Android: how to know if button is held down

Question

I am playing with a game on Android, and I have a function MoveCharacter (int direction) that moves an animated sprite when buttons are pressed

For example, when user presses up I have this code:

 mControls.UpButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                mLevel.mCharAnimation.FrameUp();
            }           
        });

However, I’d like to be able to keep moving the character as long as the user keeps the button down. Surprisingly, I have not found out how to do this in Android. Is there some kind of onButtonDownLister?

Answer 1

You need to use an OnTouchListener to have separate actions for down, up, and other states.

mControls.UpButton.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
        switch(event.getAction()) {
        case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
            // Do something
            return true;
        case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
            // No longer down
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
});

Answer 2

As mentioned in the comments by Gary Bak you would want to detect if the user drags their finger outside the button also.

mButton.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
        switch(event.getAction()) {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
                // Pressed down
                return true;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                // Released
                return true;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_CANCEL:
                // Released - Dragged finger outside
                return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
});