Android – Programmatically Hide/Show Soft Keyboard [duplicate]

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Possible Duplicate:
How do you close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically?

First thing first I already saw this thread. I tried the accepted methods given there, but nothing worked for me.

I have two screens in my app.

  • First one has 2 EditText – One for username and one for password
  • Second one have one ListView, and an EditText – to filter the
    listView

In my first screen, I want username EditText to have focus on startup and the Keyboard should be visible. This is my implementation (simplified by removing unnecessary/unrelated code).

#app_login.xml

<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical" 
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:paddingLeft="20dip"  
    android:paddingRight="20dip">

    <EditText android:id="@+id/username" 
        android:singleLine="true" 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"  
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:hint="Username"  
        android:imeOptions="actionDone" android:inputType="text"
        android:maxLines="1"/>

    <EditText android:id="@+id/password" 
        android:password="true" 
        android:singleLine="true"  
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"    
        android:hint="Password" />
</LinearLayout>

#AppLogin.java

class AppLogin extends Activity{
    private EditText mUserNameEdit = null;
    private EditText mPasswordEdit = null;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.app_login);
        
        mUserNameEdit  =    (EditText) findViewById(R.id.username);
        mPasswordEdit  =    (EditText) findViewById(R.id.password);

        /* code to show keyboard on startup.this code is not working.*/
        InputMethodManager imm =  (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
        imm.showSoftInput(mUserNameEdit, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);
    
    }//End of onCreate()
}

Well, the keyboard is not showing at startup. And my design badly requires a keyboard there.

Now on to second page. As I already mentioned, I have a listView and EditText there. I want my keyboard to be hidden on startup only to appear when the user touches the editText. Can you believe it? whatever I tried soft Keyboard is showing when I load the activity. I am not able to hide it.

#app_list_view.xml

<LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:orientation="vertical" >
    
   <EditText android:id="@+id/filter_edittext"       
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:hint="Search" android:inputType="text" 
        android:maxLines="1"/>
    <ListView android:id="@id/android:list" 
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_weight="1.0" 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:focusable="true" 
        android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"/>
</LinearLayout>

#AppList.java

public class MyListActivity extends ListActivity{
   private EditText mfilterEditText;

    @Override
   public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {        
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.app_list_view);

      mFilterEditText  =  (EditText) findViewById(R.id.filter_edittext);
      InputMethodManager imm = InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
      imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(mFilterEditText.getWindowToken(), 0);
   }
}

To simplify

  1. On Login Page (first Page) I want my keyboard to be visible on startup.
  2. On SecondPage I want the keyboard to be hidden first, only to appear
    when the user touches editText

And my problem is I am getting the exact opposite on both occasions. Hope someone faced this issue before. BTW I am testing on the simulator and HTC Desire phone.

#FINAL OUTCOME

Well, I got it working, with the help of all my friends here.

1. To Show keyboard on startup

Two answers worked for me. One provided by @CapDroid, which is to use a handler and post it delayed..

mUserNameEdit.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
  @Override
  public void run() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    InputMethodManager keyboard = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
    keyboard.showSoftInput(mUserNameEdit, 0);
  }
},50);

The second answer is provided by @Dyarish, In fact, he linked to another SOF thread, which I haven’t seen before. But the funny thing is that this solution is given in the thread which I referenced at the start. And I haven’t tried
it out because it had zero votes in a thread where all other posts have plenty of votes. Height of foolishness.

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

For me, the second solution looked neat, so I decided to stick with it..But the first one certainly works.
Also, @Dyarish’s answer contains a clever hack of using a ScrollView below EditText to give EditText the focus. But I haven’t tried it, but it should work. Not neat though.

2. To hide keyboard at activity start

Only one answer worked for me, which is provided by @Dyarish. And the solution is to use
focusableInTouchMode settings in XML for the layout containing the EditTexts. This did the trick

<LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:orientation="vertical" 
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true">
    <EditText android:id="@+id/filter_edittext"       
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:hint="Search" android:inputType="text" 
        android:maxLines="1"/>
    <ListView android:id="@id/android:list" 
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_weight="1.0" 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:focusable="true" 
        android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"/>
</LinearLayout>

Anyway, I end up using Dyarish’s answer in both cases. So I am awarding the bounty to him. Thanks to all my other friends
who tried to help me.

4 Answers
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