Develop Reference

How to add a static keyboard in Android?

I want to add a keyboard to an activity in my app. I don't want the default Android keyboard, that pops up once the user clicks a text field and hides when the user clicks somewhere else. I want to make the keyboard static (it is accessible at any time and doesn't disappear) and identical on any device.
Essentially I would like the keyboard to function similarly as in this crossword puzzle app (Image) that I found.
The first solution that came to my head was to make the keyboard entirely by myself. Basically to add and hardcode every single button manually.
Is there a way to do this easier? Is there an available template?
(I am a total beginner in Android, so I might have missed even the most obvious solution)
Thanks.
EDIT: What I would like to achieve is not only that the keyboard stays open all the time, but also that I can easily control the size and position of the keyboard. I want it to cover a specific area of the screen.

You're going to need to make your own keyboard layout, but unless it needs to be a fully-featured keyboard, it won't be too difficult. Put it in its own layout XML, with corresponding IDs for each key.
You can then use <include> in the layouts where it needs to be included. In Java (or Kotlin), you can then make a "helper" class, which takes the root View of the current Activity/Fragment, finds the keys and sets up a listener framework for when a key is pressed.
As for keeping the device's keyboard hidden, check out the answers here.

Put these methods inside your activity . For opening the keyboard
public void openKeyboard() {
InputMethodManager imm =
(InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
if (imm != null) {
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, 0);
}
}
For closing the keyboard :
public void closeKeyboard(Activity activity) {
if (activity != null) {
InputMethodManager inputMethodManager =
(InputMethodManager) activity.getSystemService(
Activity.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
if (inputMethodManager != null && activity.getCurrentFocus() != null) {
inputMethodManager.hideSoftInputFromWindow(
activity.getCurrentFocus().getWindowToken(), 0);
}
}
}

How to make my edit text use Arabic keyboard programmatically?

Right now it's showing English when click on the edit text. How can I change the keyboard to Arabic?
I tried installing Arabic keyboard from Google Play, but it is not working in my app.

You cannot set a keyboard for an EditText. The keyboard (or IME) can only be set manually by the user. All you can do is open the dialog from where the user can choose the keyboard. Even for that, the keyboard needs to be enabled in the Language and Input settings
private void showInputMethodPicker() {
InputMethodManager imeManager = (InputMethodManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
if (imeManager != null) {
imeManager.showInputMethodPicker();
} else {
Toast.makeText(this, R.string.not_possible_im_picker, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}

Disable soft-keyboard from EditText but still allow copy/paste?

Hi I'm making custom dialer so I create my own input pad.
The problem is how do I disable the EditText but still allow cut/copy/paste? The stock dialer can do this.
I have tried android:focusable="false" but it disables cut/copy (can still paste though).
I also tried to disable the inputType programatically which disables all three commands:
myEditText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL); //Can't cut/copy/paste
Disabling it from manifest also doesn't work:
android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden" //Keyboard still popped up
Any solution? Thanks

After hours and hours of research, I finally found a solution that works for all API versions. Hope this saves someone's time.
If you are developing for API >= 11, the solution is simple, either:
1) Add the two properties below in the xml file of EditText
android:inputType="none"
android:textIsSelectable="true"
or
2) Programatically do the below
myEditText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);
myEditText.setTextIsSelectable(true);
And you're done.
If you want to cater for API < 11 as well, I found that there is no way to disable to keyboard from popping out if you wanted to select the text for copy paste purpose. Setting focusable to false will disable the keyboard but it doesn't help because it disables your ability to select text too. Any other solutions I found in stackoverflow all either doesn't work or disables text selection at the same time too.
One ugly way to solve this is as such..
First, add this property in the xml file of EditText
android:editable="false"
Yes this is deprecated, but necessary for making the EditText not editable in API version < 11.
Next, we will need to hide the keyboard as soon as it shows up, so that we can continue selecting text without the keyboard blocking the way.
Use this code below to detect keyboard showing up (solution obtained from https://stackoverflow.com/a/9108219/1241783), and hide it immediately.
if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB)
{
final View activityRootView = findViewById(R.id.activityRoot);
activityRootView.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
Rect r = new Rect();
//r will be populated with the coordinates of your view that area still visible.
activityRootView.getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame(r);
int heightDiff = activityRootView.getRootView().getHeight() - (r.bottom - r.top);
if (heightDiff > 100) { // if more than 100 pixels, its probably a keyboard...
//Hide the keyboard instantly!
if (getCurrentFocus() != null)
{
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(getCurrentFocus().getWindowToken(), 0);
}
}
}
});
}
It works for my case. Though you can see the keyboard showing up in a split second (which is the ugly part) but I can't think of any other way to get this to work at the time of writing. If you have a better solution, please leave a comment!
Let me know too if this saves someone's time :)

