n95 disable all the useless keys

[g_costanza]

Hi all,
I'm doing an application that is gonna be used in an exhibition, so I'd like that people won't be able to exit it in any way.

I saw that there are different way to prevent red key from closing the app, but from what i read (I didn't tested it yet) I understand that it send the app in background.
Is there a way to always have my app in foreground?

I should also prevent the 2 big buttons from making any action (app switcher and multimedia player)

If is not possible to disable them, is there a way to make my app to be "always on top" ?

thanks

Giuseppe

[bogdan.galiceanu]

I don't think there is any way to stop all buttons from functioning.

For the red button, when your app goes to background you could use appswitch to bring it back, though this may not be instantaneous.

I'm not sure what you mean by "app switcher and multimedia player" but if you mean the menu button I don't think there's anything you can do other than detect when it's pressed and immediately bring your app to the foreground again.

This is a pretty delicate issue. Even the PyS60 Library Reference says that:

There is no way to prevent the standard action of the Hang-up key, the Menu key, the Power key or the Voice tags key from taking place.

[g_costanza]

Yes, I mean the menu button and the specular on the right side, that gives access to music player.
How can I detect when they are pressed? Can I do it in python or do I need something else?
There's not any hack (software or hardware) to get temporarely rid of them?

thanks

G

[bogdan.galiceanu]

You can detect when a key is pressed using the keycapture module. Read the PyS60 Library Reference for a theoretical overview and search this forum for examples.

I sort of recommend searching the Symbian C++ forum for this and if you can't find anything, ask there. It's likely that C++ is your only 100% working option for this task.

[mayankkedia]

Sym C++ does allow you to block the red key from doing anything like closing/sending the app to the background if you so want, you can also get notified of the menu key press and can bring back your application to the top. I am not sure if Phython would let u do so or not.

Although i dont quite agree with the title of your post, certainly thinking from an end user perspective those keys cant be called useless.

[g_costanza]

Mayankkedia, when I wrote useless keys I meant all the key that can't be used (or are not generally used) in python s60, they are also useless in the context of an exhibition where people would be hardly able to go back to my app if they click one button for chance.
The multimedia button is quite useless for me in everyday use as well, I would like to customize it but i think is impossible..

[aaaaapo]

Hi Giuseppe.

I'm doing an application that is gonna be used in an exhibition - -

This sounds interesting, I probably have to do something similar in the future.

Would you like to document your work a bit and perhaps publish a link to the documentation in this forum after your application is ready?

PS. you can use appuifw.focus() to notify when your application goes background and appswitch-module to put it back to foreground.

[g_costanza]

I will put all the documentation in a couple of weeks,
thanks aaaaapo for your suggestion, I'll try it.

another good solution seems to be installing this "Magic Keys" app
http://www.symbian-freak.com/downloa...r_keyboard.htm

it makes possible to remap the keyboard, assigning harmless keys to all the multimedia and menu btns it should do the job.

The only problem is that I wasn't able to sign it, it seems that symbiansigned.com just changed its policy..

[g_costanza]

I succeded in using appwicth and focus,
I'll post more details later

You find the documentation of the project at this link http://www.giuseppecostanza.it/foodtracer/
It's a design project, so there are not much technical details in the documentation.

To see the application working, if you are in London, you can come to the exhibition.
All the details on http://macd2009.com/

Giuseppe

[aaaaapo]

I succeded in using appwicth and focus,
I'll post more details later

To see the application working, if you are in London, you can come to the exhibition.
All the details on http://macd2009.com/

I'd love to be in London, but I can't. :-(
Could you send the exhibition to University of Art and Design Helsinki after you have finished there? :-)

Waiting for the details...