Text

Reading and modifying text at runtime

This article is out of date! Find the new version here.

For more information on designing and animating Text, please refer to the editor's text section.

Please ensure you're on the correct runtime version with support for Rive Text; see Feature Support.

Read/Update Text Runs at Runtime

If you intend to update a text run at runtime it's important to manually enter a unique name for the run in the editor:

Manually enter a name for a text run

This makes it possible for the run to be "discoverable" at runtime by its name.

If the name is not set manually in the editor the name will not be part of the exported .riv (to reduce file size).

Web

High-level API usage

Reading Text

To read a given text run text value at any given time, reference the .getTextRunValue() API on the Rive instance:

public getTextRunValue(textRunName: string): string | undefined

Supply the text run name, and you'll have the Rive text run value returned, or undefined if the text run could not be queried.

Setting Text

To set a given text run value at any given time, reference the .setTextRunValue() API on the Rive instance:

public setTextRunValue(textRunName: string, textRunValue: string): void

Supply the text run name and a second parameter, textValue, with a String value that you want to set the new text value for if the text run can be successfully queried on the active artboard.

Example Usage

import {Rive} from '@rive-app/canvas'

const r = new Rive({
  src: "my-rive-file.riv"
  artboard: "my-artboard-name",
  autoplay: true,
  stateMachines: "State Machine 1",
  onLoad: () => {
    console.log("My design-time text is, ", r.getTextRunValue("MyRun"));
    r.setTextRunValue("MyRun", "New text value");
  },
})

Low-level API usage

Get a reference to the Rive Artboard, find a text run by a given name, and get/update the text value property.

import RiveCanvas from '@rive-app/canvas-advanced';


const bytes = await (
  await fetch(new Request('./my-rive-file.riv'))
).arrayBuffer();
const myRiveFile = await rive.load(new Uint8Array(bytes));

const artboard = myRiveFile.defaultArtboard();
const textRun = artboard.textRun("MyRun"); // Query by the text run name
console.log(`My design-time text is ${textRun.text}`);
textRun.text = "Hello JS Runtime!";

...

React

Reading Text

To read a given text run text value at any given time, reference the .getTextRunValue() API on the rive instance returned from useRive:

public getTextRunValue(textRunName: string): string | undefined

Supply the text run name, and you'll have the Rive text run value returned, or undefined if the text run could not be queried.

Setting Text

To set a given text run value at any given time, reference the .setTextRunValue() API on the rive instance returned from useRive:

public setTextRunValue(textRunName: string, textRunValue: string): void

Supply the text run name and a second parameter, textValue, with a String value that you want to set the new text value for if the text run can be successfully queried on the active artboard.

Example Usage

import { useRive } from '@rive-app/canvas';

const MyTextComponent = () => {
  const {rive, RiveComponent} = useRive({
    src: "my-rive-file.riv",
    artboard: "New Artboard",
    stateMachines: "State Machine 1",
    autoplay: true,
  });
  
  // Cannot query for the text run immediately, you have to wait until `rive`
  // has value and has instantiated before querying or setting text run values
  useEffect(() => {
    if (rive) {
      console.log("Rive text was initially: ", rive.getTextRunValue("MyRun"));
      rive.setTextRunValue("MyRun", "New Text!!");
      console.log("Rive text is now: ", rive.getTextRunValue("MyRun");
    }
  }, [rive]);
  
  return (
    <RiveComponent />
  );
};

React Native

Setting Text via Rive Ref

To set a given text run value at any given time, reference the .setTextRunValue() API on the Rive ref:

setTextRunValue: (textRunName: string, value: string) => void;

Supply the text run name and a second parameter, textValue, with a String value that you want to set the new text value for.

Example Usage

export default function DynamicText() {
  const riveRef = useRef<RiveRef>(null);

  const handleInputChange = (e: string) => {
    // Set the TextRun value of the 'name' TextRun
    // The name must exist else an error will be thrown
    riveRef.current?.setTextRunValue('name', e);
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={styles.safeAreaViewContainer}>
      <ScrollView>
        <Rive
          ref={riveRef}
          resourceName="hello_world_text"
          stateMachineName="State Machine 1"
        />
        <TextInput
          onChangeText={handleInputChange}
          defaultValue="world"
        />
      </ScrollView>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
}

Flutter

Find the TextValueRun component with a given name on a Rive Artboard and update the text value.

