Recently Lost Ability To Access Off Screen Native Text

Solar2D Android
#1

Hey,

I’ve been running a bit of code to deal with the issue of non scrolling native text screens that in short, places them off screen ( as android won’t let you modify hidden input screen ), and then focuses on them when the user hits what looks to be a text box on screen. Then I have an edit listener update the fake input box as they type.

I just downloaded the latest version of SDK and now this only works when the native text box is places within the canvas area. Anyone else noticed this or got a way to deal with native text boxes (that works on droid and ios)?

The code was based on some work by http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2012/02/07/tutorial-text-input-with-native-ui/ ( Comment by Dougi)

#2

There were several fixes involving native.newTextField in the daily builds between 971 (the old public build and the new public build).  Let me ask and see if this rings a bell wtih any one.

#3

We would need a bug report filed with a small sample project that demonstrates the problem. Please least the platforms affected and which builds work and when it failed. There was a issued fixed in iOS but I don’t recall any fixes on Android that would affect this.

#4

There were several fixes involving native.newTextField in the daily builds between 971 (the old public build and the new public build).  Let me ask and see if this rings a bell wtih any one.

#5

We would need a bug report filed with a small sample project that demonstrates the problem. Please least the platforms affected and which builds work and when it failed. There was a issued fixed in iOS but I don’t recall any fixes on Android that would affect this.

#6

Has this bug been filed? My Andriod game doesn’t work currently because it won’t show the keyboard when I set focus to a input off screen.

#7

Has this bug been filed? My Andriod game doesn’t work currently because it won’t show the keyboard when I set focus to a input off screen.

#8

Any updates on this guys? 

I am using build 1135 and off-screen textfields dont call the listener function( I am using native.setKeyboardFocus(textField) after placing the textField off-screen).

#9

Hi @Satheesh,

Since you have a fairly current project which exhibits it, can you put this into an official bug report and list the device(s) that you know it’s occurring on? This is the fastest way to bring it to the attention of the engineers.

http://developer.coronalabs.com/content/bug-submission

Thanks for your help and patience,

Brent

#10

I’m doing a slightly different version of the native.text shuffle, maybe it’s not a big adaptation for someone.

I’m using display.newRoundedRect() for the background of display.newText() fields onscreen (like it sounds most people are), and when the user taps one of the rects, I call my native.field editing routine – passing in the rect object that was tapped. The edit routines create a new native field of the same size and dimensions as the passed in rectangle, perfectly covering the area. (the editor is called after fields have been slid up to make room for the keyboard. Once the edit routine is done of course, it deletes the native field and passes back the result.

Just thought I’d throw that out there in case someone has nice rectangle fields already in place they can shift their offscreen field onto just to get past the issue asap.

#11

@Brent 
Ok I just submitted a bug report.

Case 24464

@mpappas
That would work, but the problem is different Android devices have difference text fields, and there is the chance that some textfields may screw up the UI. But I guess I’d do that as a last resort.

#12

I’d like to throw my hat in the ring here.  I’ve had a detailed bug report filed for this issue (Case 23692) since May 24th.  I haven’t heard anything back on it yet.  This issue is currently a show-stopper for me (I’m ready to publish now).  It affects Android devices (I’m testing on a Droid X running 2.3.4), but not iOS devices.  I was previously using .971 and everything worked fine.  When I switched to .1076 I noticed the bug.  I just updated to .1137 and it’s still there.  I’m using fake text fields with off-screen native text fields out of necessity, since native text fields vary so greatly between devices/operating systems.  I appreciate you guys taking a look at this.

#13

I second @drewns on the urgency on this
Although it seems like a minor annoyance,  it really is a major frustration.
 

@Brent
I saw in http://bugs.anscamobile.com that you guys had classified it as “Important”, below “Critical-significant impact” and “Showstopper”.  Does that mean it is not high priority? Can you give a timeframe, so that we can do some workaround, if it seems the fix would take awhile? (although will really appreciate it if you guys fix it ASAP)

#14

Can you humor me and try it by leaving it on screen (even if just partially, so the event handler works) but set it’s .isVisible flag to false?

#15

@Rob I remember trying it sometime back. Invisible textfields never received keyboard focus

Still, I tried again with build 1150 now… Nope. no luck.

Then I tried by setting alpha of the textfield to 0.
Now a weird thing happens.  The keyboard appears and focus is seemingly set to the textfield. But the textfield becomes visible. After it loses focus, it is hidden again. 

EDIT: 
Also, when the alpha is set to 0, the textfield responds to user touch…

#16

Yea, I tried it to.  I’ll ping the engineers on it but it’s getting to be late on a Friday.

#17

@Rob I had very similar results to @Satheesh.  isVisible acts the same as having the text fields off of the screen (even though I had them fully on the screen–nothing hanging off the edges).  Setting the alpha to 0 works on the device, but the native text field responds to touch even though it’s invisible.  Unlike @Satheesh I didn’t see the native text box on the device when I was using my fake text fields, though I did see the native cursor pointer when I touched the native text field directly.

#18

Hi all,

I discussed this with the engineers this morning (Monday 7/1). They will investigate if some of these issues ever worked (in older builds) or if it’s some kind of issue with recent builds. It appears to be an Android-only issue, but working fine on iOS. In any case, the bug priority has been pushed up in importance.

Thanks for your patience,

Brent Sorrentino

#19

We determined that this has been broken for a couple public release builds (1076 and 1137). Build 1051 works and build 1053 breaks off-screen textfields. This is when we fixed an issue with native textfields not transitioning off screen correctly. We are looking into a fix for this issue. 

#20

Any updates on this guys? 

I am using build 1135 and off-screen textfields dont call the listener function( I am using native.setKeyboardFocus(textField) after placing the textField off-screen).