Develop Reference

Show EditText error when user is not focused on that editText

I have an editText that currently shows an error popover.
editText.setError("You have done something wrong");
Now I need a workflow such that, when user clicks on a button elsewhere, I need to set an error on the editText. But right now, only an error icon is shown.
My question is, is it possible to make it show the whole error text without the user actually clicking (focusing) on it?

Solution 1
Call
editText.requestFocus()
before setting the error.
Solution 2
Use a TextInputLayout.
<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
android:id="#+id/text_input_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>
And in code
textInputLayout.setError("Error");
Solution 3
Custom view, up to you.

I use that library MaterialEditText which makes everything more simple... Everything is well explained in the wiki page.
Helper Text and Error Text
helper text:
app:met_helperText="Integer"
error text:
just use original setError(CharSequence error) in java code.
regex check:
validationEditText.isValid("\\d+");
regex validate with error text setting:
validationEditText.validate("\\d+", "Only Integer Valid!");

EditText added is not a TextInputEditText. Please switch to using that class instead

I'm using an EditText inside a TextInputLayout, but after upgrading the support library to 23.2.0, I get this warning in the logcat, What's the difference between a regular EditText and a TextInputEditText? I can't seem to find any documentation for it.

I was wondering this too, Daniel Wilson gathered the documentation, but to the untrained eye it doesn't mean much. Here's what it's all about: "extract mode" is referring to the type of view that's shown when the space is too small, for example landscape on a phone. I'm using Galaxy S4 with Google Keyboard as input method editor (IME).
Landscape UI without visible IME
Based on the focus (on Description) you can see TextInputLayout in action pushing the hint outside the editor. Nothing special here, this is what TextInputLayout is supposed to do.
Landscape UI editing empty Name field
Editing the Name you can see that the IME doesn't give you a hint of what you're editing.
Landscape UI editing empty Description field
Editing the Description you can see that the IME gives you a hint of what you're editing.
Layout XMLs
The difference between the two fields is their type EditText VS TextInputEditText. The important thing here is that TextInputLayout has the android:hint and not the wrapped EditText, this is the case when TextInputEditText's few lines of Java code makes a big difference.
Name field
<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="Item Name"
>
<EditText
android:id="#+id/name"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
</android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>
Description field
<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="Item Description"
>
<android.support.design.widget.TextInputEditText
android:id="#+id/description"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="textMultiLine"
android:minLines="4"
android:scrollbars="vertical"
/>
</android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

There is no documentation for it, but the class is a regular EditText with a single extra feature:
Using this class allows us to display a hint in the IME when in 'extract' mode.
Specifically it sets the EditorInfo.hintText. You'll notice in the TextInputLayout class you can specify the hint and it's appearance rather than as part of the child EditText widget.
If you need to do that, you should use a TextInputEditText so it pays attention to the hint info you specified in the TextInputLayout.

They are essentially the same thing, but I think the TextInputEditText has more features and possibly attributes. I changed to the TextInputEditText and everything worked and looked as it did before with the standard EditText.

The only difference is that when your device is in landscape mode, TextInputEditText will show the hint, EditText won't.

I had this problem and just deleted this line in my xml file:
android: fitsSystemWindows = "true"
and the error disappeared.

disable "spell checking" on textView

This is more a 'is there a more appropriate way' question as I have found a work around.
Some of my table headers are being picked up as spelling errors and underlined in red. Of course, that is not what I would like to see. I have found that using
android:inputType="textNoSuggestions"
does disable the spell check markings. I find it odd (bug?) that this is necessary as the docs state:
inputType: The type of data being placed in a text field, used to help
an input method decide how to let the user enter text.
and there is no input associated with just textView. So is this the only/more appropriate way of avoiding the spell check and also, is this a bug that it is spell checking non-input fields?
UPDATE: per request this is sample xml
<TextView
android:text="ID#"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:typeface="monospace"
android:textSize="14sp"
android:digits="4"
android:textAlignment="gravity"
android:layout_weight="5"
android:gravity="left"
android:singleLine="true"
android:phoneNumber="true"
android:inputType="textNoSuggestions|none">
</TextView>

