One, probably a stupid question.
Is it possible to choose which keys to appear on Android keyboard (other than just setting input type)?
For example, can I specify I only want to show keys:
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B?
Or should I write completely custom keyboard for it?
I don't care about layout and styling.
I need it only for one activity.
Is it possible to choose which keys to appear on Android keyboard (other than just setting input type)?
Write your own input method editor and hope that the user elects to enable and use it.
Otherwise, no.
can I specify I only want to show keys: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B?
No. Bear in mind that there are hundreds of input method editors, not just one. Unless you are deploying only to a single device model, there will be many editors that your users will encounter.
Related
I'm working on an Android app that needs to take input in Arabic whenever the User taps on an EditText view. So how do I change the keyboard language programatically or ask the User to do so?
I conducted extensive research and found out that it can be done via:
a) creating a custom Arabic keyboard,
b) using the IME manager to prompt the user to change input method by calling showInputMethodPicker(),
c) using the IME manager to change input method by calling setInputMethod.
of these, (c) is only workable for System apps, and (a) requires a lot of time (which I currently don't have), and (b) requires the user to manually enable it.
Is there absolutely ANY simple and workable way to accomplish this? Any external API that I could use or anything at all?
https://www.codeproject.com/Questions/996415/ceate-custom-arabic-keyboard-for-android
Above link can help you.For getting above required feature you need to make custom keyboard Arabic then open that keyboard when you type in edit text.
I'm following posts like:
How to develop a soft keyboard for Android?
Create Custom Keyboard in Android
I was wondering though, is their a way to default to using another keyboard?
IE: I want to only cover the email input, nothing else. What can I do to make it use the system keyboard, or Swift or another keyboard for all other inputs (Numbers, general text etc.).
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/InputType.html
Any help is appreciated, I've not gotten to play too much with this, just want to see feasibility before I start a project.
Cheers,
Justin W.
Using InputMethodService, you can definitely switch to another IME if you want to.
But, once another IME is activated, you cant switch from another IME to your IME. This is for security reasons.
It's clearly mentioned in the Docs.
A client application can ask that the system let the user pick a new
IME, but can not programmatically switch to one itself. This avoids
malicious applications from switching the user to their own IME, which
remains running when the user navigates away to another application.
An IME, on the other hand, is allowed to programmatically switch the
system to another IME, since it already has full control of user
input.
I want to create a custom keyboard for my application. ie. consider a simple text input and when I click on that, I want a custom keyboard to appear. For ex : a dialler like keyboard, having keys 0-9 and then some custom buttons for my application. Is it possible to do that in android?
Yes, this is possible. There are two ways to approach this:
Create your own input method (keyboard) - here's an example on google of how this can be done: http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/SoftKeyboard/index.html - you'll then need to set this keyboard as an IME in your app.
Create your own view with a bunch of buttons to handle your own stuff. This won't be a "keyboard" in a true android way, but it would do everything you need for your app. I have seen apps that contain their own "keyboards" designed in this way.
In addition, keep in mind that even the basic android keyboard has several "versions" available: alpha, keypad, symbols, etc.
Which way you prefer to go depends on your specific needs, your development abilities and time constraints.
Create your own view with a bunch of buttons to handle your own stuff. This won't be a "keyboard" in a true android way, but it would do everything you need for your app. I have seen apps that contain their own "keyboards" designed in this way.
In addition, keep in mind that even the basic android keyboard has several "versions" available: alpha, keypad, symbols, etc.
Which way you prefer to go depends on your specific needs, your development abilities and time constraints.
Is it possible to create a custom InputType for the Android keyboard to use?
I want to make it so the keyboard shows the number pad first and then after a user types in a float or an integer followed by a space I want it to switch to the default alpha keyboard.
I tried using a TextWatcher instance, but this seems buggy on anything above 2.0 (sometimes it would lose a character, this doesn't happen on 1.6 or below).
Any ideas?
Thanks for reading.
Yes, it is possible.
I haven't done it myself, but the evidence is in apps that serve as input types. Look up apps such as Swype and 8pen; they serve as different input types, with Swype building on a keyboard similar to the default and 8pen providing a different input UI altogether.
I've been looking to create a custom keyboard for my application. At first, I started to look at the SoftKeyboard for the SDK examples, but reading the Android Developer Group led me to this post:
This is really not how the input
method framework is supposed to work.
An IME should be a generic input
facility, not for a particular
application. If you need some
app-specific input, you should build
it into your UI rather than pushing
it out to a generic IME.
How do I build an app-specific input within the UI? I mean, is there a way to extend the Keyboard app or something and use it only in my application?
Features needed for the keyboard:
Shift key to display some other keys
Special keys like square root or PI
etc.
PS: an ugly solution could be to make a table of ImageButton for example, but I wanted to make something clean.
I'm not really sure if there's a straight-forward solution to this (to that extent that it is even possible to understand the real reason behind the original question).
As is quoted in the original question:
If you need some app-specific input, you should build it into your UI
rather than pushing it out to a generic IME.
What is meant by that, is not that you within your app should try to build in such input features by extending or modifying the soft keyboard on the phone. There are so many different soft keyboards (and basically, the soft keyboard is just another app), since most phone manufacturers create their own version, and people download 3rd party keyboards (such as Swype or SwiftKey etc.), and I can't picture there being a way for you to "hack" into those to add a few buttons or whatever it is you want (which could also be a major security hole, another reason why it probably isn't possible).
What instead the above quote suggests, is that you have to create some other form of input besides the keyboard. One such example, and a very good one if I might add, is how the RealCalc Scientific Calculator looks:
Now this isn't open source, so I can only guess how the code looks like (but it shouldn't be too hard a guess either): in its simplest form, this is just a grid with lots of buttons. Each button handles the onClick event, which would mean performing some kind of action (changing the label on some other buttons, showing a menu, displaying some text in the upper label or whatever), and that's probably pretty much what's to it. And of course, the phone's soft keyboard is never displayed (since you don't need a keyboard with all those buttons (and also there aren't any input fields to write anything in)).
It all boils down to the already mentioned quote: If you need some app-specific input, you should build it into your UI. Or in other words: create buttons (and don't display the soft keyboard if you don't need it) and make things happen when you click them.
And just to have mentioned it: if you do want to create your own IME (which I strongly believe is not the case here), you should have a look at the following resources:
Onscreen Input Methods
Creating an Input Method
Soft Keyboard sample
In my humble opinion you should take a look at the beginning of reference about keyboard and keyboard view http://developer.android.com/reference/android/inputmethodservice/Keyboard.html and http://developer.android.com/reference/android/inputmethodservice/KeyboardView.html.
There you can see an example of defining keyboard using XML file. I think that this is what you are looking for.
As mentioned by #sebap123
Keyboard and KeyboardView class are the one you need to use,
Further, for Implementation, here is a quick detailed guide.