Disable a text edit field in flutter

Question

I need to disable TextFormField occasionally. I couldn\'t find a flag in the widget, or the controller to simply make it read only or disable. What is the best way to do it?

Answer 1

This isn't a feature that is currently provided by the framework, but you can use a FocusScope to prevent a TextFormField from requesting focus.

Here's what it looks like when it's disabled.

(with hint text)

(with a readonly value)

Here's what it looks like when it's enabled.

(with focus)

(without focus)

Code for this is below:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(new MaterialApp(
    home: new HomePage(),
  ));
}

class HomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  HomePageState createState() => new HomePageState();
}

class HomePageState extends State<HomePage> {

  TextEditingController _controller = new TextEditingController();
  bool _enabled = false;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    ThemeData theme = Theme.of(context);
    return new Scaffold(
      appBar: new AppBar(
        title: new Text('Disabled Text'),
      ),
      floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
        child: new Icon(Icons.free_breakfast),
        onPressed: () {
          setState(() {
            _enabled = !_enabled;
          });
        }
      ),
      body: new Center(
        child: new Container(
          margin: const EdgeInsets.all(10.0),
          child: _enabled ?
          new TextFormField(controller: _controller) :
          new FocusScope(
            node: new FocusScopeNode(),
            child: new TextFormField(
              controller: _controller,
              style: theme.textTheme.subhead.copyWith(
                color: theme.disabledColor,
              ),
              decoration: new InputDecoration(
                hintText: _enabled ? 'Type something' : 'You cannot focus me',
              ),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Answer 2

I tried using FocuseNode(), enabled = false yet not working, Instead of that I use a widget called AbsorbPointer. It's use for preventing a widget from touch or tap, I wrap my TextFormField or other widget inside AbsordPointer Widgets and give a parameter to disable from touch

Example

AbsorbPointer(
      absorbing: true,  //To disable from touch use false while **true** for otherwise
      child: Your WidgetsName
);

Answer 3

There is another way this can be achieved which also does not cause this issue. Hope this might help someone.

Create AlwaysDisabledFocusNode and pass it to the focusNode property of a TextField.

class AlwaysDisabledFocusNode extends FocusNode {
  @override
  bool get hasFocus => false;
}

then

new TextField(
    enableInteractiveSelection: false, // will disable paste operation
    focusNode: new AlwaysDisabledFocusNode(),
    ...
    ...
)

Update: TextField now has enabled property. Where you can just disable the TextField like

new TextField(
    enabled: false, 
    ...
    ...
)

Note: This will also disable icon associated with text input.

Answer 4

Use readOnly:true is correct. But if you still want focus to this text field you can follow below code:

TextFormField(
  showCursor: true,//add this line
  readOnly: true
)

Answer 5

I have used a combination of readOnly and enableInteractiveSelection properties to achieve the desired behavior on TextField.

TextField(
  readOnly: true,
  enableInteractiveSelection: true,
  onTap: () {
    do_something(),
  },
)

With enableInteractiveSelection set to true, it will allow onTap() to function as normal.