Detecting swipe gestures in WebView disallows clicks in it

Issue

I have a WebView and I am implementing a TouchListener to it which can detect horizontal swipe.

webView.setOnTouchListener { v, event ->
    when ( event.action ) {
        MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN -> x1 = event.x
        MotionEvent.ACTION_UP -> {
            x2 = event.x
            val distance = Math.abs( x2 - x1 )
            if ( distance >= thresholdDistance ) {
                if ( webView.canGoBack() ) {
                    webView.goBack()
                }
            }
        }
    }
    true
}

This can detect swipes on the WebView, but the problem is, when the user clicks on a link in the WebView, the WebView does not respond. Also, the scrolling of the WebView doesn't work.

What is the best way to handle clicks as well as to detect swipes on a WebView?

Solution

You are consuming the touch event even apart from swipe, returning true means that you are consuming the entire event, by what it won't get propagate to the parent.

@return True only for the event you suppose to consume, false otherwise

You can modify your code like below

webView.setOnTouchListener { v, event ->
    when ( event.action ) {
        MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN -> x1 = event.x
        MotionEvent.ACTION_UP -> {
            x2 = event.x
            val distance = Math.abs( x2 - x1 )
            if ( distance >= thresholdDistance ) {
                if ( webView.canGoBack() ) {
                    webView.goBack()
                }
                true
            }
        }
    }
    false
}

Answered By - Krishna Sharma