Virtual Keyboard (TabTip) Integration in WPF on Win 8.1 and Win 10

Hi Max, really good work on the WPF keyboard!

I was wondering, is there a way to hide some of the buttons? Specifically I would like to prevent the users from entering Emojis by either hiding or disabling the button!

I recognized the solution in mobile apps that the whole application will move to get textbox into view. You implemented that concept excellent.
But when application has scrollbars it does not calculate Y offset correct. Also when TabTip is closed, the application is still on -250px over the screen. No Window title bar to catch to move it down now.
I am working on a fix now.
Anyway good work. Also with the test its great. Some more explanations would be well on GitHub to understand basically what your code is for. Perhaps you want to present a small animation of how it works.

http://www.goldengel.ch/temp/TabTip.gif[^]

modified 14-Feb-19 4:48am.

Hi,

Will wpfTabTip work with non-admin users?

I think WPFTabTip do not need admin privileges, but I did not test it. You can download the source code from GitHub and test it yourself. The source code includes a test project.

The keyboard comes up when I edit the column which is good, but is there some way to set the InputScope on a DataGridTextColumn? When I try to add that to my xaml I get an error.

I never had any problem with InputScope. In fact my project do not even use this property (InputScope), layout is changed automatically, thanks to .Net i guess. Are you sure, that error is associated with my library?

Ok I think that was something I did. My apologies. I am curious though: how does your software let the keyboard know to automatically change layouts? It has to have some way of knowing that it's a numeric field which I assumed the only way to set is InputScope?

Also, When I have Inputscope="Number" set it will not allow me to enter any decimal points at all. Do you know why that is?

As i said previously, my library has no idea about InputScope property. Layout of soft keyboard is changing on its own, courtesy of .Net and Windows i guess. You can remove my library, open keyboard manually, and layout will still change, depending on focused control and its InputScope property.

As for decimal points, i again have no idea, but my library do not restrict any input.

Ok. I see what you mean now. I misunderstood previously. I hope you don't think I was trying to falsely attribute bugs to your library. It's a good library.

Even though things you asked about are not associated with my library, i by no means think that there is no bugs in it) Good libraries still have bugs, and if you will find one, you can report it on github. And of course you can contribute to the project on github as well.

Thank you 100x over. You just saved my ass on this project. Cheers.

You welcome! I am glad that project is helping somebody)

Great article . I suspect it's just what I'm looking for but cannot tell at the moment. Obviously a lot of work has gone into it. It could be better if there was more on exactly how to use it - keeping in mind that not everyone (especially me) is up to skill in WPF!
I unzipped the program and compiled it OK.
Then I saw in the article : 'PM> Install-Package WPFTabTip' which I did while having the project open in VS. It added it to the WPFTabTip project - which is not what I wanted, I figured. So I opened the project I am working on (called T3) - then repeated the Install-Package WPFTabTip process in and it failed warning:

C#

Install-Package : Unable to find package ;WPF-TabTip;
At line:1 char:1
+ Install-Package WPF-TabTip
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Install-Package], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NuGetCmdletUnhandledException,NuGet.PackageManagement.PowerShellCmdlets.InstallP

So obviously it does not know where to find it.

Apart from that big one - I'm not entirely clear how to use it once I would get it installed. Do I just include a reference to WPFTabTip.dll or something? Is there a page showing a worked example of using it with a couple of controls anywhere?

I see that you tried to download wrong package (WPF-TabTip) when you should have tried "WPFTabTip"

Using this library is really simple, as i described. At a minimum you should write one line of code in your startup logic (which in simple case can be a constructor of your main window):

C#

TabTipAutomation.BindTo<TextBox>();

Everything there is to know about API of this library i already described, but if you still want some guidance i suggest that you take a look at github repository of a project, or, more specifically at a constructor of this Window.

Hope this helps!

Hi again Max.

Thanks for your input. You were right of course, I did download the wrong package so no wonder I couldn't install it. I managed to install it correctly this time .

In my project code I included the 2 lines:
TabTipAutomation.BindTo<textbox>();
TabTipAutomation.IgnoreHardwareKeyboard = HardwareKeyboardIgnoreOptions.IgnoreIfSingleInstance;
in main() and have 'using WPFTabTip;'

However nothing happens so far. I'm going through your code to see where I might have let something out. I'm using framework 4.5.1 - so it should be OK in that aspect.

Try this:

C#

TabTipAutomation.IgnoreHardwareKeyboard = HardwareKeyboardIgnoreOptions.IgnoreAll;

My guess is that Windows thinks you have more than one keyboard. You can check it in Device Manager on your machine.

Hi again Max

Good news and bad news ;- {

I made that change and it is doing something at least. But that something is an exception.

It involves WPFTabTip. This is thrown when I move the cursor onto any textbox. The only event behind any textbox I use is mouseLeave. But the error occurs when the mouse is still over the textbox .

