[FIXED] Android spinner close

Issue

I have an activity with a spinner, and I was wondering if it is possible to close the spinner programmatically, if the user has opened it.

The whole story is that in the background I am running a process on a separate thread. When the process has finished, I invoke a Handler on the main activity and, depending on the outcome, I perform some tasks. It is then that I want to close the spinner, it the user has opened it.

The spinner is in the main.xml layout:

<Spinner android:id="@+id/birthPlaceSpinner" android:layout_weight="1" 
android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:prompt="@string/select"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" />

and this is the Handler:

private class BirthplaceChangedHandler extends Handler {

    @Override
    public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
        String placeFilterStr = birthPlaceFilterText.getText().toString();
        if ("".equals(placeFilterStr) || placeFilterStr == null || validNewAddresses.isEmpty()) {
            birthPlaceSpinner.setEnabled(false);
            hideGeoLocationInformation();
        } else {
            birthPlaceSpinner.setEnabled(true);
        }
        adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(getApplicationContext(), R.layout.multiline_spinner_dropdown_item, validNewAddressesStr)
        birthPlaceSpinner.setAdapter(adapter);
    }
}

Cheers!

Solution

I don't see a way to accomplish that -- there is no method on Spinner to close it. The "open" part of a Spinner is an AlertDialog on Android 1.x and 2.x, and I'm not completely sure how it is implemented on Honeycomb when using the holographic theme.

The only workaround would be to clone the source for Spinner and add in some code yourself to dismiss the dialog. But, again, it would not work on Honeycomb or higher until you can see and clone that code as well.

Beyond that, I would think that what you want is poor UX. If the user opened the Spinner, they are most likely actively examining the Spinner's contents and making a selection. Yanking that out from under their finger will confuse them, at best. Please consider an alternative approach.

Also, don't use getApplicationContext() unless you know why you are using getApplicationContext(). You do not need or even want getApplicationContext() when creating an ArrayAdapter.

Answered By - CommonsWare
Answer Checked By - Mary Flores (JavaFixing Volunteer)