Android: html in strings.xml

I would like display for example this html code:

<body>
    <p><b>Hello World</b></p>
    <p>This is a test of the URL <a href="http://www.example.com"> Example</a></p>
    <p><b>This text is bold</b></p>
    <p><em>This text is emphasized</em></p>
    <p><code>This is computer output</code></p>
    <p>This is<sub> subscript</sub> and <sup>superscript</sup></p>
</body>

I want to display it on a Dialog by declaring html in resources strings.xml. How can I do it?

The best way to add html source code in strings.xml is to use <![CDATA[html source code]]>. Here is an example:

<string name="html"><![CDATA[<p>Text</p>]]></string>

Then you can display this html in TextView using:

myTextView.setText(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.html)));

If you have links in your html and you want them to be clickable, use this method:

myTextView.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());

Here's most of the examples. I don't think the pre tag is supported.

enter image description here

This is the strings.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">Formatting</string>
    <string name="link">&lt;b&gt;Hello World&lt;/b&gt; This is a test of the URL &lt;a href="http://www.example.com/"&gt;Example&lt;/a&gt;</string>
    <string name="bold">&lt;b&gt;This text is bold&lt;/b&gt;</string>
    <string name="emphasis">&lt;em&gt;This text is emphasized&lt;/em&gt;</string>
    <string name="sup">This is &lt;sub&gt;subscript&lt;/sub&gt; and &lt;sup&gt;superscript&lt;/sup&gt;</string>
</resources>

Here's the layout. Note for the link to actually be clickable, there's a bit of extra work needed:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/test1"
            android:linksClickable="true"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="12dp"
            android:text=""
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"/>
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/test2"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="12dp"
            android:text=""
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"/>
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/test3"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="12dp"
            android:text=""
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"/>
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/test4"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:padding="12dp"
            android:text=""
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"/>
    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

Finally, the code:

TextView test1 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.test1);
Spanned spanned = Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.link));
test1.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());
test1.setText(spanned);

TextView test2 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.test2);
test2.setText(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.bold)));

TextView test3 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.test3);
test3.setText(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.emphasis)));

TextView test4 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.test4);
test4.setText(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.sup)));

String.xml can contains HTML entities, like so:

<resources>
    <string name="hello_world">&lt;span&gt;</string>
</resources>

In your code: getResources().getString(R.string.hello_world); will evaluate to "<span>". You can use this HTML formatted text like this:

TextView helloWorld = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.hello_world);
helloWorld.setText(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.hello_world)));

All the styling supported by the XML resources system is explained in the Android documentation.

String Resources: Formatting and Styling

Anything included there can be used and set directly on TextView. If you need to use further HTML markup, you will need to place raw HTML (with escaped characters for <, > and such) into the resource and load the entire thing in a WebView.

Android: html in strings.xml

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