Implement Markdown Text in Android using Jetpack Compose

Last Updated : 24 Mar, 2022

Markdown is a third-party git library that can be used to identify particular types of regex (Regular Expressions) that specifies a search pattern in the text. For example, if you write a passage and mention a website and a telephone number in it, Markdown Text would detect these patterns and create a hyperlink around them to open them in their respective applications. In simple words, it auto-generates clickable links on them.

So in this article, we will show you how you could implement Markdown Text in Android using Jetpack Compose. Follow the below steps once the IDE is ready.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. While choosing the template, select Empty Compose Activity. If you do not find this template, try upgrading the Android Studio to the latest version. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Add Jitpack in settings.gradle file

Navigate Gradle Scripts > settings.gradle and add Jitpack as shown below.

Kotlin

pluginManagement { 
    repositories { 
        gradlePluginPortal() 
        google() 
        mavenCentral() 
    } 
} 
dependencyResolutionManagement { 
    repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS) 
    repositories { 
        google() 
        mavenCentral() 
        // add jitpack here ???????? 
        maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' } 
    } 
} 
rootProject.name = "JCMarkDown"
include ':app'

Step 3: Add Markdown Dependency in app build.gradle file

Navigate to Gradle Scripts > build.gradle (Module) and add the below dependency in the dependencies{…}

Kotlin

implementation 'com.github.jeziellago:compose-markdown:0.2.6'

Step 4: Working with the MainActivity.kt file

Go to the MainActivity.kt file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.kt file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Kotlin

package com.geeksforgeeks.jcmarkdown 
  
import android.os.Bundle 
import androidx.activity.ComponentActivity 
import androidx.activity.compose.setContent 
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.Arrangement 
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.Column 
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.fillMaxSize 
import androidx.compose.material.* 
import androidx.compose.runtime.Composable 
import androidx.compose.ui.Alignment 
import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier 
import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color 
import androidx.compose.ui.tooling.preview.Preview 
import androidx.compose.ui.unit.sp 
import dev.jeziellago.compose.markdowntext.MarkdownText 
  
class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() { 
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) 
        setContent { 
            // Calling the composable function  
            // to display element and its contents 
            MainContent() 
        } 
    } 
} 
  
// Creating a composable  
// function to display Top Bar 
@Composable
fun MainContent() { 
    Scaffold( 
        topBar = { TopAppBar(title = { Text("GFG | Markdown Text", color = Color.White) }, backgroundColor = Color(0xff0f9d58)) }, 
        content = { MyContent() } 
    ) 
} 
  
// Creating a composable function to create Markdown 
// Calling this function as content in the above function 
@Composable
fun MyContent(){ 
    Column(Modifier.fillMaxSize(), horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally, verticalArrangement = Arrangement.Center) { 
          
          // Add a markdown text as shown below 
          MarkdownText( 
            markdown = "Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org " + 
                    "Phone: 1800 258 4458 " + 
                    "Email: [email protected]", 
            fontSize = 20.sp 
        ) 
    } 
} 
  
// For displaying preview in  
// the Android Studio IDE emulator 
@Preview(showBackground = true) 
@Composable
fun DefaultPreview() { 
    MainContent() 
} 
  
// Refer https://github.com/jeziellago/compose-markdown 
// Package Name wrong

Output:

You can see that Markdown Text correctly identifies the website, phone number, and email id that we provided in the text and converts them into hyperlinks as shown in the below video.