Database Users

how to get event of sliding keyboard?

HTC Wizard and so....
recognizes hardware keyboard slide out and changes screen orientation.
should be there some hardware switcher.
if so:
how to determine this swither status and use it in code,
for example to to turn the power on when keyboard is sliding out?

Well, when the screen orientation changes all top-level windows should get a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

have you tried...
http://blogs.msdn.com/onoj/archive/2004/03/12/88865.aspx
Not sure if there's an event (the keyboard driver may simply be calling all the required code), but the call in that article should hopefully tell you whether the keyboard is slid out or not; means you'd have to check periodically, I guess.

thanks for suggestions, but it did not helped.
I can recognize if the keyboard slide out/in, by the registry key.
nothing special hard.
but this registry key is defined at the moment when keyboard slide in/out but only when the poer is running. when you change keyboard when device sleep (power off), then when you turn the power up, you observe a second delay before the scrfeen orientation changes and refreshes.
I want to write appliaction which will turn the power up when the keyboard will slide out. I know how to write application which runs even when the device sleeps, but I need any event of keyboard changes.

once you figured out how to correctly detect the keyboard sliding out, maybe you could also make a little application which hides the keyboard in all application once the keyboard is open (for example with a keyboard of zero pixels high) When the keyboard is closed, the last used or standard keyboard should be made active again...
CIAO!
VOODOOS!L

You all will get surprised...but the screen rotation is hrdware dependent and what hardware..is a junction where two magnets meets and the force causes the thing to rotate...similar to the design of Nokia 6800...one can veryfy by using a magnet...and many of our friends hv experienced with the magnetic cover which comes with the handset..

Detecting and suppressing sliding keybaord event

Hi,
on my WM device, when the sliding keyboard is opened and i am on the Today screen, the keyboard enters a "number lock state". what that means is that the when the w,e,r,s,d,f,z,x,c keys are pressed, they are mapped to number keys which are outputted instead of the letters. I would like to disable this. It is possible i believe, since when Pocket Word or other editors are open and in focus, it works fine..the the letters are outputted when pressed and if you would like to enter a number, you press FN key then the letter corresponding to the number.
However, when the today screen is showing, it does not work. My question is...does anyone know what events are fired or what messages are sent when the keyboard is slid open? Or what causes devices with sliding keyboard to exhibit the behavior described above when on the Today screen, but not when an app such as Pocket Word is open.
i have tried spying various windows while sliding out and closing the keyboard, but have not noticed anything relevant.
thank you

Hi,
For owners with a device with a slide-out keyboard, when you are ON TODAY SCREEN and press one of the overloaded keys that also acts as the number keys, is a number outputted and does it take you directly to the phone screen?
That is the behavior of my device. I have to think that since this behavior only occurs on the Today screen, it can be turned off so that the keyboard act as it normally would (i.e. when the user is in Word for instance).
What i am not sure about is whether this is a native Windows Mobile behavior or controled by the keyboard driver or some other lib.

On my Cingular 8125 if I push a number key (along with the red 'alt' key to designate it as a number) it does in fact open the phonepad with that number entered in.

Qtek 9100 (HTC Wizard) -- doesn't switch into numlock mode when the keyboard slides out. On this kbd, the top row (QWERTY) is overloaded with the digits 1-0. Pressing the Q key doesn't do anything; however, pressing the symshift (dot key on lower left) then Q opens the phone app & enters the digit '1'.
My old phone (Siemens SX66 -- HTC Blue Angel) exhibits the behavior you describe.

I'm wondering what driver function might be called to toggle between these modes. I notice many of these keyboard drivers implement these functions, including the one used in my device:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...wceddk40/html/cxgrflayoutmanagerfunctions.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...ceddk40/html/cxgrfkeyboarddriverfunctions.asp
Could one of these be responsible for toggling the mode?

Screen lock delay? and Keyboard probs

Hi everyone,
Basically I am experiencing several nuisances that I hope some of you might have answers too.
Screen lock: The problem here is especially when reading something the screen will lock as its supposed to and I will have to unlock it with the slide lock in addition to the unlock pattern (I enabled it). What I'm looking for is a way to delay the screen lock. For example, if the screen blacks this should be an indication the screen is about to lock, allowing a 2-5 sec window for me to stop the locking if I'm looking at something.
Keyboard: I have the HTC IME mod, the one that comes with the rooting process. What I experience is when I am typing and if I make a mistake and use the left most arrow key to navigate to the mistake and correct it and then use the right most arrow key to navigate back this key will insert a "o" character for every time its pushed. I can push backspace and backspace will delete all of this characters at once. But if I pus the same key again it puts the "o" back. The only way to correct this is to use the left most arrow key once and then i can use the right most arrow key to navigate back.
Does anyone have any way around these issues?

Just constantly touch the screen or do something so it won't auto-lock.
Alternatively, just set the timeout higher.
I've never heard of the second issue.

