Workaround to hide VKB in QML apps (Known Issue)

This article explains how to close the virtual keyboard in pure QML apps

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Last edited: gnuton (28 Oct 2011)

Introduction

Pure QML application on Harmattan suffer of a bug which is quite annoying. The bug I'm talking about is related to the Virtual Keyboard (VKB). Basically when a QML element able to listen for key events receives the focus, a virtual keyboard shows up and user can enter the text in the element by tapping on the keyboard itself. When user finished to insert text and tap outside the element, the previous element doesn't actually lose the focus and the keyboard is not closed automatically going against the logic way of usage and against the Harmattan guide lines. This is not just annoying, but mess up the vocabulary other than the usability.

In this page we will talk about how to work around this, and which solutions are available.

Pure QML Solution

import QtQuick 1.0
    Rectangle {
      id: root
      width: 800
      height: 600
      focus: true
        Rectangle {
          width: 360
          height: 360
          color: "cyan"
          TextEdit {
               id: mText
               anchors.fill: parent
                 onActiveFocusChanged: {
                   if (!mText.activeFocus) mText.closeSoftwareInputPanel();
               }
           }
      }
        MouseArea {
          anchors.fill: parent
            onPressed: {
              // Let the mousePress events go to below items
              mouse.accepted = false;
                // Clicked item below the MouseArea gets the focus
              var selectedItem = root.childAt(mouse.x, mouse.y);
              if (!selectedItem) selectedItem = root;
              selectedItem.focus = true;
          }
      }
  }