make editText lose focus on back press

Question

In my activity, I have a editText field. When the user taps on it, the editText gains the focus and the keyboard appears. Now, when the user presses the hardware back button on the phone, the keyboard disappears but the cursor remains in the Edittext, i. e., it still has the focus. Is it possible to make the EditText lose focus when back button is pressed? I tried using the following code but it didn't work:

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    vibrator.vibrate(Constants.DEFAULT_VIBRATE_TIME);
    myEditText.clearFocus();
            super.onBackPressed();
}

Solution 1

Just extend EditText:

public class EditTextV2 extends EditText
{
    public EditTextV2( Context context )
    {
        super( context );
    }

    public EditTextV2( Context context, AttributeSet attribute_set )
    {
        super( context, attribute_set );
    }

    public EditTextV2( Context context, AttributeSet attribute_set, int def_style_attribute )
    {
        super( context, attribute_set, def_style_attribute );
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onKeyPreIme( int key_code, KeyEvent event )
    {
        if ( key_code == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK && event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_UP )
            this.clearFocus();

        return super.onKeyPreIme( key_code, event );
    }
}

And in the xml just use <yourPackage.EditTextV2> instead of <EditText>.

Note: You may need to add/remove constructors to this class depending on the min API you're supporting. I suggest just adding them all and removing the ones whose super() calls get underlined in red.

Solution 2

For anyone using Kotlin and Material Design, you can use this:

class ClearFocusEditText: TextInputEditText {
    constructor(context: Context) : super(context)
    constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet) : super(context, attrs)
    constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet, defStyleAttr: Int) : super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr)

    override fun onKeyPreIme(keyCode: Int, event: KeyEvent?): Boolean {
        if(keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) {
            clearFocus()
        }

        return super.onKeyPreIme(keyCode, event)
    }
}

Solution 3

You can make another of your Views focusable, for example an ImageView. Be sure to make it focusable in touch mode, using setFocusableInTouchMode(true) and on onResume() make that View to requestFocus().

Also you can create a dummy View with 0 dimensions and perform same steps described above.

I hope this helps.

Comments

[ρяσѕρєя K]

make sure myEditText is not first input element in your layout.if yes then first remove Focus from EditText and then make focus to any other element like TextView etc

[Ankush]

It was the first input element in my activity. I tried title.requestFocus() but it didn't work

[ρяσѕρєя K]

first make title focusable then call title.requestFocus()

[Ankush]

its still not loosing focus

[PeterGriffin]

Here is what you can use to hide keyboard without requiring a press on the back button (I know you want more btu that's still something) : this.getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams‌​.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_AL‌​WAYS_HIDDEN);

[Ankush]

@PeterGriffin Yeah, I saw this on another question, but this does not achieve what I really want

[ArtiomLK]

If we are to use the constructor: EditText(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr, int defStyleRes) minimum API requirement is 21 EditText

[mwieczorek]

Perfectly elegant solution. Useful when you need to override the back button behavior using fragments using View.OnKeyListener, and need to capture a back button click event while a focus-stealing EditText interrupts your implementation. Cheers!

[Nitin Tej]

This is an amazing solution. THANKSSSSS!!!!!