How to display HTML in TextView?

Android version compatibility

Android 24 and subsequent versions make use of Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT, streamlining HTML layout within TextView. The syntax? Just a little different:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
    // Smooth sailing for modern devices
    textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(htmlContent, Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT));
} else {
    // Because old school is still cool
    textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(htmlContent));
}


Note: Running with the pack? Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY ensures backward compatibility on newer devices.

HTML content in XML resources

Fancy defining your HTML content within an XML? Yeah, you can. Key point? Use HTML entities for special chars encoding:

<string name="html_content">
    &lt;b&gt;Bold&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Italic&lt;/i&gt;
</string>


Then bring it home within your Activity code:

String htmlContent = getString(R.string.html_content);
// Unleashing the beauty of HTML here
textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(htmlContent));


This maintains HTML formatting and ensures your work is multilingual-friendly.

Rolling custom TextView for HTML

Why not bake your own TextView, complete with built-in HTML parsing:

public class HTMLTextView extends TextView {
    public HTMLTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
		// Hello. It's me, HTMLTextView.
    }

    public HTMLTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
		// So we meet again, AttributeSet.
    }

    public void setHtmlText(String htmlText) {
		// Party starts code line onwards
        setText(Html.fromHtml(htmlText));
    }
}


Here's how you'd use HTMLTextView in layouts:

<com.example.HTMLTextView
    android:id="@+id/html_text_view"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/html_content" />


Handling complex HTML scenarios

I did warn you about Android's limitations with CSS, JavaScript, or unsupported HTML tags, remember? But hey, you've got grit. Jsoup and other similar libraries have your back when you need finer control over parsing and rendering the HTML content.

Working with CDATA and HTML in XML

If that CDATA beast rears its head in XML resources, enclose your HTML tags within <![CDATA[ ]]> to ensure no HTML is harmed in the process:

<string name="html_content"><![CDATA[
    <h2>This is a title</h2>
    <p>This is <b>bold</b> paragraph text.</p>
]]></string>


This approach ensures complex HTML structures are rendered just as intended when used with Html.fromHtml().