Develop Reference

Getting keystrokes from the soft keyboard from within a fragment

I have an activity that launches a fragment whose main purpose is to present the user with an Imagebutton that they can click to launch the soft keyboard and type in whatever text they like. I need to grab each key as it is pressed on the soft keyboard. However, the user is not typing into an EditText view so I am struggling a bit with this. I can successfully display the soft keyboard when the user clicks the ImageButton using the code below...
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY);
However, I have not been able to find an example or a method that would let me grab the keystrokes from the soft keyboard without an EditText. I assume this must be possible I just don't know how to go about it.

Maybe it helps if you implement your own InputMethodService? You can overwrite the onUpdateSelection() method, which is called every time when a key is touched on the softkeyboard.

How to programmatically open Android soft keyboard according to the html input type in android webview

I want to show android soft keyboard on page load and programmatically focusing a input field.
$('#field').focus();
As far as I researched , this cannot be done other than user generated events , like click event.
So I tried a workaround to focus the input field , and show android keyboard manually by using this code.
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInputFromWindow(myWebView.getWindowToken() , InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT , 0);
Keyboard is successfully showing and input field is also getting focus. But the problem is , it is only showing the standard keyboard. I want to show the keyboard according to the input type specified.
Like if input field is:
<input type="number" id="field" name="field"/>
Above workaround is showing standard text keyboard , but I want to show a numeric keyboard according to the type in input field.

i've searched a long time before i found solution.
Add this :
imm.restartInput(view);
after showSoftInput.
This will "recalculate" the kind of keyboard to show regarding focused input

Try this:
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED,0);

Using a custom keyboard to enter and manipulate data in EditText

I want the user to enter data in an EditText using a custom keypad. The custom keypad is integrated to the layout. It is not supposed to pop up when the EditText in question is in focus.
The problem I have is that I can't disable the soft keyboard without disabling the editing properties of the EditText: I want the user to be able to position the cursor for example.
I have tried using the InputMethodManager
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(myEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);
but it doesn't work at least on some OS versions. The keyboard still pops up when I tap the EditText.
I have also tried setting the input mode:
edtView.setInputType(0)
but then I cannot position a cursor. I could Selection.setSelection(Spannable txt, int index); to position the cursor, but how to know the position the user has touched?

I never tried this myself, but the only thing that occurs to me is: have you tried adding an OnEditorActionListener to your EditText and calling hideSoftInputFromWindow every time you get an editor action?

Forcefully bring android soft keyboard without any edit fields

I know we can bring the soft keyboard in android with any edit fields. I need to know whether it is possible to bring soft keyboard without any edit fields such as, on click of a button.
On click of a button, I need to bring the soft keyboard and monitor the key press events. Is there a way to bring soft keyboard on click of button?

well, the standard way of bringing up the soft keyboard is
InputMethodManager inputMgr = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputMgr.toggleSoftInput(0, 0);
However, I've always used it to bring it up in conjunction with a EditText component. But I believe if you put that code in the click listener for the button, the keyboard should show up.

Try this
InputMethodManager inputMgr = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputMgr.showSoftInput(View youredittextobject, InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED)
In above code the first argument is of the edittext object view that you need to pass for which you want the keyboard to show up

Android keyboard

My application starts with a bunch of text input fields, and I want that when starting up the the application. The virtual keyboard isn't open, but opens only when I click on one of the textinput fields.
How do I do this?

In your onCreate method you could get your first text view and call requestFocus() on it. This ought to focus this field when the activity starts and bring up a virtual keyboard if needed.
If you want the keyboard not to appear on startup, request focus for a non-text element like a button.

You should leave the input method to the user. They might be using a physical keyboard or maybe even something like speech to text.

I've used this approach to hide the keyboard after the user searches. You could use this in our onCreate method:
Close/hide the Android Soft Keyboard
Quote from Reto Meier's accepted solution:
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(myEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);