Maui 17.9 preview 5 android 34 is now there's a keyboard custom

Question

Hello all. is now in 17.9 preview 5 and android 34 there is a fully customized keyboard. mainly a keyboard with a special keys that fit my application need. Thank in advanced.

Answer 1

Hello,

I wonder why android not allow to change characters according the developer need.

Actually, Android itself supports a fully customized keyboard, but you need to design the keyboard page completely yourself and connect it to Android through the InputMethodService.

However, this process is currently not available in MAUI, because the custom page cannot be called in the Resource class after the layout is created.

public class MyIMService : InputMethodService, View.IOnClickListener
{

    private static String TAG = "MyIMService";
    public override global::Android.Views.View? OnCreateInputView()
    {
        var myKeyboardView = LayoutInflater.Inflate(Resource.Layout.MyKeyboard, null); // Here you will get an error that the reference could not be found
        Button btnA = myKeyboardView.FindViewById(Resource.Id.search_button) as Button;
        btnA.SetOnClickListener(this);
        //ADD ALL THE OTHER LISTENERS HERE FOR ALL THE KEYS
        return myKeyboardView;
    }
    public void OnClick(View? v)
    {
        var ic = CurrentInputConnection;
        if (v is Button) {
            String clickedKeyText = ((Button)v).Text.ToString();
            ic.CommitText(clickedKeyText, 1);
        }
    }
}

Therefore, in the current MAUI, an alternative solution is through a pop-up window with Entry, the layout under the Entry that you could set up as a keyboard-style grid view, and add content to the Entry via a click event.

Best Regards,

Alec Liu.

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