How to stop EditText from gaining focus at Activity startup in Android

Question

I have an Activity in Android, with two elements:

1. EditText
2. ListView

When my Activity

Answer 1

The following will stop edittext from taking focus when created, but grab it when you touch them.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/et_bonus_custom"
    android:focusable="false" />

So you set focusable to false in the xml, but the key is in the java, which you add the following listener:

etBonus.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
        v.setFocusable(true);
        v.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
        return false;
    }
});

Because you are returning false, i.e. not consuming the event, the focusing behavior will proceed like normal.

Answer 2

The problem seems to come from a property that I can only see in the XML form of the layout.

Make sure to remove this line at the end of the declaration within the EditText XML tags:

<requestFocus />

That should give something like that :

<EditText
   android:id="@+id/emailField"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:inputType="textEmailAddress">

   //<requestFocus /> /* <-- without this line */
</EditText>

Answer 3

Write this line in your Parent Layout...

 android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

Answer 4

Easiest way to hide keyboard is using setSoftInputMode

getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);

or you can use InputMethodManager and hide keyboard like this.

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(myEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);

Answer 5

Being that I don't like to pollute the XML with something that is related to functionality, I created this method that "transparently" steals the focus from the first focusable view and then makes sure to remove itself when necessary!

public static View preventInitialFocus(final Activity activity)
{
    final ViewGroup content = (ViewGroup)activity.findViewById(android.R.id.content);
    final View root = content.getChildAt(0);
    if (root == null) return null;
    final View focusDummy = new View(activity);
    final View.OnFocusChangeListener onFocusChangeListener = new View.OnFocusChangeListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void onFocusChange(View view, boolean b)
        {
            view.setOnFocusChangeListener(null);
            content.removeView(focusDummy);
        }
    };
    focusDummy.setFocusable(true);
    focusDummy.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
    content.addView(focusDummy, 0, new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(0, 0));
    if (root instanceof ViewGroup)
    {
        final ViewGroup _root = (ViewGroup)root;
        for (int i = 1, children = _root.getChildCount(); i < children; i++)
        {
            final View child = _root.getChildAt(i);
            if (child.isFocusable() || child.isFocusableInTouchMode())
            {
                child.setOnFocusChangeListener(onFocusChangeListener);
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    else if (root.isFocusable() || root.isFocusableInTouchMode())
        root.setOnFocusChangeListener(onFocusChangeListener);

    return focusDummy;
}

Answer 6

Late, but maybe helpful. Create a dummy EditText at the top of your layout then call myDummyEditText.requestFocus() in onCreate()

<EditText android:id="@+id/dummyEditTextFocus" 
android:layout_width="0px"
android:layout_height="0px" />

That seems to behave as I expect. No need to handle configuration changes, etc. I needed this for an Activity with a lengthy TextView (instructions).