Null reference exception in System.reactive.platformservices.dll

C#

System.NullReferenceException was unhandled
  HResult=-2147467261
  Message=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  Source=WPFTabTip
  StackTrace:
       at WPFTabTip.TabTip.OpenUndocked()
       at WPFTabTip.TabTip.OpenUndockedAndStartPoolingForClosedEvent()
       at WPFTabTip.TabTipAutomation.<>c.<AutomateTabTipOpen>b__10_2(Tuple`2 _)
       at System.Reactive.Linq.ObservableImpl.Do`1._.OnNext(TSource value)
    --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
       at System.Reactive.PlatformServices.ExceptionServicesImpl.Rethrow(Exception exception)
       at System.Reactive.Stubs.<>c.<.cctor>b__2_1(Exception ex)
       at System.Reactive.AnonymousSafeObserver`1.OnError(Exception error)
       at System.Reactive.Concurrency.ObserveOn`1.ObserveOnSink.OnErrorPosted(Object error)
       at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
       at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
       at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
       at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
       at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
       at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
       at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
       at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o)
       at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
       at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
       at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.LegacyInvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
       at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
       at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg)
       at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame)
       at System.Windows.Application.RunDispatcher(Object ignore)
       at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(Window window)
       at touch3.App.Main() in C:\Users\eps2\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects\touch3\touch3\obj\Debug\App.g.cs:line 0
       at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(RuntimeAssembly assembly, String[] args)
       at System.AppDomain.ExecuteAssembly(String assemblyFile, Evidence assemblySecurity, String[] args)
       at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly()
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
       at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
  InnerException:

For some reason it's not showing the Inner Exception info - maybe there is none? If you need to know more I can drill down to any part of the exception detail - and transcribe it. I can't see a way to print it out from the exception dialog box that VS shows.

One thing I noticed in the error detail which I'm guessing is in the WPFTabTip.dll is 'Target: {Void OpenUndocked()}'

I hope this has highlighted a possible simple error that you haven't trapped yet and isn't going to cause a headache.

Can you check if you have this registry key (using regedit.exe for example):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7

and also this value at that key: EdgeTargetDockedState

And finally i would like to know what version of windows are you on and can you manually open TabTip (Virtual Keyboard)?

Max:

I'm using Windows 10 on a 64bit laptop and running VS2015 with .Net framework 4.5.1

Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7 there is just :

Default REG_SZ value not set

and nothing else.

Same under 'DisableinPlace'

Under ZorderNonCompete

Default REG_SZ value not set

Microsoft-Windows-Tablet-SnipperCaptureForm REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)

I have tried to open Windows OSK about a week ago and it worked fine. I haven't tried it with your program yet .

Have no idea what is going wrong. Unfortunately i use Windows 8.1 as are my users, so i can't catch this bugs. Try to download solution from github, then build and run UITest project. Then tell me if exception will be thrown, and where exactly it will occur.

Hi
I ran the UITest and see no OSK on it . Should I?

In 'get keyboard description' it says: Microsoft Hardware USB Keyboard
Standard PS/2 Keyboard

I was pressing 'New Window'

when an exception was thrown:

public static void OpenUndocked()
{
const string TabTipDockedKey = "EdgeTargetDockedState";
const string TabTipProcessName = "TabTip";

int docked = (int)Registry.GetValue(TabTipRegistryKeyName, TabTipDockedKey, 0);
if (docked == 1)
{
Registry.SetValue(TabTipRegistryKeyName, TabTipDockedKey, 0);
foreach (Process tabTipProcess in Process.GetProcessesByName(TabTipProcessName))
tabTipProcess.Kill();
}
Open();
}
"An exception of type System.NullReferenceException occurred in WPFTabTip.dll but was not handled in user code "

It fell over on line:

"int docked = (int)Registry.GetValue(TabTipRegistryKeyName, TabTipDockedKey, 0);"

At that line , TabTipRegistryKeyName = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\TabletTip\\1.7"
TabTipDockedKey = "EdgeTargetDockedState" as you would expect seeing it was declare 2 lines prior to that.

So is the problem that there is no EdgeTargetDockedState in the registry?

Good news! One of my machines was updated to Win 10 Anniversary edition, and i have the same bug. Before the update everything was working correctly... Will try to investigate and deal with it in a few days.

OK, that's great (sort of!). I guess people with Win10 would have alerted you to this sooner or later - so it's better it happened sooner. It's so tedious tracking issues down isn't it? But top marks to you for your efforts so far.

Unfortunately i cannot reproduce exception anymore on Win 10, everything is fine... But i think i understand the problem now, and i tried to fix it. But i have to rely on you (again) to test it Smile | :)

Download and test that branch . When you run UITest project, you should click on the area below the buttons, that area is a TextBox. Tell me if it works.

Sorry for the delay - I'm in the Vladivostok time zone. Ok, I downloaded the branch, unzipped it, set UITest as startup project, ran it.... and nothing happened.

Just joking - it worked fine. What was the cause of the problem and why did Win10 cause it? So what to do next - how do I uninstall the old version from the project? Or do I just PM:Install-Package WPFTabTip over the top of it?

Virtual Keyboard (TabTip) Integration in WPF on Win 8.1 and Win 10

Introduction

Simple to use

Hardware Keyboard Detection

Change Keyboard Layout

License

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