Android EditText Gmail like to field

Question

I'm working at an app, and I'm trying to make a gmail like "To" field, which has blocks inside which cannot be edited once added, but just removed entirely (like in the attached image). If it can have an image too, that would be perfect.

Answer 1

I open-sourced our solution TokenAutoComplete on github. Mine has been tested back to 2.2. I designed my code to allow pretty simple implementations and customizations.

Here's an example implementation using my library:

Subclass TokenCompleteTextView

public class ContactsCompletionView extends TokenCompleteTextView {
    public ContactsCompletionView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    protected View getViewForObject(Object object) {
        Person p = (Person)object;

        LayoutInflater l = (LayoutInflater)getContext().getSystemService(Activity.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        LinearLayout view = (LinearLayout)l.inflate(R.layout.contact_token, (ViewGroup)ContactsCompletionView.this.getParent(), false);
        ((TextView)view.findViewById(R.id.name)).setText(p.getEmail());

        return view;
    }

    @Override
    protected Object defaultObject(String completionText) {
        //Stupid simple example of guessing if we have an email or not
        int index = completionText.indexOf('@');
        if (index == -1) {
            return new Person(completionText, completionText.replace(" ", "") + "@example.com");
        } else {
            return new Person(completionText.substring(0, index), completionText);
        }
    }
}

Layout code for contact_token (you can use any kind of layout here or could throw an ImageView in if you want images in the token)

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content">

    <TextView android:id="@+id/name"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@drawable/token_background"
        android:padding="5dp"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textSize="18sp" />

</LinearLayout>

Token backgound drawable

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <solid android:color="#ffafafaf" />
    <corners
        android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
        android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp"
        android:topRightRadius="5dp"
        android:bottomRightRadius="5dp" />
</shape>

Person object code

public class Person implements Serializable {
    private String name;
    private String email;

    public Person(String n, String e) { name = n; email = e; }

    public String getName() { return name; }
    public String getEmail() { return email; }

    @Override
    public String toString() { return name; }
}

Sample activity

public class TokenActivity extends Activity {
    ContactsCompletionView completionView;
    Person[] people;
    ArrayAdapter<Person> adapter;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        people = new Person[]{
                new Person("Marshall Weir", "marshall@example.com"),
                new Person("Margaret Smith", "margaret@example.com"),
                new Person("Max Jordan", "max@example.com"),
                new Person("Meg Peterson", "meg@example.com"),
                new Person("Amanda Johnson", "amanda@example.com"),
                new Person("Terry Anderson", "terry@example.com")
        };

        adapter = new ArrayAdapter<Person>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, people);

        completionView = (ContactsCompletionView)findViewById(R.id.searchView);
        completionView.setAdapter(adapter);
        completionView.setPrefix("To: ");
    }
}

Layout code

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <com.tokenautocomplete.ContactsCompletionView
        android:id="@+id/searchView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 2

This technique -- referred to as "chips" -- is discussed by Roman Nurik in a Google+ post. He, in turn, points to Macarse's answer here on StackOverflow. They, in turn, point to the implementation of this UI that you see in the stock messaging client.