Hint Alignment to the right of password EditText

Question

I\'m working on and activity with arabic language. I want the hint of the username and password to start from the right and I have no problem f typing started from the left

Answer 1

This is a bug in the Android Framework, for EditText fields in Android 4.4+ : https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37082815 or https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=201471. As of July 2016, it is currently unsolved.

However there is a way to workaround it:

• To make the hint display properly on the right (in right-to-left/RTL mode), you must remove the InputType property textPassword (InputType.TYPE_TEXT_VARIATION_PASSWORD), when there is no text entered.

• To retain the password entry field behaviour of showing dots to conceal typed text, you must dynamically enable InputType.TYPE_TEXT_VARIATION_PASSWORD, when the first character is entered in. And it must be reset when all characters are deleted.

• To prevent the UI glitch of Latin character input (LTR text like "abc123") jumping to the left or disappearing altogether, you must explicitly set textDirection to RTL.

Here are the details:

Pre-requisite for your AndroidManifest.xml:

<application
    ...
    android:supportsRtl="true"
    ... >
</application>

Your XML Layout contains:

     <EditText
        android:id="@+id/password"
        android:inputType="textPassword"
        android:hint="סיסמא"
        ... />

Java code with workaround bug fix:

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.login_fragment_layout, container, false);
    final EditText password = (EditText) view.findViewById(R.id.password);

    // Workaround https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37082815 for Android 4.4+
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT && isRTL(getActivity())) {

        // Force a right-aligned text entry, otherwise latin character input,
        // like "abc123", will jump to the left and may even disappear!
        password.setTextDirection(View.TEXT_DIRECTION_RTL);

        // Make the "Enter password" hint display on the right hand side
        password.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT | InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_NO_SUGGESTIONS);
    }

    password.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

        boolean inputTypeChanged;

        @Override
        public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {}

        @Override
        public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {}

        @Override
        public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {

            // Workaround https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=201471 for Android 4.4+
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT && isRTL(getActivity())) {
                if (s.length() > 0) {
                    if (!inputTypeChanged) {

                        // When a character is typed, dynamically change the EditText's
                        // InputType to PASSWORD, to show the dots and conceal the typed characters.
                        password.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT |
                                InputType.TYPE_TEXT_VARIATION_PASSWORD |
                                InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_NO_SUGGESTIONS);

                        // Move the cursor to the correct place (after the typed character)
                        password.setSelection(s.length());

                        inputTypeChanged = true;
                    }
                } else {
                    // Reset EditText: Make the "Enter password" hint display on the right
                    password.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT |
                            InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_NO_SUGGESTIONS);

                    inputTypeChanged = false;
                }
            }
        }
    });

    return view;
}

public static boolean isRTL(Context context) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1) {
        return context.getResources().getConfiguration().getLayoutDirection()
                == View.LAYOUT_DIRECTION_RTL;
        // Another way:
        // Define a boolean resource as "true" in res/values-ldrtl
        // and "false" in res/values
        // return context.getResources().getBoolean(R.bool.is_right_to_left);
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

It should work like this:

Answer 2

I think you can fix it by adding \u202B to the Hebrew/Arabic (or any other RTL language) text .

Example:

<LinearLayout
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <EditText android:hint="Enter a number..." android:id="@+id/editText"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:inputType="number"/>

    <EditText android:hint="\u202Bהכנס מספר..." android:id="@+id/editText2"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:inputType="number"/>
</LinearLayout>

Sadly it seems it doesn't get shown on the layout preview, but it worked for me on a real device. Wrote about it here