How can I make links in fromHTML clickable? (Android)

Question

This seems like a trivial problem, but it has me kind of stumped. I want to load an HTML string using Html.fromHtml(), and have any links in the string to be clickable and open in the browser.

Basic example:

textView.setText(Html.fromHtml("<a href=\"http://www.google.com\">This is a link</a>"));

With this snippet, the text is formatted as if it were a link (blue, underlined), but it's not clickable. I tried Linkify, but it only seems to work with links that are not HTML-based.

Any suggestions?

score 165 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '10 at 12:16

165

As I assumed, the solution was trivial:

textView.setText(Html.fromHtml("<a href=\"http://www.google.com\">This is a link</a>"));
textView.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());

The second line somehow activates the link behavior, although I'm not quite sure how. The same question is addressed over at Google Code.

answered Nov 29 '10 at 12:16

Gunnar Lium

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Note I tried this with referencing a String.xml resource. this WONT work. :-) – Blundell Apr 08 '11 at 15:19
4

Use CDATA for strings.xml to avoid links in there to be treated at subtags. – Artem Russakovskii Jun 06 '11 at 21:43
26

Just want to point out, if this isnt working for you, make sure you dont have the android:autoLink="web" tag in your textview xml, i removed mine and the links started working fine. EDIT: and it does work on 4.0+ – Glenn.nz Aug 27 '12 at 03:30
Work on 4.1. I'm just pass straight html and I am not pulling strings from res. – MinceMan Jun 05 '13 at 19:03
You cannot use the binding: "binding.txt.setMovementMethod(...)", please cast into TextView to work: "TextView txt = binding.txt; txt.setMovementMethod(...)" – Ben Jul 06 '22 at 08:52

score 27 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '14 at 01:32

27

As mentioned in other answers, a way forward is to use:

xtView.setText(Html.fromHtml("<a href=\"http://www.google.com\">This is a link</a>"));
textView.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());

However, this won't work if you have ANY android:autoLink value set, not just 'web' as other comments seem to suggest. So that means you can use this solution to linkify URLs at the expense of having phone, email and maps being disabled/unlinked.

answered Aug 23 '14 at 01:32

Charlie Tabone

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This is the the correct answer for situations where you're using Html.fromHtml(). It expands upon the selected answer. – wblaschko Jan 11 '15 at 04:54
Better answer than the chosen one, this addresses an issue that exists in case user has `autoLink` set. – Shadow Feb 08 '19 at 14:41

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 05 '13 at 19:21

9

The javadoc of the LinkMovementMethod says that it

Supports clicking on links with DPad Center or Enter.

So it makes sense that works that way.

And confirmed, with 4.2.2 works like charm with just the

textView.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());

edited Jun 05 '13 at 19:21

woliveirajr

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answered Jun 05 '13 at 19:03

Caye

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 13:10

3

It should be this way:

textView.setText(Html.fromHtml("<a href=\"http://www.google.com\">This is a link</a>"));
textView.setAutoLinkMask(Linkify.WEB_URLS);
textView.setLinksClickable(true);

in XML should be

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/txtview"
    android:autoLink="web"
    android:linksClickable="true"
    />

answered Nov 29 '10 at 13:10

Umakant Patil

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I can't get this solution to work. Have you tried it? Seems to have the same issue of only linkifying "visible" links, not anchors with a different text. – Gunnar Lium Nov 29 '10 at 13:21
autoLink makes our app crash on some users (but we a 20 million userbase, so it's makes a difference) – Henrique de Sousa Nov 24 '15 at 16:57
linksClickable is true by default – James Jan 14 '20 at 20:39

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 19 '17 at 09:26

0

String data="MyTest";

textView.setText(data);
textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(data));
textView.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());
textView.setLinksClickable(true);

edited Jul 19 '17 at 09:26

coffeemakr

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answered May 22 '15 at 17:52

M.Ganji

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You should edit this to include that having the android:autoLink attribute set to anything will override the movement method – Zach Sep 19 '16 at 01:39
linksClickable is true by default – James Jan 14 '20 at 20:39

How can I make links in fromHTML clickable? (Android)

5 Answers5

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