Running example on Windows

[erakis]

Hi,

I'm really interested to use your keyboard on Linux and Windows. First thank you so much to share your work.

But I'm not able to get it work under Windows first.

1 - First I build the src project. This produced an VirtualKeyboard.dll.
2 - I copy those file to this folders C:\Qt\5.4\msvc2013\plugins\platforminputcontexts\VirtualKeyboard
- FontAwesome.otf
- InputPanel.qml
- KeyButton.qml
- KeyPopup.qml
- qmldir
- VirtualKeyboard.dll
- VirtualKeyboard.pdb
3 - Now I open the example project and run it.

I'm always getting error about the keyboard module not found.

I have also tried putting all those file inside this directory \examples\qmlapp\VirtualKeyboard. But same problem :(

What is exactly the correct structure to use this plugin ?

Best regards,

[smelmo]

Have you figured this out yet? I'm having the same issue with getting this to work.

Thank you,

[erakis]

Sorry for the late.

I got a response from another forum but it is in french. Hope you will find answer to your question.

http://www.developpez.net/forums/d1524815/c-cpp/bibliotheques/qt/qt-quick/installation-qtfreevirtualkeyboard/

[smelmo]

Thank you, I was able to get it to run following the final advice by Amnell, but I run into the error that "InputEngine is not defined" every time I press a key. I don't suppose you ran into that error too?

[erakis]

No I did not :( The only problem I had was syntax error by QTCreator that complains about the not finding some import but while running the executable it was OK. Amnell has notice it too.

[jacbop]

@smelmo I also get "InputEngine is not defined". I had to edit the code to "import QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0" rather than "import VirtualKeyboard 1.0" everywhere. The keyboard now renders on the screen and I can click buttons, but I get the same error message as you.

It seems like this is a type from the enterprise version.
http://doc.qt.io/QtVirtualKeyboard/qml-qtquick-enterprise-virtualkeyboard-inputengine.html

I hope I am mistaken, as was hoping to find a starting point to use without getting an enterprise license.

@purell since you did not see this error, and presumeable were able to receive keyboard input to your app, can you please confirm which version of QtCreator you are using?

@githubuser0xFFFF can you please confirm whether this project requires the InputEngine QML type from the enterprise version to function? I appreciate you sharing the work.

Thanks.

[erakis]

I'm using QTCreator 3.4.2.

You do not need the enterprise module "QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0". Take a look in the file VirtualKeyboadInputContext.cpp, the InputEngine is declared here and implemented in DeclarativeInputEngine.h/cpp :

VirtualKeyboardInputContext::VirtualKeyboardInputContext() :
QPlatformInputContext(), d(new VirtualKeyboardInputContextPrivate)
{
...
// Watch here, you have the InputEngine qml singleton type that is
// declared for DeclarativeInputEngine
qmlRegisterSingletonType("VirtualKeyboard", 1, 0,
"InputEngine", inputEngineProvider);
...
}

It's too bad, I had a complete example that works with this keyboard, but I deleted because I built by myself a new virtual keyboard and it works differently.

I took a look in my backup, but it is not there :(

[jacbop]

Thank you, I see what you mean regarding the InputEngine being declared as a singleton. But I must be doing something incorrectly or missing something as that singleton value is not available to my Qml at runtime.

Here is what I have done so far. Perhaps someone can tell me what I am doing wrong. I will happily update and provide some clear instructions for those who may have similar problems once I have it working..

From a clean clone I do the following:

cd src

Apply these changes (the make install puts the Qml under the QtQuick folder, so the out of the box import statements did not work for me):

diff --git a/src/InputPanel.qml b/src/InputPanel.qml
-import VirtualKeyboard 1.0
+import QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0

diff --git a/src/KeyButton.qml b/src/KeyButton.qml
-import VirtualKeyboard 1.0
+import QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0

qmake
make install

This installed the shared lib to $$[QT_INSTALL_PLUGINS]/platforminputcontexts and the Qml files to $$[QT_INSTALL_QML]/QtQuick/VirtualKeyboard

Now create a simple QtQuick project (I'm using Qt 5.5)

Here is my .pro

TEMPLATE = app

QT += qml quick widgets

SOURCES += main.cpp

RESOURCES += qml.qrc

# Additional import path used to resolve QML modules in Qt Creator's code model
QML_IMPORT_PATH =

# Default rules for deployment.
include(deployment.pri)

Here is my main.cpp

#include <QQuickView>
#include <QGuiApplication>
#include <QQmlEngine>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    qputenv("QT_IM_MODULE", QByteArray("VirtualKeyboard"));

    QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);
    app.setObjectName("QGuiApplication");

    QQuickView view;
    view.setSource(QString("qrc:/main.qml"));
    view.setResizeMode(QQuickView::SizeRootObjectToView);
    view.setObjectName("QQuickView");
    view.setWidth(640);
    view.setHeight(480);
    view.engine()->setObjectName("QQuickEngine");
    view.engine()->addImportPath(qApp->applicationDirPath());

    view.show();

    return app.exec();
}

I tried all sorts of variations when setting QT_IM_MODULE (e.g. qtvirtualkeyboard, virtualkeyboard, VirtualKeyboard)

And my main.qml

import QtQuick 2.4
import QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0
import QtQuick.Controls 1.2
import QtQuick.Window 2.0

