Android: How to TOTALLY disable copy and paste function in Edittext

Question

I am quite new to Android developing area and recently I hv encountered a tough problem.

I was trying to make a Edittext which should NOT ALLOW user to copy content from or paste content to it. I hv googled a lot and find there seems to be 2 popular ways of doing so:

1st way, to set it in the layout file:

android:longClickable="false"

2nd way, to programmatically set it:

myEdittext.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback(new ActionMode.Callback() {
        public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
            return false;
        }

        public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) {

        }

        public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
            return false;
        }

        public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode,
                                           MenuItem item) {
            return false;
        }
    });

But I just found that whichever way I chose, the edittext area could only be disabled from long clickable, which then prevents user from accessing the "select all, copy and paste" menu through long clicking. But both the 2 solution DID NOT prevent the user from accessing the "paste" function through just a simple tap on the cursor.

So my question is: how could I TOTALLY block user from copy and paste function in a certain Edittext. Is anyone help? Thx a lot

Answer 1

You can totally hide "select all, copy and paste" menu and also "paste" function which pop up when simple tap on the cursor.

For that you have to create a custom EditText class. Here is an example...

// Custom EditText class
public class NoMenuEditText extends EditText
{
    private final Context context;

    /** This is a replacement method for the base TextView class' method of the same name. This 
    * method is used in hidden class android.widget.Editor to determine whether the PASTE/REPLACE popup
    * appears when triggered from the text insertion handle. Returning false forces this window
    * to never appear.
    * @return false
    */
    boolean canPaste()
    {
        return false;
    }

    /** This is a replacement method for the base TextView class' method of the same name. This method
    * is used in hidden class android.widget.Editor to determine whether the PASTE/REPLACE popup
    * appears when triggered from the text insertion handle. Returning false forces this window
    * to never appear.
    * @return false
    */
    @Override
    public boolean isSuggestionsEnabled()
    {
        return false;
    }

    public NoMenuEditText(Context context)
    {
        super(context);
        this.context = context;
        init();
    }

    public NoMenuEditText(Context context, AttributeSet attrs)
    {
        super(context, attrs);
        this.context = context;
        init();
    }

    public NoMenuEditText(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle)
    {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        this.context = context;
        init();
    }

    private void init()
    {
        this.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback(new ActionModeCallbackInterceptor());
        this.setLongClickable(false);
    }


    /**
    * Prevents the action bar (top horizontal bar with cut, copy, paste, etc.) from appearing
    * by intercepting the callback that would cause it to be created, and returning false.
    */
    private class ActionModeCallbackInterceptor implements ActionMode.Callback
    {
        private final String TAG = NoMenuEditText.class.getSimpleName();

        public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) { return false; }
        public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) { return false; }
        public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode, MenuItem item) { return false; }
        public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) {}
    }
} 

Use this EditText in your layout. Now, it will not show any copy/paste menu. It will show only blue handle but when you click on that you will not get any pop up of paste option.

Hope this helps...

Answer 2

best programmatically way is:

myEdittext.setLongClickable(false);

Or, just in xml

android:longClickable="false"

Answer 3

the solution is very simple

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

EditText et_0;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    et_0 = findViewById(R.id.et_0);

    et_0.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback(new ActionMode.Callback() {
        @Override
        public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
            //to keep the text selection capability available ( selection cursor)
            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
            //to prevent the menu from appearing
            menu.clear();
            return false;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode, MenuItem item) {
            return false;
        }

        @Override
        public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) {

        }
    });
   }
}

sample preview

Answer 4

There is one possibility, by disabling the cursor handler. You won't get the paste button, but you will also not be able to move the cursor with touch.

@Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
    if (event.getActionMasked() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP && mDisableCursorHandle) {
        // Hack to prevent keyboard and insertion handle from showing.
        cancelLongPress();
    }
    return super.onTouchEvent(event);
}