Develop Reference

Android ImageSpans in Codename One TextFields

I am porting my Android app to iOS and I am using Codename One for that.
In my app an EditText can contain icons mixed with text. It is accomplished with instructions like these:
MyImageSpan iconSpan=new MyImageSpan(activity, R.drawable.icon);
editText.getText().insert(caretPosition,CHAR);
editText.getText().setSpan(iconSpan,caretPosition,caretPosition+1,Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
then in other parts, spans have to be detected, if present, and it is performed like this:
Editable editable = editText.getText();
for (int i = 0; i < editable.length(); i = next) {
// find the next span transition
next = editable.nextSpanTransition(i, editable.length(), MyImageSpan.class);
// get all spans in this range
MImageSpan[] tempSpans = editable.getSpans(i, next, MyImageSpan.class);
...
...
//In my app that becomes really complex
...
...
...
...
}
I tried to use this online tool:
http://fontello.com/
to manage icons like font glyphs, as it seems to be adviced by Codename One documentation.
In fact I do not understand if it is possible to have spans with different fonts in an TextField in Codename One, and I do not know if I could find and manage them inside the TextField.
But the most important thing is that the online tool to create fonts out of svg files did not work for me because some icons are reverted, others are broken or confused, others are tiny, depending on the saving format (eventually I saved in pure SVG format to avoid issues but it's the same).
What I am asking is how to handle the spans in the TextField in Codename One.
It has not to be the same "way" but the result has to be the same.

This won't work. Rich text edit is something that's just too different between platforms and isn't universally available. Since the edit component is implemented using native widgets it's very hard to consistently abstract something like this and effectively impossible.
However, web tools solved that problem already and include some cross platform rich edit tools that work. You can just use one of those tools and embed a BrowserComponent in your app. Then perform the rich editing within the browser component.
Back in the day we did it with CK editor, but this library is pretty out of date by now so I'm not sure how well it works. It should be relatively easy to create something like this though.

Use OCR Text reader to save the text

I followed the OCR text reader guide on Codelabs (https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/mobile-vision-ocr/#0).
Now, I would like to save, a single portion of the text that I am scanning.
I tried with reducing width, and height of the preview; but it doesn't work, the APK crashes (at least on the only device I have to test it).
I am completely new to Java, and Android development, but my Internship mentor said to do this; completely alone, with zero help (as no one in the company knows about development).
So, the app opens, it recognizes text. Now, I would like to to know if there is a way to take that text, and save it (XML or TXT file).
I tried to look in the code, and see if at some point, the text read is saved in a variable or something; but it looks like a live preview, done trough the Google's dependencies (or a similar process).
I am not sure, but this might be off topic, as it is similar to an open question, but I am giving details on what I have done so far, and what I have tried.
Thanks.

The detected text is displayed in the OcrGraphic.draw(Canvas) method. There, it is returned as a TextBlock. You can call textBlock.getComponents() to get the lines and textBlock.getComponents() again to get each individual word (as a Text object).
Then you can convert it to a string and write the text to a file if you would like.

Libgdx - Remove HTML greybackground/recompile button/ load splash

What is the proper way to remove the grey background that covers the entire screen, the recompile button, and the default libGDX load and/or load splash in a HTML build of my game?

