Detect Shift + Enter on physical keyboard in Android

Question

In preparing my Android App for Chromebooks and use with physical keyboards I want to distinguish in an EditText between receiving an "Enter" (keyEvent 66) and an "Shift+Enter" (also keyEvent 66 apparently) from a physical keyboard. I have tried a number of different solutions, such as

dispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent event) in the activity. The event.getModifiers() however always return 0, as do event.getMetaState(). keyEvent.isShiftPressed() always returns false.
onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent keyEvent) in the activity with the same result. keyEvent.isShiftPressed() always returns false as well.

I have not found a way either using onKeyUp(), onKeyPreIme(), editText.setOnKeyListener(...), or with a editText.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {...}). I have not had any problems acquiring the Enter event, however a Shift+Enter is in all the ways I have tried indistinguishable from the Enter event. So my question is this: did any other Android Dev find a way to properly capture the Shift+Enter from a physical keyboard?

navid komijani navid komijani · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-21T12:30:21

i had the same problem and I fixed it by detecting "Shift" down and "Shift" up events, and define a boolean that store the state. this is my code, hope help you.

final boolean[] isPressed = {false};
    inputEditText.setOnKeyListener(new View.OnKeyListener() {
        public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
            // If the event is a key-down event on the "enter" button
            if ((event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN) &&
                    (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER)) {

                if (isPressed[0]) {

                   // Shift + Enter pressed

                    return false;
                } else {

                  // Enter pressed                  

                    return true;
                }
            }

            if ((event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN) &&
                    (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_SHIFT_RIGHT)) {
                isPressed[0] = true;
                return false;
            }

            if ((event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_UP) &&
                    (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_SHIFT_RIGHT)) {
                isPressed[0] = false;
                return false;
            }


            return false;
        }
    });

Detect Shift + Enter on physical keyboard in Android

1 Answers