Android Studio - EditText text , both hint and normal text , not displaying

Question

I know this question has been asked several times, and with different solutions, but I have tried all I could find here, and none worked. As the title suggest, in Android Studio, my EditText widget's field isn't showing any type of text, even what it has by default (like the hint and default text). The text is there if I print it out , but not displaying. It is for a simple login page.

This is the xml file :

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

    <TextView
        android:text="Name : "
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_marginStart="30dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="40dp"
        android:id="@+id/atcoNameTag" />

    <TextView
        android:text="Password : "
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@+id/atcoNameTag"
        android:layout_marginTop="30dp"
        android:id="@+id/passTag"
        android:layout_alignStart="@+id/atcoNameTag"/>

    <TextView
        android:text="Role : "
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="30dp"
        android:id="@+id/roleNameTag"
        android:layout_below="@+id/passTag"
        android:layout_alignStart="@+id/atcoNameTag"/>

    <EditText
        android:layout_width="200dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:inputType="text"
        android:ems="10"
        android:layout_above="@+id/passTag"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:id="@+id/insertName"
        android:layout_alignTop="@+id/atcoNameTag"
        android:layout_toEndOf="@+id/atcoNameTag"
        android:layout_alignStart="@+id/insertPass"
        android:hint="username"
        android:cursorVisible="true"/>

    <EditText
        android:layout_width="200dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:inputType="textPassword"
        android:ems="10"
        android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/passTag"
        android:layout_toEndOf="@+id/passTag"
        android:id="@+id/insertPass"
        android:layout_alignTop="@+id/passTag"
        android:hint="password"
        android:cursorVisible="true"/>

    <Spinner
        android:layout_width="200dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/spinner"
        android:layout_alignTop="@+id/roleNameTag"
        android:layout_toEndOf="@+id/roleNameTag"
        android:layout_alignStart="@+id/insertPass"/>

    <Button
        android:text="Login"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/loginButton"
        android:onClick="onClick"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_marginBottom="35dp" />


</RelativeLayout>

And this is the java file :

package mecals.mecalsapp;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class LoginActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.login_page);
Button nameBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.loginButton);
nameBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {

        EditText nameEntry = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.insertName);
        nameEntry.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
        String name = nameEntry.getText().toString();


        //TODO username checking, username not showing , need devC Team's work
        if (name.length() > 0) {
            Toast toastYes = Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Hi there, " + name + "!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
            toastYes.show();

            Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),HomeActivity.class);
            startActivity(intent);

        } else {

            Toast toastNo = Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Please insert name !", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
            toastNo.show();
        }


        EditText passwordEntry = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.insertPass);
        passwordEntry.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
        String pass = passwordEntry.getText().toString();
        //TODO password checking , need devC Team's work
    }
});
}
}

And these are the solutions I have tried , to no avail :

Difference between content_main.xml and activity_main.xml?

Android edittext typed text not showing

Android EditText typed value not showing

Text not displayed in Android editText when changing android:hint to android:text

EditText in Android doesn't show text when typing while using the on-screen keyboard

Edit Text hints not appearing on later version SDK

edittext not showing the typed text in android

In short, I have

-set the text colour to Black , with nameEntry.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);

-I have added android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan" in the manifest

-I have NOT used something like android:gravity , just android:layout

-the cursor is set to visible

-I even checked the height of the widget

-I checked the size of the text with android:ems to be 10

-and the input type is set to text for the first field and textPassword for the second

Help !

PS : before anyone asks , my Android Studio version is 2.2.3 , and the API I am using is min 21.

Answer 1

The problem is that the height of the EditText field is much to small to display the text. This is present because both the top and the bottom of the EditText field are set according to the TextView left of the EditText. But since the height of the TextView is smaller than the normal height of the EditText you force it to be very narrow (and so there is not enough space for the Text). If you remove this line

  android:layout_alignTop="@+id/atcoNameTag" 

you can see that the text gets displayed normally.

There are actually several ways to fix this:

• you could increase the text size of the TextViews
• you could add enough padding on top and on the bottom of the TextViews
• you could decrease the text size of the EditText
• you could decouple the height of the EditText from the TextView

It is probably a good idea to go with the last solution and put the Textview and EditText fields that belong together into a separate LinearLayout and remove the align calls like this:

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

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/first"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_marginStart="30dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="40dp"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:weightSum="100"
        >

        <TextView
            android:layout_weight="30"
            android:text="Name : "
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/atcoNameTag" />

        <EditText
            android:layout_weight="60"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:inputType="text"
            android:id="@+id/insertName"
            android:hint="username"
            android:cursorVisible="true"/>

    </LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/second"
        android:layout_below="@+id/first"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_marginStart="30dp"
        android:weightSum="100"
        >

        <TextView
            android:layout_weight="30"
            android:text="Password : "
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/passTag"/>

        <EditText
            android:layout_weight="60"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:inputType="textPassword"
            android:id="@+id/insertPass"
            android:hint="password"
            android:cursorVisible="true"/>

        </LinearLayout>


    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_below="@+id/second"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_marginStart="30dp"
        android:weightSum="100"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
        >

        <TextView
            android:layout_weight="30"
            android:text="Role : "
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/roleNameTag"/>

        <Spinner
            android:layout_weight="60"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/spinner"/>

        </LinearLayout>

    <Button
        android:text="Login"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/loginButton"
        android:onClick="onClick"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_marginBottom="35dp" />


</RelativeLayout>