First, I would try removing the android:digits, android:phoneNumber, and android:inputType attributes.
All of those are more intended for use with fields that allow input (such as EditTexts). It also doesn't look like you are using the android:digits attribute correctly, as the string you provide defines the only allowable characters.
In essence, this combination of attributes is telling Android that your TextView accepts input in the form of telephone numbers that contain only the number 4, that this TextView doesn't accept input of any type, and Android should not provide spellcheck suggestions.
If you are setting the content of the TextView yourself, there really is no reason to try to restrict the content of the TextView with flags such as android:phoneNumber since you are the one controlling that.

I know this is an old thread but removing the following from content XML worked for me:
android:autoText="true"

On later android studio versions try:
android:autoText="true"
inside of the (or any input) in the xml.
On newer versions try:
android:inputType="textNoSuggestions"

Meaning of "No label views point to this text field" warning message

What is the meaning of this warning?
No label views point to this text field with an android:labelFor="#
id/# id/editText1" attribute
Note that the double id (#id/#id) is a problem with the error message text and does not reflect the XML content (which is the correct syntax).

The labelFor is an attribute for accessibility options. You assign this to a label so that if, on a form , user clicks a textedit field , android can know what to read (TalkBack) to user.
The id you assigned to it doesn't seem to be a valid one. why there are two #id in the id? Use ids like this: #id/editText1

I've had the same warning message. It disappeared, when I added a hint to my EditText
android:hint="Some explanation about the input..."

Although I am not familiar with the exact error you have posted. But it definitely sounds like you have done something wrong with the id in the textView. Use id like following in your textView.
android:id="#+id/editText1"
And if you want to set labelFor then use :
android:labelFor="#+id/editText1"

It means that you probably should define a label for this edit text and link them using a labelFor inside that labels definition.
example code:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/my_textView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:labelFor="#+id/my_editText" <!--the plus sign goes first in the code-->
android:text="I'm a label" />
<EditText
android:id="#id/my_editText" <!--no plus sign if not the first-->
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:inputType="text"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
and it's not only for text views.

Remove th first '#id/' , use like
android:id="#+id/editText1"
which is the correct format. Keep going.. Best wishes.. :)

I solved it by writing both attributes:
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:labelFor="#+id/editText1"

Select the editText, go to Properties, then Label for and enter #id/EditText1

If the XML looks correct and you're in a Graphical Layout mode then it's probably using a later version of the Android rendering layout that doesn't support EditText.
In Eclipse and Android Studio there should be a green Android icon with what API version is rendering the layout. Make sure you're using a non W or Wearable API as Android W APIs don't support the EditText element. (EditText is most likely not supported because virtual keyboard space is limited on those devices).
The rendered preview should support EditText in any API 4.X version without a trailing W.

Android - customized keyboard key and action

If you own Android phone you are no doubt have noticed how in the certain apps the keyboard layout can change from the standard issue to digits-only or to have .com or .net special buttons based on the text field input type (e.g. phone number). So I have 2 questions:
how to trigger this customization? I suspect it has to do with EditText format
Can this be taken even further if I want to add some custom buttons to inject a specific pattern? Say I would have an AND button which when pressed will add all uppercase " AND " surrounded by spaces to the text field. Can this be done?
What I'm not asking is how to capture some key combination in onKeyPress event and then populate text field with a pattern - I pretty much know how to do that already.

It is controlled by the android:inputType XML attribute (or the setInputType() method).
For info on the available options see the pages for the XML attribute or the object's method.
As an example, the following XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<EditText
android:text="example text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="phone" />
</LinearLayout>
will give you this layout:
whereas changing the inputType to textEmailAddress will give you this:
You can customize the "action" button as explained here, but I don't believe there's any way to do full customization of keyboards at this time, but I could be wrong.

The thing that concerns me is that "inputType" is listed as a deprecated property, meaning it may work for a while, but - eventually - Android will stop supporting it. Is there another alternative?
UPDATED: My bad - I'm confusing with inputMethod.