[SOLVED] No on-screen keyboard on the 7-inch local display?

[Nutul]

Hi guys,

for the first time today I had to search for a song in my library, and to my surprise I saw there was no keyboard popping up on the local 7-inch Raspberry display (while on my PC and iPhone I get one)

Is it a known issue? If not, is there something I might have done wrong, or can do to fix it?

Thanks in advance, Al.

[Tim Curtis]

I was never able to figure out how to automatically install a virtual keyboard extension for chromium-browser as part of building the image but you can try the steps below to manually install one.

1. Connect a keyboard
2. Press Ctrl-t to open a new chromium tab
3. Enter the URL chrome://extensions and then search for and install the xontab virtual keyboard extension
4. Reboot

[Nutul]

I was never able to figure out how to automatically install a virtual keyboard extension for chromium-browser as part of building the image but you can try the steps below to manually install one.

1. Connect a keyboard
2. Press Ctrl-t to open a new chromium tab
3. Enter the URL chrome://extensions and then search for and install the xontab virtual keyboard extension
4. Reboot

Thanks Tim,

I'll definitely try that.
If it doesn't work (or it's too heavy, btw...) I can try to tweak a simple virtual keyboard I have written some time ago for a different project, and see if it can do the trick.

Cheers, Al.

[TheOldPresbyope]

So I did a little InterWeb™ searching.

Found several Google documents which seemed to go in slightly different directions, so I tried this one first:

ExtensionInstallForceList

Here's what I came up with for installing xontab automagically.

Create the file /etc/chromium/policies/managed/xontab_forceinstall.json containing the lines shown here

Code:

pi@m812lcd:~ $ cat /etc/chromium/policies/managed/xontab_forceinstall.json
{
  "ExtensionInstallForcelist":
  [
    "pflmllfnnabikmfkkaddkoolinlfninn;https://clients2.google.com/services/update2/crx",
    "pflmllfnnabikmfkkaddkoolinlfninn"
  ]
}

I chose the filename arbitrarily. The 32-character string pflm... is the unique identifier for the xontab extension which I found in the Google Playstore (note it's embedded in the extension page's URL https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...olinlfninn).

I wrote this file into a freshly flashed moOde image and booted it on an RPi3B+ with official 7" LCD screen 

Eventually the LCD lit up with the browser window open to the xontab webpage  I touched the screen to open a new tab and chose m812lcd Player from the shortcuts. Voila! A moOde UI with virtual keyboard.

So, this installs the extension but there's still work to be done to get a full-screen UI with no annoying tabs, yada yada yada. It's a start.

Use and enjoy.

Regards,
Kent

[Nutul]

So I did a little InterWeb™ searching.

Found several Google documents which seemed to go in slightly different directions, so I tried this one first:

ExtensionInstallForceList

Here's what I came up with for installing xontab automagically.

Create the file /etc/chromium/policies/managed/xontab_forceinstall.json containing the lines shown here

Code:

pi@m812lcd:~ $ cat /etc/chromium/policies/managed/xontab_forceinstall.json
{
  "ExtensionInstallForcelist":
  [
    "pflmllfnnabikmfkkaddkoolinlfninn;https://clients2.google.com/services/update2/crx",
    "pflmllfnnabikmfkkaddkoolinlfninn"
  ]
}

I chose the filename arbitrarily. The 32-character string pflm... is the unique identifier for the xontab extension which I found in the Google Playstore (note it's embedded in the extension page's URL https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...olinlfninn).

I wrote this file into a freshly flashed moOde image and booted it on an RPi3B+ with official 7" LCD screen 

Eventually the LCD lit up with the browser window open to the xontab webpage  I touched the screen to open a new tab and chose m812lcd Player from the shortcuts. Voila! A moOde UI with virtual keyboard.

So, this installs the extension but there's still work to be done to get a full-screen UI with no annoying tabs, yada yada yada. It's a start.

Use and enjoy.

Regards,
Kent

Hi Kent,

what do you mean with "no annoying tabs"? That from the time the extension is installed the browser doesn't act like before, in window-size terms...?


Cheers, Al.

[TheOldPresbyope]

The idea is for the local UI to look like a web app: the browser should open the moOdeUI (URL=http://localhost/) in full-screen mode with no tabs and no info-bar, and that's how Tim has the starting code configured in moOde. 

Installation of the xontab extension, at least the way I did it, has disrupted this. The browser opens the xontab webpage in the current tab with the familiar "new tab" next to it in the tab bar; it also displays the info-bar. The result looks just like Chromium running on my laptop.

As I said, once moOde has fired up and the browser has started I can open the moOdeUI by touching "new tab", then touching the localhost shortcut (which of course bears the hostname I assigned rather than "localhost"). I can then switch to full screen by touching the three-dot menu and then touching the full-screen symbol.

That's a lot of touching just to get back to what we want. There must be some programmatic configuring which can be done but I haven't figured it out...at least not yet. It'd be great if someone else beat me to it

Regards,
Kent

[TheOldPresbyope]

Corrections to my previous post.

Correction 1. With the forced install of the xontab extension, each time the browser starts (after a reboot, say) it first opens the moOde WebUI in full-screen mode and then---after a moment---instead opens a tab on the "Virtual keyboard settings" page for xontab with all the decorations I described. However, this is not a web page as I previously called it but the internal page

Code:

chrome-extension://pflmllfnnabikmfkkaddkoolinlfninn/options.html

Correction 2. I made things too hard for myself. It turns out that it takes only one gesture to get to the moOde WebUI. Simply touch the "x" on the "Virtual keyboard settings" tab to close it out and we're back to normal until the next restart. Still don't know how to avoid having to do this.

I've done a little more experimenting with alternative methods for installing the extension but so far have failed to come up with a better solution. There's an incredible amount of information in Google's documentation but it's neither organized in any systematic way that I can discern nor necessarily current.

Regards,
Kent

[Nutul]

Hi all,

I have implemented a simple, lightweight OSK:

1. it attaches automatically to all inputs that have (for now... I am thinking of something more developer-friendly...) class "input-large"
2. shows up when a input of such class receives focus
3. hides upon such an input loses (and no-one else gains) focus

here the necessary files (osk.js + osk.css, together with a test html)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t7q7193...sp=sharing


I haven't yet tested on a real Raspberry 7" display (I have just tested it under chrome, in both normal and touch responsive mode)
@Tim Curtis can you give it a quick try...?

Cheers, A.

[Tim Curtis]

IIRC some years back I looked into a JS or jQuery keyboard and it ended up requiring a lot of modifications to existing code to get it work on all the input fields and to work only for locally attached touch devices. The other challenge with carrying the code and event handlers in moOde (as opposed to using an external Browser plugin) is that they never gets used for SmartPhones, Tablets, and Desk/Laptop clients because they have their own built-in on-screen keyboards or real physical keyboards.

Maybe the lightweight OSK would have less of a footprint but the only way to know would be to do a test integration. I don't have any spare cycles to do it though...

[Nutul]

IIRC some years back I looked into a JS or jQuery keyboard and it ended up requiring a lot of modifications to existing code to get it work on all the input fields and to work only for locally attached touch devices. The other challenge with carrying the code and event handlers in moOde (as opposed to using an external Browser plugin) is that they never gets used for SmartPhones, Tablets, and Desk/Laptop clients because they have their own built-in on-screen keyboards or real physical keyboards.

Maybe the lightweight OSK would have less of a footprint but the only way to know would be to do a test integration. I don't have any spare cycles to do it though...

I'll see if I can get it on my working machine... in the end it really needs just two files and a call to a procedure. See what I can come across in the next days.