Missing on-screen keyboard for Flash/Flex web application on Android?

0
votes

I have an enterprise Flex web application, served up over https, that runs fine on Flash player 10.0 and beyond on a desktop computer/browser.

However, when I run it from my HTC Incredible with Android 2.2 the app loads fine, but there is no on-screen keyboard and so I cannot log in. I can see the blinking cursor inside the username and password text fields. I can switch between them. I can even hit the login button and see an authentication error!

According to Adobe this should Just Work. Any ideas? I wanna show off our spanking new app to strangers at the bus stop!

6
androidapache-flexflashweb-applications
Here is a partial answer. If you need to show off your web app to perfect strangers, just set a different web browser to be the default one. xscope or dolphin should work fine with it (thought, you'll probably need to zoom in quite a bit before the input box gets the focus). I'll leave the programming answer to someone else. – Stephan Branczyk
Tried Dolphin...didn't make a difference...gotta be Flash player on Android I think. – HDave
Found a near duplicate with no answers: stackoverflow.com/questions/4007486/… – HDave
I believe you will need to use TextField-based text input components, do you know if you are using those? – sshongru
I don't believe spark text controls are TextField-based. Try using the mx text equivalents and see if that works. – sshongru

6 Answers

2
votes

Seems the problem is different implementations of the keyboard in the browser. See the comment from Adobe here as they shut the bug as unfixable: https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-5704

I have the same problems on a Galaxy S2 - though manually forcing the keyboard up here isn't an option as the address bar automatically gains focus.

2
votes

Mobile Text Input

Flash Player 10.1 provides support for use of native device virtual keyboards with TextField support if no physical keyboard is detected. A virtual keyboard is automatically raised and lowered in response to focus changes on text fields when editing text on mobile devices supporting a virtual keyboard to enable unobstructed and intuitive text editing. The focused text field is centered in the visible region of the page and appropriately zoomed/scrolled to ensure it is not obscured by the virtual keyboard. Upon screen rotation, incoming calls, or other system events, any already existing text input is retained. The virtual keyboard works with TextField but does not currently work with the Text Layout Framework or other Flash Text Engine text.

1
votes

The spark components in Flex 4 are not currently optimized for mobile. The next release of Flex codenamed "Hero" will provide mobile optimized skins for the spark TextInput/TextArea components. These skins are based on TextField and they are also optimized for performance with ActionScript skins and a more appropriate default size. Text support in the current Hero preview release is minimal, but the final release will be more robust, for example supporting scrolling in a TextArea. Check out the spec for more information: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Mobile+Text+Components

It's probably worthwhile to note that the mobile features in Hero are designed with standalone mobile applications in mind, not browser-based applications. That said you might be able to grab those mobile skins and try using them in a browser-based Flex application compiled with Hero.

1
votes

have you tried republishing your work strictly for 10.1? i believe that any applications which support versions of Flash prior to 10.1 are seen as Flash Lite on mobile devices, which may (or may not) be the problem.

it's worth a try.

1
votes

Not a programming solution, but long press on the menu button brings up the keyboard if it doesn't pop up by itself (at least on my HTC Desire, 2.2 android).

1
votes

Device: Kindle Fire

I had the same problem. My mathlab uses flash for homework assignments, and I could not access my keyboard for input. Until I found this.

  • Download and Install "Keyboardflash_1.0.0.apk" on your Android device.
  • go to the flash program in your browser
  • run the "Game Keyboard" app and click "Tap here to call out keyboard after exit"
  • return to your browser

You will notice I did not perform the direction the app gives you because the kindle fire is not compatible with those steps. Maybe it is with your device.

You may have trouble getting this to work with a browser app like "Dolphin"

Your Welcome :) and respect the developer

Gamepad is also on the android market.