Item {
    id: appContainer
    anchors.fill: parent
    TextField {
        id: inputField
        width: parent.width
    }

    InputPanel {
        id: inputPanel
        z: 99
        width: parent.width
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        states: State {
            name: "visible"
            when: Qt.inputMethod.visible
            PropertyChanges {
                target: inputPanel
                y: appContainer.height - inputPanel.height
            }
        }
        transitions: Transition {
            from: ""
            to: "visible"
            reversible: true
            ParallelAnimation {
                NumberAnimation {
                    properties: "y"
                    duration: 150
                    easing.type: Easing.InOutQuad
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Running this example, I see the virtual keyboard but when I click on buttons I get the following errors:

file:///Users/tom/Qt/5.5/clang_64/qml/QtQuick/VirtualKeyboard/InputPanel.qml:16: ReferenceError: InputEngine is not defined
qml: showKeyPopup
qml: popup: inputPanel
qml: keybutton.text: q
qml: Popup position left: 7
qml: onReleased - functionKey = false
file:///Users/tom/Qt/5.5/clang_64/qml/QtQuick/VirtualKeyboard/KeyButton.qml:164: ReferenceError: InputEngine is not defined

Am I doing something obviously wrong? If it was working for you, do you see something that I am missing or have incorrect?

Thanks,
Tom

[jacbop]

This screenshot shows what I am seeing: a keyboard that I can interact with, but the InputEngine error each time I click on a key.

[githubuser0xFFFF]

I just cloned the project from github and did the following steps to run the example:

1. cd into src folder
2. qmake
3. make install
4. cd into examples/qmlapp
5. qmake
6. make
7. run virtualkeyboardqmldemo.exe

I'm using Qt 5.4.1 on Windows with MinGW

[ratwix]

Hello. Thanks for your reply.

I've just try your steps. It's work on QT 5.4.1, but didn't on QT 5.5 (module didn't load)

Maybe related to this issue ? https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-47255

Any advices ?

EDIT1: build is not the problem, even build with QT 5.5, when path is set to QT 5.4.1 (with make install done on QT 5.4.1) it works

EDIT2: By replacing "import VirtualKeyboard 1.0" by "import QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0", application launch with QT 5.5, but Keyboard did not show. Error : file:///D:/Qt/5.5/mingw492_32/qml/QtQuick/VirtualKeyboard/InputPanel.qml:49: ReferenceError: InputEngine is not defined

[githubuser0xFFFF]

This is strange. That means, something has changed from Qt 5.4.1 to Qt 5.5. If have not installed Qt 5.5 and can not fix this issue yet - sorry

[alepez]

Hi guys, I've tested this with Qt 5.5 and 5.2.0. If you replace "import VirtualKeyboard 1.0" with "import QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard 1.0" you must be sure to put qml files in the right directory relative to import path "QtQuick/VirtualKeyboard" and modifiy a line in VirtualKeyboardInputContext constructor, where it register the type:

        qmlRegisterSingletonType<DeclarativeInputEngine>("QtQuick.VirtualKeyboard", 1, 0, "InputEngine", inputEngineProvider);

As you can see, I've added "QtQuick" in the uri. With this changes it works fine. Any change you make to uri or version, you have to be sure to change:

• import statement in qml files
• qmlRegisterSingletonType in VirtualKeyboardInputContext constructor

QT_IM_MODULE environment variable must have the same value found in VirtualKeyboardInputContextPlugin::create

    qDebug() << "VirtualKeyboardInputContextPlugin::create: " << system;
    if (system.compare(system, QStringLiteral("qtvirtualkeyboard"), Qt::CaseInsensitive) == 0)
    {
        return VirtualKeyboardInputContext::instance();
    }
    return 0;

Here the value is "qtvirtualkeyboard". You can change it, but QT_IM_MODULE must match it.

When the app start up you should see a message in the log: VirtualKeyboardInputContextPlugin::create: "qtvirtualkeyboard"

If this doesn't happen, maybe the app cannot load the InputMethod plugin. Make sure the library is in the right path. In my system (linux) I figured out the right path with the command strace.

strace ./bin/MyApp 2>&1 | grep stat | grep "\".*platforminputcontexts" -o

This is my output:

/opt/Qt/5.2.0/gcc_64/plugins/platforminputcontexts
/home/pez/workspace/my-project/dist/linux-desktop-x86_64/bin/platforminputcontexts
/usr/lib64/kde4/plugins/platforminputcontexts

Every match of platforminputcontexts is a directory where the app is looking for the virtualkeyboard plugin. The first one is my QML2_IMPORT_PATH, the second is the directory where the executable is and the third is a system directory (my Desktop is KDE, based on Qt).

So, if you don't get a VirtualKeyboardInputContextPlugin::create: "qtvirtualkeyboard" message in your log, try creating a platforminputcontexts directory next to the executable an put here the virtualkeyboard plugin (the shared library built, in linux it is libVirtualKeyboard.so). You can also rename it to whatever you want, even change the extension, Qt plugin system loads every file it find in platforminputcontexts directory.

[githubuser0xFFFF]

Hi Alessandro, thak you for sharing your valuable tips. I will test it as soon as I have Qt 5.5 installed.