != null){ bsv.post(new Runnable() { @Override public void run() { bsv.smoothScrollTo(0, 0-keyboardHeight); } }); } Is there anyting I am wrong? – Civism 18/3, 2015 at 7:33

This solution actually consumes a lot of memory. – Riha 26/10, 2015 at 10:34

Tricky but nice solution. I used a boolean that keeps the latest keyboard state in memory, so that the callback/broadcast does not happen continuously with the same value. Memory usage is fine by my tests. – Restriction 22/1, 2016 at 14:32

where do you get rootLayout = (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.rootLayout);from? – Lanni 11/2, 2016 at 18:58

Not working for me for some reason, it always calls onShowKeyboard either I open it or close it. I'm using findViewById(android.R.id.content), maybe that's the problem? – Priority 26/2, 2016 at 11:42

getWindow().findViewById(Window.ID_ANDROID_CONTENT).getTop() always return 0. – Koral 18/6, 2017 at 11:21

Nice solution, although at my case it didn't work out of the box. I had to add contentViewTop=contentViewTop+100 after the initialization – Ides 20/9, 2017 at 16:55

if move listener in abstract class (BaseClass) and provide checks there itself? – Burlie 21/3, 2018 at 3:13

@Ides your +100 solution depends on specific screen. Failed on tablets and hdpi phones. I used correction as ten percent of device height. That means if view height is lower than screenHeight - 10% the keyboard is open. else keyboard is closed. Here is my contentViewTop in onGlobalLayout: contentViewTop = (getWindow().getDecorView().getBottom() / 10) – Mangonel 30/4, 2019 at 10:19

adjustResize doesn't work (layout isn't resized) if your activity has transparent status/navigation bars – Sula 5/5, 2021 at 13:3

What is the broadcastManager doing here? – Metameric 13/7, 2021 at 18:11

125

Piece of cake with the awesome KeyboardVisibilityEvent library

KeyboardVisibilityEvent.setEventListener(
    getActivity(),
    new KeyboardVisibilityEventListener() {
        @Override
        public void onVisibilityChanged(boolean isOpen) {
            // Ah... at last. do your thing :)
        }
    });

Credits for Yasuhiro SHIMIZU

Sferics answered 26/7, 2016 at 15:51 Comment(11)

This won't work because keyboards don't have static heights, and height in this library is set to 100dp. – Ramey 12/1, 2017 at 11:8

@Ramey a threshold height of 100dp is used for keyboard detection. No assumption is made about the actual keyboard height – Pluto 16/1, 2018 at 9:40

It's still hard coded. Multi window? Samsung split view? Picture in picture mode? Also there is a minimal one-row keyboard that will fall bellow 100dp. There is no silver bullet here... – Ramey 16/1, 2018 at 10:3

Because there is no catch all for this issue, this seems to be the easiest to implement and just get back to the code you actually want to work on :) – Trafalgar 31/8, 2018 at 20:16

This is by far the best answer, totally reliable on any device – Brickwork 12/7, 2019 at 6:37

@Brickwork totally not. Just look at some of the open issues – Blayne 26/7, 2019 at 12:9

@TimCastelijns in my experience, I've tried some variations and this is the one that works better in most devices. Maybe is not perfect, but I had a lot of problems with this feature on Nexus 5X and other Nexus devices, and this worked perfectly. – Brickwork 1/8, 2019 at 14:46

@Brickwork this is the one that works better in most devices so don't claim that it is "totally reliable on any device" – Blayne 1/8, 2019 at 15:57

It's upsetting that such a basic functionality doesn't have a native solution in Android! Google seems to cram so much unnecessary crap on new Android versions, but not address such important shortcommings... – Harvestman 28/10, 2020 at 3:38

It is not working when set in menifest file android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustNothing" . – Improbable 4/1, 2021 at 12:36

This answer is terribly outdated and may not work properly for many of cases. Please use official way of solving this problem: https://mcmap.net/q/36356/-soft-keyboard-open-and-close-listener-in-an-activity-in-android – Mordred 24/11, 2022 at 20:58

100

I use something like the following base class for my activities:

public class BaseActivity extends Activity {
    private ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener keyboardLayoutListener = new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
        @Override
        public void onGlobalLayout() {
            int heightDiff = rootLayout.getRootView().getHeight() - rootLayout.getHeight();
            int contentViewTop = getWindow().findViewById(Window.ID_ANDROID_CONTENT).getTop();

            LocalBroadcastManager broadcastManager = LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(BaseActivity.this);

            if(heightDiff <= contentViewTop){
                onHideKeyboard();

                Intent intent = new Intent("KeyboardWillHide");
                broadcastManager.sendBroadcast(intent);
            } else {
                int keyboardHeight = heightDiff - contentViewTop;
                onShowKeyboard(keyboardHeight);

                Intent intent = new Intent("KeyboardWillShow");
                intent.putExtra("KeyboardHeight", keyboardHeight);
                broadcastManager.sendBroadcast(intent);
            }
        }
    };

    private boolean keyboardListenersAttached = false;
    private ViewGroup rootLayout;

    protected void onShowKeyboard(int keyboardHeight) {}
    protected void onHideKeyboard() {}

    protected void attachKeyboardListeners() {
        if (keyboardListenersAttached) {
            return;
        }

        rootLayout = (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.rootLayout);
        rootLayout.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(keyboardLayoutListener);

        keyboardListenersAttached = true;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();

        if (keyboardListenersAttached) {
            rootLayout.getViewTreeObserver().removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(keyboardLayoutListener);
        }
    }
}

The following example activity uses this to hide a view when the keyboard is shown and show it again when the keyboard is hidden.

The xml layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              android:id="@+id/rootLayout"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="match_parent"
              android:orientation="vertical">              

    <ScrollView
        android:id="@+id/scrollView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        >

        <!-- omitted for brevity -->

    </ScrollView>

    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/bottomContainer"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        >

        <!-- omitted for brevity -->

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

And the activity:

public class TestActivity extends BaseActivity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.test_activity);

        attachKeyboardListeners();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onShowKeyboard(int keyboardHeight) {
        // do things when keyboard is shown
        bottomContainer.setVisibility(View.GONE);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onHideKeyboard() {
        // do things when keyboard is hidden
        bottomContainer.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    }        
}