To make this more convenient you can create an extension.

extension _TextExtension on Artboard {
  TextValueRun? textRun(String name) => component<TextValueRun>(name);
}

Get a reference to the Artboard, find the text run named "MyRun", and update the text value:

RiveAnimation.asset(
  'assets/hello_world_text.riv',
  animations: const ['Timeline 1'],
  onInit: (artboard) {
    final textRun = artboard.textRun('MyRun')!; // find text run named "MyRun"
    print('Run text used to be ${textRun.text}');
    textRun.text = 'Hi Flutter Runtime!';
  },
)

Or get a reference to the artboard by calling: riveFile.mainArtboard, see Alternative Widget Setup.

iOS/macOS

Reading Text

To read a given text run text value at any given time, reference the .getTextRunValue() API on the RiveViewModel:

open func getTextRunValue(_ textRunName: String) -> String?

Supply the text run name and you'll have the Rive text run value returned, or nil if the text run could not be queried.

Setting Text

To set a given text run value at any given time, reference the .setTextRunValue() API on the RiveViewModel:

open func setTextRunValue(_ textRunName: String, textValue: String) throws

Supply the text run name and a second parameter, textValue, with a String value that you want to set the new text value for.

If the supplied textRunName Rive text run cannot be queried on the active artboard, Rive will throw a RiveError.textValueRunError that you may need to catch and handle gracefully in your application.

Example Usage

@State private var userInput: String = ""
@State private var rvm = RiveViewModel(fileName: "my-rive-file")

var body: some View {
    VStack(spacing: 20) {
        Text("Enter text:")
            .font(.headline)
        TextField("Enter text...", text: $userInput)
            .textFieldStyle(RoundedBorderTextFieldStyle())
            .padding()
            .onChange(of: userInput, perform: { newValue in
                if (!newValue.isEmpty) {
                    try! rvm.setTextRunValue("MyTextRunName", textValue: userInput)
                }
            })
        rvm.view()
    }
}

Android

Reading Text via RiveAnimationView

To read a given text run text value at any given time, reference the .getTextRunValue() API on the RiveAnimationView:

fun getTextRunValue(textRunName: String): String? = try

Supply the text run name and you'll have the Rive text run value returned, or null if the text run could not be queried.

Setting Text via RiveAnimationView

To set a given text run value at any given time, reference the .setTextRunValue() API on the RiveAnimationView:

fun setTextRunValue(textRunName: String, textValue: String)

Supply the text run name and a second parameter, textValue, with a String value that you want to set the new text value for.

If the supplied textRunName Rive text run cannot be queried on the active artboard, Rive will throw a RiveException that you may need to catch and handle gracefully in your application.

Reference to Rive TextRun

You can also choose to query the active Artboard for the Rive text run reference and get/set a text property manually.

private val textRun by lazy(LazyThreadSafetyMode.NONE) {
    yourRiveAnimationView.artboardRenderer?.activeArtboard?.textRun("name")
}

Example Usage

import android.os.Bundle
import android.text.Editable
import android.text.TextWatcher
import android.util.Log
import android.widget.EditText
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import app.rive.runtime.kotlin.RiveAnimationView

class DynamicTextActivity : AppCompatActivity(), TextWatcher {
    private val animationView by lazy(LazyThreadSafetyMode.NONE) {
        findViewById<RiveAnimationView>(R.id.dynamic_text)
    }

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.dynamic_text)
        val editText = findViewById<EditText>(R.id.text_run_value)
        editText.addTextChangedListener(this)
    }

    override fun beforeTextChanged(s: CharSequence?, start: Int, count: Int, after: Int) {
        // get the current value of the reference
        animationView.getTextRunValue("name")
    }

    override fun onTextChanged(s: CharSequence?, start: Int, before: Int, count: Int) {
        // update the reference
        animationView.setTextRunValue("name", s.toString())
    }
}

Semantics for Accessibility

As Rive Text does not make use of the underlying platform text APIs, additional steps need to be taken to ensure it can be read by screen readers.