Note: This answer applies only to the gdx-setup tool as of late 2022. The gdx-liftoff tool is similar but has a slightly less boneheaded configuration out of the box. Additionally, I would like to get some of libGDX's HTML backend reworked one day, as there is no point in the padding and it's applied unevenly, plus less obvious things like the way it creates a table for layout.
Grey background
The background colour can be customised by changing background: #222222 in html/webapp/styles.css to some other colour. Or apply it directly to the body in index.html and delete styles.css (plus the link to it) as it doesn't contain anything important once the superdev button has been removed.
Grey border
The border around the game can be removed by editing HtmlLauncher like so:
#Override
public GwtApplicationConfiguration getConfig () {
GwtApplicationConfiguration config = new GwtApplicationConfiguration(true);
config.padHorizontal = 0;
config.padVertical = 0;
return config;
}
Separating GwtApplicationConfiguration into a config variable brings it in line with the other launchers (desktop, Android, iOS) and setting the padding to 0 is self-explanatory. While we're here, passing true into the app config's constructor tells it to render at native resolution on high-DPI/"retina" displays instead of upscaling.
Recompile button
Or the superdev button, as I call it. Just remove the <a class="superdev"... line from html/webapp/index.html. If you need access to it during development, it's recommended you add its link to your bookmark bar. Visibility of the bookmark bar can be toggled using Ctrl+Shift+B in Chrome and Firefox.
Load/splash screen
You're probably best referring to https://libgdx.com/wiki/html5-backend-and-gwt-specifics#changing-the-load-screen-progress-bar for this (which may not have existed when the question was asked). In short, getPreloaderCallback() and adjustMeterPanel() can be overridden in HtmlLauncher. I typically just overwrite logo.png after building instead of using the recommended method for changing the logo.
Other changes
Things you might want to change before a final release:
styles.css isn't very important beyond changing the background colour, as noted earlier.
In index.html, a comma should be added to between device-width and initial-scale for it to be valid HTML.
In index.html, applying align="center" to a div is deprecated behaviour. Probably best remove that alignment. If you need it, apply via CSS instead.
In index.html, handleMouseDown() and handleMouseUp() are completely pointless, as far as I can see. I don't use them for my own projects and have had no complaints.
html/build/dist/assets/assets.txt references some files that may not be necessary. The default font (arial or lsans, depending on libGDX version) is only needed if you use it and the vertex/fragment shaders are only needed if you do 3D stuff, I believe. Removing these can remove load times ever so slightly, especially on HTTP/1.1 connections. But I don't have an automated way to remove those lines (except on Linux - head -n -8).
Setting an asset filter as seen at https://libgdx.com/wiki/html5-backend-and-gwt-specifics#speeding-up-preload-process is an easy way to reduce your load times. I return false for music files to reduce load times greatly - it ends up streaming music instead of preloading it (if using Music, not AssetManager).

How to add two Fonts to java swing components, and make them automatically switch when user switches keyboard input language?

I'm working on an app where User should be able to input some text which contains both English and Persian(Same as Arabic: almost same characters and written from right to left ).
Currently i'm using fonts like Courier New which supports both languages but it looks really Ugly. I Want to use some better looking fonts, but these fonts only support one of these languages and show nonsense characters for the other language. So i need to use them based on text language.
So generally how can I make Java components (especially swing.JTextField, swing.JListBox and swing.JTextComponent) accept two fonts and switch appropriately to have a good looking GUI?
Edit: Here is an example of what i need. Let say user should input something like (FPGA استفاده از ) and all of it in a single swing.JTextField. It means (Using FPGA) and FPGA is an abbreviation, so there is no Persian translation. I need to set a font with a better look and all fonts which support Unicode are ugly for the Persian part.
Now if I set font to something like Times New Roman ,which only supports Latin, then Persian characters would show as empty squares. also if i set font to something like B Nazanin ,which only supports Persian, then Latin characters would show as empty squares. How can I have both fonts in a single Java component in the same time.

InputContext context = InputContext.getInstance();
if(context.getLocale().toString().equals("en_GB")){
.setFont(*font for english keyboard*);
}
else if(context.getLocale().toString().equals("fa_IR")){
.setFont(*font for persian keyboard*);
}

Is text rendering possible onto 2D images with Javascript/PHP?

I own a sports apparel company and I'm looking to have an applet built that will allow customers to see how their team names will look in certain colors on jerseys. Below you can see the final result of a competitor site's Flash applet where text is rendered on 2D surfaces/images.
My requirements: I need users to be able to set the font, primary text color, outline text color, and text style (arched or straight).
So my question-- Is this sort of text rendering possible with only Javascript/PHP?
If so, what limitations do you for see? I've been told the arching and outline text color may be issues. I've also been told that I may have to upload library files to a server where the actual rendering may take place.
If not, what scripting would you guys recommend? I'm trying to stay away from Flash because it's slow and costly.
I'll be passing this onto our developers so please feel free to be as detailed as possible. I figure'd I'd save them some leg work!
Thank you!

Depending on how complex you want your graphics to be, html5 drawing abilities could be used. Check Raphaël library, for instance, webGL/canvas renderers already have a lot of features in modern browsers.
As of the solution with server rendering, it's also possible with gd2(php), but imho that would be less convenient, at least try something different from php (btw, what's your backend running on?)
Your competitor's solution with java applet honestly seems the easiest, except that it requires jre, which few people are eager to install =)

That's kind-of a high level question, but yes you can definitely use javascript for it.
If there's a problem with getting characters to look right, you can always save each letter as a separate image and have javascript place them next to each other in preview. I'd try to see how close you could get with the existing fonts first.
Layering the text: one color large font, then a different color smaller font will give you the outline effect your looking for.