Converting a SpannableString to a ClickableSpan

Question

I am trying to make clickable links in text strings that launch an activity when clicked. I have used Linkify() to detect links in my text. This function is capable of adding links to text, but only web URLs. I need to turn my output into a ClickableSpan so that I can implement this technique .

How do I get Linkify()'s identified links to become ClickableSpans which direct to an activity?

Below is the code I have used in Linkify:

// Linkify parameters
final static Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\[[^]]*]"); // defines the fact that links are bound by [square brackets]
final String scheme = "http://"; // TODO: Currently this is just a blank link
Linkify.addLinks(linkText, pattern, scheme);

Answer 1

How do I get Linkify()'s identified links to become ClickableSpans which direct to an activity?

After your call to addLinks() , call getText() to retrieve the Spanned object from the TextView . This object will have a series of URLSpan objects, one per matched link -- you can get an array of those through a call to getSpans() . You will need to note where each those spans start and end (via getSpanStart() and getSpanEnd() ), remove the URLSpan , and replace it with your own spans to do what you want.

Answer 2

For what you want to achieve, it's probably simpler to just override the startActivity() method in your Activity and intercept the ACTION_VIEW intents with the URLs in your text. Something like this:

public class MyActivity extends Activity {

    @Override
    public void startActivity(Intent intent) {
        final String action = intent.getAction();
        if (action.equals(Intent.ACTION_VIEW)) {
            // launch our other activity instead
            Intent ourIntent = new Intent(this, MyOtherActivity.class);
            ourIntent.setData(intent.getData());
            super.startActivity(ourIntent);

            // we're done!
            return;
        }

        // else, normal handling by the framework
        super.startActivity(intent);
    }

    // the rest of your activity code

}

For reference, here's the source code for URLSpan which will trigger the startActivity() method above.