I've had the keyboard problem with stock X10i keyboard, I turned off "word suggestion" which I found to be annoying rather than helpful. Problem solved!
As for the screen timeout problem you either extend the time before the screen times out, go to "Settings", "Sound & display" and "Screen timeout". You can set for a number of minutes or never and to make the phone sleep you'll need to press the lock button or there are apps on the market with a widget that that stops the phone sleeping until it is pressed again.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

kindred7 said:
Hi everyone,
Basically I am experiencing several nuisances that I hope some of you might have answers too.
Screen lock: The problem here is especially when reading something the screen will lock as its supposed to and I will have to unlock it with the slide lock in addition to the unlock pattern (I enabled it). What I'm looking for is a way to delay the screen lock. For example, if the screen blacks this should be an indication the screen is about to lock, allowing a 2-5 sec window for me to stop the locking if I'm looking at something.
Keyboard: I have the HTC IME mod, the one that comes with the rooting process. What I experience is when I am typing and if I make a mistake and use the left most arrow key to navigate to the mistake and correct it and then use the right most arrow key to navigate back this key will insert a "o" character for every time its pushed. I can push backspace and backspace will delete all of this characters at once. But if I pus the same key again it puts the "o" back. The only way to correct this is to use the left most arrow key once and then i can use the right most arrow key to navigate back.
Does anyone have any way around these issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keyboard: Press Space and then remove the o with backspace. it works....

Think Outside Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts on Samsung Vibrant

Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts on Samsung Vibrant
(And Possibly for Samsung Galaxy Tab)
Smartphones now come in bigger screens of up to 4 inches or more. It is no longer uncommon for a phone to have a 1 Ghz processor with storage of up to 32 GB on an external sd card. With these improved features, it is now convenient to use the smartphone as a replacement for the desktop PC or a laptop.
There is, however, one drawback. The built-in buttons and keyboards, whether slide-out hardware keyboard or screen keyboard on the phone, are too small to allow for easy typing. This is where a Bluetooth keyboard becomes a very useful tool. With the upswell of tablets and tablet wanabees on the market recently, this could also be possibly applied on tablets.
In my case, I have a Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard which I am using with a Samsung Vibrant, aka Galaxy S or Samsung T959. I originally used the keyboard with a Nokia N82. When I bought the keyboard, it required drivers specific for the Nokia phone. Luckily, I was able to download a driver from the iGo website (iGo bought Think Outside). With that, I was able to use all the features of the keyboard. Although I haven’t had the chance to try it, these shortcuts might also be usable on a Galaxy Tab.
It is important to note that, even without an installer, the keyboard will work with other devices but this will be limited to simple typing of text. When my Vibrant phone was updated to Android 2.2, I was able to use my Bluetooth keyboard. While tinkering with it, I was able to devise some shortcuts to replace what operations would have been possible only with an installer. Please see the following:
First of all, observe that the keys in the Think Outside or iGo keyboard are color coded. If you press any of the keys, what appears on the screen re the default applications. For example, if you press “Q”, what appears is the letter “Q”. But if you press the blue “Fn” key and press “Q”, what appears is the number “1” which is color blue under the letter “Q” key. And when you press the green “Fn” key and “Q”, what you get is “!” which is color green on the “Q” key. And so on. But not everything works right. That’s what this piece is about. We will discuss some workarounds.
A word of caution. I cannot guarantee that this will work with other devices. Let us be clear about what hardware I am using: Samsung Vibrant and Think Outside Stowaway ultraslim Bluetooth keyboard. The keyboard is also known as the iGo Bluetooth keyboard. My phone is on Android 2.2. As for software, I am using Documents to Go v3 for document creation and editing. Being done with that, let’s get underway.
Most important shortcut: Green Fn key+Home.
These two keys are beside each other. This replaces the “home” button on the phone. Wherever you are on the phone, pressing these two keys brings you to the default home screen. You will find why this is the most important shortcut in the following.
Add applications shortcuts to the home screen. You will see that on the keyboard, highlighted in blue, are the following applications: Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, Notes, Word, Excel, IE. Simply pressing on these keys won’t work. What you do is press green Fn+home. If you have already placed shortcuts of the said applications on the home screen, press the direction arrows on the keyboard to get to the application you want to launch and press enter.
Illustration: Let’s say you’re browsing a webpage and you want to open the calendar. Press green Fn+home and you’re at the home screen. Scroll to calendar and it will launch. This presumes that you had earlier placed a calendar shortcut on the home screen. Of course, you can cut it anyway you like to suit your taste.
Home Screen Menu. On the phone, you press the menu button to get to settings, set wallpaper, add item etc. On the Bluetooth keyboard you press blue Fn+A, press the arrows where you want to go and press “enter”
Google Search. Press Alt+A or press green Fn+A
Call log. Press blue Fn+D
Put phone on sleep mode immediately or to wake from sleep mode. Press blue Fn+F or press green Fn+end
To reboot phone. Press together Ctrl+Alt+Delete
To bring up the symbols table. Press Alt THEN press space bar. Do not press both keys at the same time.
Documents to Go shortcuts. With Documents to Go open, you can perform the following operations:
Blue Fn+A = open menu
Blue Fn+Esc = save, discard or cancel document
Press shift twice = all caps
To highlight text to cut, copy or edit etc, press shift while Pressing the arrow button in the desired portion to be highlighted.
Miscellaneous.
Camera – You can use the keyboard as a remote camera shutter for self portrait. Set the phone on a tripod etc. Go in front of the phone bringing your Bluetooth keyboard. Press enter to click the shutter.
On a webpage, pressing the spacebar scrolls down.
In Android Market home page, simply type what you're looking for; it automatically goes to the search bar.
Searching for other shortcuts is still a work in progress. Your contributions will be most welcome. I hope this contribution is helpful to you and others.

