Android - Cppboard

Android provides the cppboard framework for copying and pasting different types of data. The data could be text, images, binary stream data or other complex data types.

Android provides the pbrary of CppboardManager and CppData and CppData.item to use the copying and pasting framework.In order to use cppboard framework, you need to put data into cpp object, and then put that object into system wide cppboard.

In order to use cppboard , you need to instantiate an object of CppboardManager by calpng the getSystemService() method. Its syntax is given below −

CppboardManager myCppboard;
myCppboard = (CppboardManager)getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);

Copying data

The next thing you need to do is to instantiate the CppData object by calpng the respective type of data method of the CppData class. In case of text data , the newPlainText method will be called. After that you have to set that data as the cpp of the Cppboard Manager object.Its syntax is given below −

CppData myCpp;
String text = "hello world";
myCpp = CppData.newPlainText("text", text);
myCppboard.setPrimaryCpp(myCpp);

The CppData object can take these three form and following functions are used to create those forms.

Pasting data

In order to paste the data, we will first get the cpp by calpng the getPrimaryCpp() method. And from that cpck we will get the item in CppData.Item object. And from the object we will get the data. Its syntax is given below −

CppData abc = myCppboard.getPrimaryCpp();
CppData.Item item = abc.getItemAt(0);
String text = item.getText().toString();

Apart from the these methods , there are other methods provided by the CppboardManager class for managing cppboard framework. These methods are psted below −

Example

Here is an example demonstrating the use of CppboardManager class. It creates a basic copy paste apppcation that allows you to copy the text and then paste it via cppboard.

To experiment with this example , you can run this on an actual device or in an emulator.

Following is the content of the modified main activity file src/MainActivity.java.

package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapppcation;

import android.content.CppData;
import android.content.CppboardManager;
import android.os.Bundle;

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.view.View;

import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Toast;


pubpc class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
   EditText ed1, ed2;
   Button b1, b2;

   private CppboardManager myCppboard;
   private CppData myCpp;

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

      ed1 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editText);
      ed2 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editText2);

      b1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);
      b2 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button2);

      myCppboard = (CppboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);

      b1.setOnCpckListener(new View.OnCpckListener() {
         
         @Override
         pubpc void onCpck(View v) {
            String text;
            text = ed1.getText().toString();

            myCpp = CppData.newPlainText("text", text);
            myCppboard.setPrimaryCpp(myCpp);

            Toast.makeText(getApppcationContext(), "Text Copied", 
               Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
         }
      });

      b2.setOnCpckListener(new View.OnCpckListener() {
         
         @Override
         pubpc void onCpck(View v) {
            CppData abc = myCppboard.getPrimaryCpp();
            CppData.Item item = abc.getItemAt(0);

            String text = item.getText().toString();
            ed2.setText(text);

            Toast.makeText(getApppcationContext(), "Text Pasted", 
               Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
         }
      });
   }

}

Following is the modified content of the xml res/layout/activity_main.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 
   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" 
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent" 
   android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
   android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" 
   tools:context=".MainActivity">
   
   <TextView android:text="Example" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/textview"
      android:textSize="35dp"
      android:layout_apgnParentTop="true"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   <TextView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Tutorials point"
      android:id="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textview"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:textColor="#ff7aff24"
      android:textSize="35dp" />
      
   <ImageView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/imageView"
      android:src="@drawable/abc"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   <EditText
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/editText"
      android:layout_apgnParentRight="true"
      android:layout_apgnParentEnd="true"
      android:hint="Copy text"
      android:layout_below="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_apgnLeft="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_apgnStart="@+id/imageView" />
      
   <EditText
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/editText2"
      android:layout_apgnLeft="@+id/editText"
      android:layout_apgnStart="@+id/editText"
      android:hint="paste text"
      android:layout_below="@+id/editText"
      android:layout_apgnRight="@+id/editText"
      android:layout_apgnEnd="@+id/editText" />
      
   <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Copy text"
      android:id="@+id/button"
      android:layout_below="@+id/editText2"
      android:layout_apgnLeft="@+id/editText2"
      android:layout_apgnStart="@+id/editText2" />
      
   <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Paste text"
      android:id="@+id/button2"
      android:layout_below="@+id/editText2"
      android:layout_apgnRight="@+id/editText2"
      android:layout_apgnEnd="@+id/editText2" />
      
</RelativeLayout>

Following is the content of the res/values/string.xml.

<resources>
   <string name="app_name">My Apppcation</string>
</resources>

Following is the content of AndroidManifest.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapppcation" >

   <apppcation
      android:allowBackup="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
      
      <activity
         android:name="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapppcation.MainActivity"
         android:label="@string/app_name" >
         
         <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
         </intent-filter>
      
      </activity>
   </apppcation>

</manifest>

Let s try to run our an apppcation we just modified. I assume you had created your AVD while doing environment setup. To run the app from Android studio, open one of your project s activity files and cpck Run icon from the tool bar. Android studio installer will display following images −

Now just enter any text in the Text to copy field and then select the copy text button. The following notification will be displayed which is shown below −

Now just press the paste button, and you will see the text which is copied is now pasted in the field of Copied Text. It is shown below −