To disable the soft keyboard showing, keeping the copy/paste and cursor functionality, just add this line in your activity:
getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_ALT_FOCUSABLE_IM,
WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_ALT_FOCUSABLE_IM);

Since the current top answer uses a deprecated method and didn't have the paste method for me, here's another way that doesn't use old methods. But, it does try to use a hidden method via reflection with a fallback. =)
I've subclassed EditText into a new widget called KeyboardlessEditText that still retains all the cool editing features without the keyboard showing. Just drop the file in and go.
The full code is a little long for this post, but as long as GitHub doesn't go down, then this will work: https://github.com/danialgoodwin/android-widget-keyboardless-edittext/blob/master/KeyboardlessEditText2.java

To disable system keyboard automatic pop up for EditText or TextView do the following:
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
editTextView.setShowSoftInputOnFocus(false);
} else {
editTextView.setTextIsSelectable(true);
//N.B. Accepting the case when non editable text will be selectable
}

I had the same problem but later I also wanted allow typing after double tap.. after hours and hours of searching I found working solution (at least for me). Use this in your onCreate method:
editText.setCursorVisible(false);
editText.setTextIsSelectable(true);
editText.setShowSoftInputOnFocus(false);
getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_HIDDEN); // This just hide keyboard when activity starts
These lines should definitely do the trick.. and if you want to revert that use this:
editText.setCursorVisible(true);
editText.setShowSoftInputOnFocus(true);
To show keyboard again use:
private void showSoftKeyboard(View view) {
InputMethodManager inputMethodManager = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
view.requestFocus();
inputMethodManager.showSoftInput(view, 0);
}
To allow copy/paste next time just use these three lines:
editText.setCursorVisible(false);
editText.setTextIsSelectable(true);
editText.setShowSoftInputOnFocus(false);
For further keyboard hide use:
private void hideSoftKeyboard() {
if(getCurrentFocus() != null) {
InputMethodManager inputMethodManager = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputMethodManager.hideSoftInputFromWindow(getCurrentFocus().getWindowToken(), 0);
}
}
This code is working on API >= 21

try this
EditText et = ... // your EditText
et.setKeyListener(null) //makes the EditText non-editable so, it acts like a TextView.
No need to subclass. The main difference between this and making your EditText non-focusable, is that the EditText still has its own cursor - you can select text, etc. All it does is suppress the IME from popping up its own soft keyboard.

Had a similar need due to my custom inline "fake" input which was still visible as the os soft keypad was appearing after focus moved to an edit text.
Solution was to make the edit text hide soft input until the previous custom input widget had finished its edit lifecycle.
Used #Bruce's answer for inspiration, also saw a few related posts which I'll attach at end.
Solution I found worked was:
fun setInputType(inputType: Int) {
getEditText().setRawInputType(inputType)
if (inputType == InputType.TYPE_NULL) {
getEditText().setTextIsSelectable(true)
getEditText().isCursorVisible = true
}
}
had to use setRawInputType() instead as multiline text input was not respected when setting from InputType.TYPE_NULL back to InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_MULTI_LINE.
Seems there are users reporting issues relating to calling setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL). see:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36907992
other useful related posts:
How to make EditText not editable through XML in Android?
EditText non editable

How to set/call an new input method in Android

I followed these two exemples of developer.android (Creating an Input Method, Soft Keyboard sample). Think everything is correct, but the custom keyboard dont shows up.
Sorry but i dont understand the code, how i call this new keyboard?
thanks for all.

