Android Jetpack Compose: How to show styled Text from string resources

Question

I have a string in my strings.xml which is localized for different languages. The strings are styled with Html tags for each localization.

Using Android TextView , I was able to show the styled text just fine by reading the string resources.

Considering that Jetpack Compose currently (1.0.0-rc02) does not support Html tags, I tried using TextView inside an AndroidView composable following Official Docs: https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose/interop/interop-apis#views-in-compose

Example of what I tried:

@Composable
fun StyledText(text: String, modifier: Modifier = Modifier) {
    AndroidView(
            modifier = modifier,
            factory = { context -> TextView(context) },
            update = {
                it.text = HtmlCompat.fromHtml(html, HtmlCompat.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT)
            }
    )
}

The text in strings.xml file:

<string name="styled_text">Sample text with <b>bold styling</b> to test</string>

However, using stringResource(id = R.string.styled_text) provides the text without the Html tags.

Is there a way to show text from string resources with Html styles in Jetpack Compose?

---

The following two questions are similar, but they do not read the string from resources:

Jetpack compose display html in text

Android Compose: How to use HTML tags in a Text view

Answer 1

stringResource under the hood uses resources.getString , which discards any styled information. You need to create something like textResource to get the raw value:

@Composable
@ReadOnlyComposable
fun textResource(@StringRes id: Int): CharSequence =
    LocalContext.current.resources.getText(id)

And use it like this:

StyledText(textResource(id = R.string.foo))

@Composable
fun StyledText(text: CharSequence, modifier: Modifier = Modifier) {
    AndroidView(
        modifier = modifier,
        factory = { context -> TextView(context) },
        update = {
            it.text = text
        }
    )
}

Answer 2

Currently, you can use AnnotatedString class in order to show styled test within a Text component. I will show you an example:

Text(
    text = buildAnnotatedString {
        withStyle(style = SpanStyle(fontWeight = FontWeight.Thin)) {
            append(stringResource(id = R.string.thin_string))
        }
        withStyle(style = SpanStyle(fontWeight = FontWeight.Bold)) {
            append(stringResource(id = R.string.bold_string))
        }
    },
)

Depending on the style you assign, you will get a text with the style of the red highlight

https://i.stack.imgur.com/XSMMB.png

For more info: https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose/text?hl=nl#multiple-styles

Answer 3

There is ongoing discussion to implement on Jetpack Compose UI: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/139320238

After some research, I came me up with the following solution that I also posted in the same discussion:

@Composable
@ReadOnlyComposable
private fun resources(): Resources {
    LocalConfiguration.current
    return LocalContext.current.resources
}

fun Spanned.toHtmlWithoutParagraphs(): String {
    return HtmlCompat.toHtml(this, HtmlCompat.TO_HTML_PARAGRAPH_LINES_CONSECUTIVE)
        .substringAfter("<p dir=\"ltr\">").substringBeforeLast("</p>")
}

fun Resources.getText(@StringRes id: Int, vararg args: Any): CharSequence {
    val escapedArgs = args.map {
        if (it is Spanned) it.toHtmlWithoutParagraphs() else it
    }.toTypedArray()
    val resource = SpannedString(getText(id))
    val htmlResource = resource.toHtmlWithoutParagraphs()
    val formattedHtml = String.format(htmlResource, *escapedArgs)
    return HtmlCompat.fromHtml(formattedHtml, HtmlCompat.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY)
}

@Composable
fun annotatedStringResource(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): AnnotatedString {
    val resources = resources()
    val density = LocalDensity.current
    return remember(id) {
        val text = resources.getText(id, *formatArgs)
        spannableStringToAnnotatedString(text, density)
    }
}

@Composable
fun annotatedStringResource(@StringRes id: Int): AnnotatedString {
    val resources = resources()
    val density = LocalDensity.current
    return remember(id) {
        val text = resources.getText(id)
        spannableStringToAnnotatedString(text, density)
    }
}

private fun spannableStringToAnnotatedString(
    text: CharSequence,
    density: Density
): AnnotatedString {
    return if (text is Spanned) {
        with(density) {
            buildAnnotatedString {
                append((text.toString()))
                text.getSpans(0, text.length, Any::class.java).forEach {
                    val start = text.getSpanStart(it)
                    val end = text.getSpanEnd(it)
                    when (it) {
                        is StyleSpan -> when (it.style) {
                            Typeface.NORMAL -> addStyle(
                                SpanStyle(
                                    fontWeight = FontWeight.Normal,
                                    fontStyle = FontStyle.Normal
                                ),
                                start,
                                end
                            )
                            Typeface.BOLD -> addStyle(
                                SpanStyle(
                                    fontWeight = FontWeight.Bold,
                                    fontStyle = FontStyle.Normal
                                ),
                                start,
                                end
                            )
                            Typeface.ITALIC -> addStyle(
                                SpanStyle(
                                    fontWeight = FontWeight.Normal,
                                    fontStyle = FontStyle.Italic
                                ),
                                start,
                                end
                            )
                            Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC -> addStyle(
                                SpanStyle(
                                    fontWeight = FontWeight.Bold,
                                    fontStyle = FontStyle.Italic
                                ),
                                start,
                                end
                            )
                        }
                        is TypefaceSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(
                                fontFamily = when (it.family) {
                                    FontFamily.SansSerif.name -> FontFamily.SansSerif
                                    FontFamily.Serif.name -> FontFamily.Serif
                                    FontFamily.Monospace.name -> FontFamily.Monospace
                                    FontFamily.Cursive.name -> FontFamily.Cursive
                                    else -> FontFamily.Default
                                }
                            ),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is BulletSpan -> {
                            Log.d("StringResources", "BulletSpan not supported yet")
                            addStyle(SpanStyle(), start, end)
                        }
                        is AbsoluteSizeSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(fontSize = if (it.dip) it.size.dp.toSp() else it.size.toSp()),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is RelativeSizeSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(fontSize = it.sizeChange.em),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is StrikethroughSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(textDecoration = TextDecoration.LineThrough),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is UnderlineSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(textDecoration = TextDecoration.Underline),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is SuperscriptSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(baselineShift = BaselineShift.Superscript),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is SubscriptSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(baselineShift = BaselineShift.Subscript),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        is ForegroundColorSpan -> addStyle(
                            SpanStyle(color = Color(it.foregroundColor)),
                            start,
                            end
                        )
                        else -> addStyle(SpanStyle(), start, end)
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } else {
        AnnotatedString(text.toString())
    }
}

Source: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/139320238#comment11