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Android APIs
public class

SpellCheckerSession

extends Object
java.lang.Object
   ↳ android.view.textservice.SpellCheckerSession

Class Overview

The SpellCheckerSession interface provides the per client functionality of SpellCheckerService.

Applications

In most cases, applications that are using the standard TextView or its subclasses will have little they need to do to work well with spell checker services. The main things you need to be aware of are:

  • Properly set the inputType in your editable text views, so that the spell checker will have enough context to help the user in editing text in them.

For the rare people amongst us writing client applications that use the spell checker service directly, you will need to use getSuggestions(TextInfo, int) or getSuggestions(TextInfo[], int, boolean) for obtaining results from the spell checker service by yourself.

Security

There are a lot of security issues associated with spell checkers, since they could monitor all the text being sent to them through, for instance, TextView . The Android spell checker framework also allows arbitrary third party spell checkers, so care must be taken to restrict their selection and interactions.

Here are some key points about the security architecture behind the spell checker framework:

  • Only the system is allowed to directly access a spell checker framework's SpellCheckerService interface, via the BIND_TEXT_SERVICE permission. This is enforced in the system by not binding to a spell checker service that does not require this permission.
  • The user must explicitly enable a new spell checker in settings before they can be enabled, to confirm with the system that they know about it and want to make it available for use.

Summary

Nested Classes
interface SpellCheckerSession.SpellCheckerSessionListener Callback for getting results from text services  
Constants
String SERVICE_META_DATA Name under which a SpellChecker service component publishes information about itself.
Public Methods
void cancel ()
Cancel pending and running spell check tasks
void close ()
Finish this session and allow TextServicesManagerService to disconnect the bound spell checker.
void getSentenceSuggestions ( TextInfo[] textInfos, int suggestionsLimit)
Get suggestions from the specified sentences
SpellCheckerInfo getSpellChecker ()
Get the spell checker service info this spell checker session has.
void getSuggestions ( TextInfo[] textInfos, int suggestionsLimit, boolean sequentialWords)
This method was deprecated in API level 16. use getSentenceSuggestions(TextInfo[], int) instead
void getSuggestions ( TextInfo textInfo, int suggestionsLimit)
This method was deprecated in API level 16. use getSentenceSuggestions(TextInfo[], int) instead
boolean isSessionDisconnected ()
Protected Methods
void finalize ()
Invoked when the garbage collector has detected that this instance is no longer reachable.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object

Constants

public static final String SERVICE_META_DATA

Added in API level 14

Name under which a SpellChecker service component publishes information about itself. This meta-data must reference an XML resource.

Constant Value: "android.view.textservice.scs"

Public Methods

public void cancel ()

Cancel pending and running spell check tasks

public void close ()

Finish this session and allow TextServicesManagerService to disconnect the bound spell checker.

public void getSentenceSuggestions ( TextInfo[] textInfos, int suggestionsLimit)

Get suggestions from the specified sentences

Parameters
textInfos an array of text metadata for a spell checker
suggestionsLimit the maximum number of suggestions that will be returned

public SpellCheckerInfo getSpellChecker ()

Get the spell checker service info this spell checker session has.

Returns
  • SpellCheckerInfo for the specified locale.

public void getSuggestions ( TextInfo[] textInfos, int suggestionsLimit, boolean sequentialWords)

This method was deprecated in API level 16.
use getSentenceSuggestions(TextInfo[], int) instead

A batch process of getSuggestions

Parameters
textInfos an array of text metadata for a spell checker
suggestionsLimit the maximum number of suggestions that will be returned
sequentialWords true if textInfos can be treated as sequential words.

public void getSuggestions ( TextInfo textInfo, int suggestionsLimit)

This method was deprecated in API level 16.
use getSentenceSuggestions(TextInfo[], int) instead

Get candidate strings for a substring of the specified text.

Parameters
textInfo text metadata for a spell checker
suggestionsLimit the maximum number of suggestions that will be returned

public boolean isSessionDisconnected ()

Returns
  • true if the connection to a text service of this session is disconnected and not alive.

Protected Methods

protected void finalize ()

Invoked when the garbage collector has detected that this instance is no longer reachable. The default implementation does nothing, but this method can be overridden to free resources.

Note that objects that override finalize are significantly more expensive than objects that don't. Finalizers may be run a long time after the object is no longer reachable, depending on memory pressure, so it's a bad idea to rely on them for cleanup. Note also that finalizers are run on a single VM-wide finalizer thread, so doing blocking work in a finalizer is a bad idea. A finalizer is usually only necessary for a class that has a native peer and needs to call a native method to destroy that peer. Even then, it's better to provide an explicit close method (and implement Closeable ), and insist that callers manually dispose of instances. This works well for something like files, but less well for something like a BigInteger where typical calling code would have to deal with lots of temporaries. Unfortunately, code that creates lots of temporaries is the worst kind of code from the point of view of the single finalizer thread.

If you must use finalizers, consider at least providing your own ReferenceQueue and having your own thread process that queue.

Unlike constructors, finalizers are not automatically chained. You are responsible for calling super.finalize() yourself.

Uncaught exceptions thrown by finalizers are ignored and do not terminate the finalizer thread. See Effective Java Item 7, "Avoid finalizers" for more.

Throws
Throwable