You can open the "Change input method" menu programatically like this:
InputMethodManager mgr =
(InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
if (mgr != null) {
mgr.showInputMethodPicker();
}
You may also want to open "Language & Input settings" so your users can enable your input method. You can do that like this:
startActivityForResult(
new Intent(android.provider.Settings.ACTION_INPUT_METHOD_SETTINGS), 0);

You need to select the new keyboard to be your default. You have to turn it on in the device settings first, and then you need to long press inside of an EditText to be able to get the InputOptions menu. This will allow you to select your keyboard

android: problems with programmatic invoking of soft keyboard

In my application I want to display a list of stuff and provide the user with the ability to filter the list by using the soft keyboard. To that end I added a button that should trigger (hide/show) the soft keyboard for filtering. I don't want to have a visible edit text control, cause it would take up unnecessary space. Rather than that, I would like to display a toast showing the filter query as the user types, much as the 'android:textFilterEnabled' attribute for ListView does. To my understanding there is no obvious way of doing this with available Android components. So I tried the following approach:
1) creating a layout containing invisible edit text and the list view:
<ListView android:id="#+id/main_list"
android:drawSelectorOnTop="false"
android:layout_height="0px"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="5"
/>
2) adding button as a popup and invoking InputMethodManager on click to toggle the soft input (called in onCreate):
private void initButton() {
Button buttonView = (Button) getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.keyboard_button, null);
buttonView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
final View target = findViewById(R.id.filterbox);
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
// this does not work...
// imm.toggleSoftInputFromWindow(target.getWindowToken(), InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, 0);
// ... so need to track this in an instance variable - which sucks
if (imeShowing) {
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(target.getWindowToken(), 0);
imeShowing = false;
} else {
// check that the filterbox got focus
Preconditions.checkState(target.requestFocusFromTouch());
Preconditions.checkState(target.hasWindowFocus());
Preconditions.checkState(target.hasFocus());
imm.showSoftInput(target, 0);
imeShowing = true;
}
}
});
buttonPopup = new PopupWindow(buttonView);
// ... code to display the button as a small popup
}
As mentioned in the code sample, the 'obvious' approach (calling toggleSoftInput) does not work, so I had to revert to this ugly if-else. This is however, a secondary problem. The primary problem is that when I run this in the emulator, the soft keyboard is displayed correctly, but as soon as I start typing in it, the systems starts an intent to the google search activity! And the typed characters appear in the Google search box displayed as a result. What is even more weird, this only happens the first time I type after deploying and running the app. I.e. if I go back to my app from the Google search box, everything works as expected (no redirects to the search box). Before showing the display I make sure that the invisible edittext gets focus, so it should be the target of the soft keyboard, right??
Does anyone have any idea what is happening here?

Sorry this is me (the author of this question), I can't access my old account due to SO new 'awesome' OpenID login:/
So I figured out that what I really need to do is just turn on the 'android:textFilterEnabled' attribute of the list, and focus on it on the button click. ListView supports input from soft keyboard (although I figured it out by looking at the actual code of AbsListView rather than getting hints in any documentation:). Also, I managed to get PopupWindow working for the button (instead of Dialog that I tried previously) so the focus problem is gone. The working code for this (in case anyone has similar problem) below:
View popupView = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.keyboard_button, null);
Button buttonView = (Button) popupView.findViewById(R.id.keyboardButton);
buttonView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
final View list = findViewById(R.id.the_list);
list.requestFocus();
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, 0);
}
});
buttonPopup = new PopupWindow(this);
The list will handle input from soft keyboard just as it does from hard one. The trick is just to trigger the keyboard and focus on the list. Also you may control how the filtering is applied to the list by setting a custom QueryFilterProvider on its associated adapter.