Xamarin.forms.Android - EntryCell Autofocus

Question

Hi there, I am a new to Xamarin.forms and I am struggling, please help. This is for ANDROID.

My app is used for stocktake and the device that the app is on is a normal phone that has a scanner at the back. (Sunmi L2k). The app scans a barcode and displays relevant information of product right below it.

On my app I have an EntryCell field which takes the value of a barcode. Entrycell has an option to do keyboard.hide which is perfect for my application but I need the field to set autofocus which is not an option for EntryCell. How would I set autofocus to an EntryCell?

Please explain in the simplest way possible. Many thanks!

Answer 1

Hi RubenKannemeyer-8831,

Welcome to our Microsoft Q&A platform!

We can't make the EnrtyCell focused directly. Here is a workaround that creating a custom EntryCell you can refer to.
MyEntryCell.cs

class MyEntryCell : ViewCell  
{  
    public Label label  
    {  
        get;  
        set;  
    }  
  
    public Entry entry  
    {  
        get;  
        set;  
    }  
  
    public MyEntryCell()  
    {  
        label = new Label  
        {  
            Text = "123",  
            VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.Center  
        };  
        entry = new Entry  
        {  
            HorizontalOptions = LayoutOptions.Fill  
        };  
  
        Grid grid = new Grid  
        {  
            ColumnDefinitions =  
            {  
                new ColumnDefinition { Width = GridLength.Auto },  
                new ColumnDefinition { Width = GridLength.Star },  
            }  
        };  
        grid.Children.Add(label, 0, 0);  
        grid.Children.Add(entry, 1, 0);  
  
        View = grid;  
    }  
}  

MainPage.xaml.cs

public partial class MainPage : ContentPage  
{  
    protected async override void OnAppearing()  
    {  
        base.OnAppearing();  
        await Task.Delay(600);  
        myEntryCell.entry.Focus();  
    }  
    MyEntryCell myEntryCell;  
  
    public MainPage()  
    {  
        InitializeComponent();  
  
        myEntryCell = new MyEntryCell();  
        myEntryCell.label.Text = "Title";  
  
        TableView tableView = new TableView  
        {  
            Intent = TableIntent.Form,  
            Root = new TableRoot  
            {  
                new TableSection  
                {  
                    myEntryCell  
                }  
            }  
        };  
        // ...  
    }  
}  

Regards,
Kyle

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