How to use android soft keyboard in SurfaceView

Question

I have a SurfaceView that I draw onto, there are no controls, text boxes or any other sort of form-type item. I would like to be able to :

1: Touch one of the circles I draw on the SurfaceView onDraw() method and open the default android soft keyboard. (I know how to do the touch detection part, just need to open the soft keyboard somehow)

2: As I type I want the letters I select to be shown on the canvas (Again I know how to do the drawing part, but how do I capture the keys the user has selected in the first place?)

many tanks

David

Answer 1

you can try this to show the keyboard:

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

if that shows it for you then I imagine you could listen for the key events by overriding the onKeyDown() method of your activity