Handling touch and motion events

A summary of some of the basic touch/motion-handling systems in the Android API.

Buttons

Touch events related to a Button can be checked as follows:

public class ExampleClass extends Activity implements View.OnClickListener, View.OnLongClickListener{
    public Button onLong, onClick;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle sis){
        super.onCreate(sis);
        setContentView(R.layout.layout);
        onLong = (Button) findViewById(R.id.onLong);
        onClick = (Button) findViewById(R.id.onClick);
        // The buttons are created. Now we need to tell the system that
        // these buttons have a listener to check for touch events.
        // "this" refers to this class, as it contains the appropriate event listeners.
        onLong.setOnLongClickListener(this);
        onClick.setOnClickListener(this);

        [OR]

        onClick.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v){
                // Take action. This listener is only designed for one button.
                // This means, no other input will come here.
                // This makes a switch statement unnecessary here.
            }
        });

        onLong.setOnLongClickListener(new View.OnLongClickListener(){
            @Override
            public boolean onLongClick(View v){
                // See comment in onClick.setOnClickListener().
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
        // If you have several buttons to handle, use a switch to handle them.
        switch(v.getId()){
            case R.id.onClick:
                // Take action.
                break;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
        // If you have several buttons to handle, use a switch to handle them.
        switch(v.getId()){
            case R.id.onLong:
                // Take action.
                break;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

Surface

Touch event handler for surfaces (e.g. SurfaceView, GLSurfaceView, and others):

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.SurfaceView;
import android.view.View;

public class ExampleClass extends Activity implements View.OnTouchListener{
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle sis){
        super.onCreate(sis);
        CustomSurfaceView csv = new CustomSurfaceView(this);
        csv.setOnTouchListener(this);
        setContentView(csv);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
        // Add a switch (see buttons example) if you handle multiple views
        // here you can see (using MotionEvent event) to see what touch event
        // is being taken. Is the pointer touching or lifted? Is it moving?
        return false;
    }
}

Or alternatively (in the surface):

public class CustomSurfaceView extends SurfaceView {
    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev) {
        super.onTouchEvent(ev);
        // Handle touch events here. When doing this, you do not need to call a listener.
        // Please note that this listener only applies to the surface it is placed in
        // (in this case, CustomSurfaceView), which means that anything else which is
        // pressed outside the SurfaceView is handled by the parts of your app that
        // have a listener in that area.
        return true;
    }
}

Handling multitouch in a surface

public class CustomSurfaceView extends SurfaceView {
    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent e) {
        super.onTouchEvent(e);
        if(e.getPointerCount() > 2){
            return false; // If we want to limit the amount of pointers, we return false
                // which disallows the pointer. It will not be reacted on either, for
                // any future touch events until it has been lifted and repressed.
        }

        // What can you do here? Check if the amount of pointers are [x] and take action,
        // if a pointer leaves, a new enters, or the [x] pointers are moved.
        // Some examples as to handling etc. touch/motion events.

        switch (MotionEventCompat.getActionMasked(e)) {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_POINTER_DOWN:
                // One or more pointers touch the screen.
                break;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_POINTER_UP:
                // One or more pointers stop touching the screen.
                break;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
                // One or more pointers move.
                if(e.getPointerCount() == 2){
                    move();
                }else if(e.getPointerCount() == 1){
                    paint();
                }else{
                    zoom();
                }
                break;
        }
        return true; // Allow repeated action.
    }
}

Parameters

|Listener|Details |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|--- |onTouchListener|Handles single touches for buttons, surfaces and more |onTouchEvent|A listener that can be found in surfaces(e.g. SurfaceView). Does not need to be set like other listeners(e,g. onTouchListener) |onLongTouch|Similar to onTouch, but listens for long presses in buttons, surfaces and more.