larrisa12002 said:
In my case, I have a Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard which I am using with a Samsung Vibrant, aka Galaxy S or Samsung T959. I originally used the keyboard with a Nokia N82. When I bought the keyboard, it required drivers specific for the Nokia phone. Luckily, I was able to download a driver from the iGo website (iGo bought Think Outside). With that, I was able to use all the features of the keyboard. Although I haven’t had the chance to try it, these shortcuts might also be usable on a Galaxy Tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgive me, I'm very curious but a little unclear how you created these shortcuts in Android. I am using a Dsi Mini Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse (WKB-1500) so it may not apply. However, if you are referring to an Android App/driver, then perhaps I'll find something similar for my keyboard. Regardless, thanks for the post. I'm looking forward to seeing the Galaxy S replace my laptop.

I didn't actually do any technical stuff, just trial-and-error punching keys and combinations of keys and observing results. I also tried copying keyboard presses of a phone with a hardware keyboard. Thats how I discovered that double pressing shift brings up all caps.

Understood. Trial and error often provides the first documentation. Thanks for the effort.
Any chance you could tell us what, if anything, the keyboard suggests the Fn+ buttons normally represent (shown in blue above the normal character). For instance, on my keyboard Fn-Left sends the Home key and Fn-A sends the ~ character. These should be the keystrokes being received by Android and then mapped to the results you found.

I tried find that driver on the iGo site but all I saw was drivers for Pocket PC and Blackberry. Do you have a url for the driver?
Thanks

Working driver for Stowaway
hlwilliams (and anyone else trying to use Stowaway keyboard with Android devices):
I had given up all hope and found BlueKeyboard JP. It's available in the Market.
Follow the instructions on the developer's blog site. (sotolog.net SLASH bluekeyboard SLASH 2010 SLASH 06 2010 07 2010 log3 DOT html) and you can probably go to work within minutes. (Sorry but I am not yet allowed to post URL's. The developers's blog is also specified in the Market page for BlueKeyboard JP.)
I have gotten it working on the Galaxy Tab running 2.2 and Nexus One running 2.3.3. And they worked exactly as documented immediately.
Caution: My partner tried with the HTC Desire and it seems to have had bad interactions with his Motorola Bluetooth stereo headset. (Headset now only plays music in phone headset mono mode.) We have not (yet) narrowed down whether this is an interaction with HTC Sense, the Android ROM version, this particular Motorola model, etc.

Weird problem with the keyboard

Hi,
I have noticed a weird problem with my Iconia A500's keyboard for some time. It seems that I can't hold any key pressed anymore; when I do it looks like the key gets pushed only once. E.g., if I hold the 'g' key, instead of multiple g's appearing only one gets written down. That would't be that much annoying but it seems I can't activate caps lock anymore (when I hold it so it activates it does exactly the same action as when I click it briefly, that is capitalize only te next letter) , the smileys key (it justs inserts ' ' no matter how long I press it instead of displaying te smiley menu) or backspace (now if I want to delete a sentence I have to press backspace once for every letter -- very annoying!!). Also, sometimes, when I'm typing, a certain key remains highlighted.
I am running stock 3.2 Android on the tab but I think the problem's there since 3.1, maybe even before that, I don't think I have noticed it right away and that's the problem, I don't know what really caused this. Maybe it was an Android update, maybe an app update, a virus or a wrong setting.
Thing is it doesn't seem to be a problem with the screen because it's working just fine anywhere else, like games that require multiple touch. Could corrupt keyboard files be a probable cause? Can they be replaced?
I would be really, really grateful if you could give me any advice on this little annoying problem of my tab.
Thanks,
GriGGer

Are you 100% sure that when you long pressed that it would repeat the character (also am I understanding what you wrote correctly?)?
So far every keyboard that I have tried between both my phone and tablet will either do nothing or it will give you some alternate characters like the long pressing the 'e' will give me a '3'.
Do you remember using a different keyboard at some point?

I think your confusing your A500 with another device???

I just tried every keyboard I have installed on my tablet(stock Android, Thumb keyboard, XT9 keyboard, and Swiftkey) and none of them will type multiple letters with a long press on the key. I don't think I've ever seen a keyboard that would do that. Most of them will give a choice of alternate letters/symbols/etc. when you long press.

It seems I have realised what the problem actually was. I didn't think it had any connection with Accesibilty, as the touch and hold delay setting was set to short, but it seems that if I disable Accesibilty completely the problem goes away. Now the alternate characters work as intended. Problem solved!