Android TextField : set focus + soft input programmatically

Question

In my view, I have a search EditText and I would like to trigger programmatically the behaviour of a click event on the field, i.e give focus to the text field AND display soft keyboard if necessary (if no hard keyboard available).

I tried field.requestFocus(). The field actually gets focus but soft keyboard is not displayed.

I tried field.performClick(). But that only calls the OnClickListener of the field.

Any idea ?

Simson · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-12 08:12:45Z

154

Good sir, try this:

edittext.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
edittext.requestFocus();

I'm not sure, but this might be required on some phones (some of the older devices):

final InputMethodManager inputMethodManager = (InputMethodManager) context
                .getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputMethodManager.showSoftInput(edittext, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);

edited Dec 12, 2019 at 8:12

Simson

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answered Nov 10, 2011 at 13:58

pgsandstrom

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7 Comments

sdabet Over a year ago

Same result as requestFocus() alone... Field gets focus but the soft keyboard is not triggered.

sdabet Over a year ago

I finally solved the issued by calling field.requestFocus() in the onResume() method of the activity (instead of the onCreate()). Don't exactly know why it works...

pgsandstrom Over a year ago

A view cannot take focus before it actually has been laid out on the screen. This cannot be done while onCreate() holds the UI-thread, therefore the view is laid out directly after onCreate() and before onResume(). :)

Randy Over a year ago

@fiddler It works in onResume because onResume is called after onCreate, so field doesn't exist until onCreate is run. See here: developer.android.com/reference/android/app/…

MW. Over a year ago

Excellent suggestion, ol' chap. I do declare; this is well deserving of an upvote!

|

elisabel · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-18 09:17:11Z

67

Here is the code that worked for me.

edittext.post(new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        edittext.requestFocusFromTouch();
        InputMethodManager lManager = (InputMethodManager)getActivity().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE); 
        lManager.showSoftInput(edittext, 0);
    }
});

That's it! Enjoy ;)

answered Apr 18, 2013 at 9:17

elisabel

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5 Comments

dumbfingers Over a year ago

Thanks and this one worked for me. I add EditText programmatically when user hits button.

JeffRegan Over a year ago

I added an EditText from a dialog modal. Some flags are getting set by Android that cause this control to not receive any touches. If you add the field in the runnable, the flags don't get set.

JeffRegan Over a year ago

It looks like the InputType of the EditText is being set to null by Android. If you set the InputType, it should work.

Pavel Over a year ago

The only working solution for me (if I use InputMethodManager to show keyboard forced, then I can't hide it)

Androidcoder Over a year ago

None of the other methods worked for me, but this one did. I wanted to have a box for users to click in to open the edit dialogue view instead of having an edit line to click for an EditText view. On a phone the edit line loses most of it's functionality as the edit dialogue view covers then entire screen, so the user can't see the edit line, including the letters going in it while they are typing, anyway.

EpicPandaForce · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-03 08:16:13Z

7

The following code worked for me, after the other two answers didn't work for me:

@Override
public void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    SingletonBus.INSTANCE.getBus().register(this);
    //passwordInput.requestFocus(); <-- that doesn't work
    passwordInput.postDelayed(new ShowKeyboard(), 300); //250 sometimes doesn't run if returning from LockScreen
}

Where ShowKeyboard is

private class ShowKeyboard implements Runnable {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        passwordInput.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
  //      passwordInput.requestFocusFromTouch();
        passwordInput.requestFocus();            
        getActivity().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_VISIBLE);
        ((InputMethodManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE)).showSoftInput(passwordInput, 0);
    }
}

After a successful input, I also make sure I hide the keyboard

getActivity().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_HIDDEN);
((InputMethodManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE))
                    .hideSoftInputFromWindow(getView().getWindowToken(), 0);

Technically, I just added 300 ms of delay before running the soft keyboard display request. Weird, right? Also changed requestFocus() to requestFocusFromTouch().

EDIT: Don't use requestFocusFromTouch() it gives a touch event to the launcher. Stick with requestFocus().

EDIT2: In Dialogs (DialogFragment), use the following

getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_VISIBLE);

instead of

getActivity().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_VISIBLE);

edited Apr 3, 2015 at 8:16

answered Mar 24, 2015 at 10:14

EpicPandaForce

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3 Comments

EpicPandaForce Over a year ago

requestFocusFromTouch() seems to trigger a touch event on the launcher. This is weird.

AJW Over a year ago

For hiding the keyboard, does the ((InputMethodManager) getActivity()..." code line also need to change for use in a DialogFragment or is the code line you mention above sufficient?

EpicPandaForce Over a year ago

It should most likely work but you can always try it and see

DependencyHell · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-08 15:04:14Z

2

In my case, I wanted to display the virtual keyboard with no reference to a specific textbox, so I used the first part of the accepted answer to focus :

edittext.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
edittext.requestFocus();

Then I show the virtual keyboard :

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

answered Mar 8, 2019 at 15:04

DependencyHell

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Comments

Peter Z. · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-29 12:50:56Z

1

In my case just this solved all problems:

val inputMethodManager: InputMethodManager = 
   context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
inputMethodManager.showSoftInput(edittext, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT)

I have put it in RecyclerView Adapter, because I use data binding. Also I haven't used edittext.setFocusableInTouchMode(true) because in my layout it is true by default. And don't use this line: edittext.requestFocus(). When I removed it, it started to work :)

answered Mar 29, 2021 at 12:50

Peter Z.

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Comments

Intra · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-20 12:34:36Z

0

        field.post(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                field.requestFocus();
                field.onKeyUp(KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER, new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_UP, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER));
            }
        });

edited May 20, 2016 at 12:34

answered May 20, 2016 at 10:01

Intra

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Comments

Everton Renato Epifânio · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-25 18:24:52Z

0

val mAlertDialog = mBuilder.show()

        //Coloca o foo no txtDlgQuantidade e então chama o teclado
        mDialogView.txtDlgQuantidade.isFocusable = true
        mDialogView.txtDlgQuantidade.isFocusableInTouchMode = true
        mDialogView.txtDlgQuantidade.requestFocus()
        mAlertDialog.window?.clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_FOCUSABLE or WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_ALT_FOCUSABLE_IM)
        mAlertDialog.window?.setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_VISIBLE)

answered Nov 25, 2022 at 18:24

Everton Renato Epifânio

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