The following code snippets provide guidance on how to add semantic labels to your Rive animations. Please see the respective platform/SDKs developer documentation for additional information regarding accessibility concerns.

Flutter

See Flutter's documentation on Accessibility for more information. In this example you'll use the Semantics widget to provide a label that reflects the current value of the Rive Text component.

...

String semanticLabel = '';

...

Semantics(
  label: semanticLabel,
  child: RiveAnimation.asset(
    'assets/hello_world_text.riv',
    animations: const ['Timeline 1'],
    onInit: (artboard) {
      final run = artboard.component<TextValueRun>("MyRun");
      setState(() {
        // Calling setState is needed to ensure the Semantics widget
        // rebuilds with the new value.
        semanticLabel = run?.text ?? "";
      });
    },
  ),
),
```

Or you can read the .riv file yourself and instance the artboard, see Alternative Widget Setup.

Web (JS)

Adding ARIA Label

At a minimum - if it is important to convey the text value displayed in the Rive animation to all users, add an aria-label to the <canvas> element with the text value from the animation. Screen readers may read this label out immediately as it parses out the DOM contents. You'll also want to add role="img" to the <canvas> element as well.

<canvas
    id="rive-canvas"
    width={500}
    height={500}
    role="img"
    aria-label="Hello friend, welcome to my page"
></canvas>

Adding ARIA Live Region

While ARIA labels are a direct method to manage a textual label for screen readers to read out as it parses web content, using an ARIA live region allows you a way to control when screen readers read out dynamic text content.

Live regions are useful in cases where the text content in your Rive graphic becomes visible or changes on a particular state in a state machine, and you want screen readers to pick up on text changes. Another use case is when you only want screen readers to read your Rive text content when the <canvas> is scrolled into view.

Read more on ARIA live regions here.

Example: Rating Graphic

To try this example out, visit this CodeSandbox link

Imagine you're displaying an interactive Rive graphic that allows users to choose a rating from 1-5 stars. Users clicking on the different stars can visually see the state machine in action with animations to see what star they click, but screen readers may need a way to announce what selection was chosen as other users navigate the canvas with keyboard controls, for example.

The HTML for this might look like the following:

index.html

<canvas
  role="img"
  tabindex="0"
  aria-describedby="rating-animation-live"
  id="canvas"
></canvas>
<p id="rating-animation-live" class="sr-only" aria-live="assertive">
  An interactive rating simulation. Use the left and right arrow keys to
  select a rating
</p>

Note that the <canvas> element has an aria-describedby attribute whose value matches the id of the <p> below it, #rating-animation-live. This allows the <p> block content to describe the <canvas> element. And similar to using aria-label, we have to add the role="img" attribute to the canvas as well. The aria-live="assertive" attribute describes how to interrupt the screen reader's flow of reading content based on when the content within this <p> changes.

Let's take a look at what the JS might look like using the Rive Web (JS) runtime:

index.js

const rive = require("@rive-app/canvas");
const dynamicTextEl = document.getElementById("rating-animation-live");

const r = new rive.Rive({
  src: "rating.riv",
  canvas: document.getElementById("canvas"),
  stateMachines: "State Machine 1",
  autoplay: true,
  onLoad: () => {
    r.setTextRunValue("RatingRun", "0");
    r.resizeDrawingSurfaceToCanvas();
    // See CodeSandbox link above for further functionality
  },
  onStateChange: (e) => {
    const name = e.data[0];
    const ratingStr = name.charAt(0);
    const ratingNum = parseInt(ratingStr);
    if (!isNaN(ratingNum)) {
      const ratingString = name
        .split("_")
        .reduce((acc, temp) => {
          return (acc += ` ${temp}`);
        }, "")
        .trim();
      r.setTextRunValue("RatingRun", ratingStr);

      dynamicTextEl.innerHTML = `Rating: ${ratingString}`;
    }
  }
});

In the above snippet, we've created an instance of Rive, and as the state changes in the state machine, we're dynamically updating the contents of the live region (represented by dynamicTextEl) with the string rating. Due to the live region having the property of aria-live="assertive", screen readers should read off the new dynamic text content.

Additional Resources:

• Accesible web animations: ARIA live regions