[Fujitsu F-03L] Unable to proceed search in some app

[arihid]

Hello, I'm testing TT9 on a Fujitsu F-03L. So far so good. But there's one thing that annoys me.
I can't proceed to search in some search field that would show a "go" button instead of "enter" button if I were to type that with an on screen keyboard.
Maybe sounds confusing but here's some demo using Newpipe.

Here I am searching for a content on Newpipe in my Poco F5. You would press that button after you type your search to proceed.

Here I am doing that on F-03L, using native input. Note that the "Search" option corresponds a botton click. You would click that botton to proceed.

And here I am doing that with TT9. There's no option to proceed the search.

[sspanak]

This problem is similar to the numerous others reported by Kyocera users, such as this one. Unfortunately, heavily customized Android phones do not play well with third party keyboards, such as TT9. All applications are designed to work and integrated with the respective native keyboard.

If I had the device, maybe, I would have been able to provide the default "Search" function when pressing OK, but I can't offer a solution at the moment.

If you find another open source keyboard that works properly on your phone, I could potentially inspect its code and find a way of optimizing TT9 for the Fujitsu. But as I said, without the device, I can't promise anything.

[arihid]

Well, I think I can sponsor you this device. It's quite cheap, starting at ¥1500 in the second hand market (operator locked, but that's just 5 mins work).
It won't be in the perfect cosmetic but should do it's job as a device to mess with. In fact, I'm planning to buy another device to mess with all sort of nasty things I plan to do since this current device is heavily customized and quite production ready. Just let me know how to reach you.

[sspanak]

To be honest, I don't feel like doing device hacks right now. I would rather like to focus on adding support for East Asian languages, such as Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. This will bring more value in comparison to adding support for the Fujitsu phone. In other words, more people will benefit from adding the new languages.

Having said the above, I don't mind doing it at some point in the future but I want to set the right expectation. I may not be able to figure out how the native keyboard works and I may not be able to adapt TT9 to work with the Fujitsu apps. There is no 100% guarantee. Keep this in mind.

Btw, where can you buy flip phones at this price? On Ebay, even second hand ones are crazy expensive, more than 300 USD.

[arihid]

Oh, no problem at all!

Maybe button binding can be a temporary solution? This phone has 4 buttons around d-pad, and when I inspect it using Button Mapper, it registers as F1, F2, F3, and F4 respectively (idk if it is the same F1 as in PC's F1). I noticed that this keys cease to function when I changed the launcher to Trebuchet, so I guess those functions is hardcoded into the launcher (and the IME), and remapping those keys with something like Button Mapper will make no sense, since it will trigger two functions simultaneously. Unless there's a launcher that supports key binding internally. I wonder if other manufacturer would employ this same technique?

Btw, where can you buy flip phones at this price? On Ebay, even second hand ones are crazy expensive, more than 300 USD.

I live in Japan so I just need to browse Yahoo Auctions and find the right quality for the right price. But something running Android 10 like Digno Keitai 4 is still crazy expensive, starting at ¥22000 since no one is selling used ones. At that price, I'd just grab a Retro II instead.

[sspanak]

Maybe button binding can be a temporary solution? This phone has 4 buttons around d-pad, and when I inspect it using Button Mapper, it registers as F1, F2, F3, and F4 respectively (idk if it is the same F1 as in PC's F1). I noticed that this keys cease to function when I changed the launcher to Trebuchet, so I guess those functions is hardcoded into the launcher (and the IME), and remapping those keys with something like Button Mapper will make no sense, since it will trigger two functions simultaneously. Unless there's a launcher that supports key binding internally. I wonder if other manufacturer would employ this same technique?

Yes, they are the same as on a computer keyboard. And yes, other manufacturers also do that, and make my life miserable.

I didn't quite get your idea with the Button Mapper. I suppose, these functions are hardcoded either in the launcher or in the native keyboard, or in both. Either way, I have absolutely no idea how the magic happens. But if you succeed with remapping, I would be interested to know how you did it. Maybe, it would make it possible to integrate TT9 with the Fujitsu. Or maybe not, I don't know....

As a matter of fact, TT9 does support the F1-F4 keys but you can only assign internal functions to them, like changing the language, changing the text case, activating voice input, etc. And if you do so, this will override the system functions. But this is not what you want, so it doesn't matter.

I live in Japan so I just need to browse Yahoo Auctions and find the right quality for the right price. But something running Android 10 like Digno Keitai 4 is still crazy expensive, starting at ¥22000 since no one is selling used ones. At that price, I'd just grab a Retro II instead.

Yeah, I had one of these two in mind. I broke the screen of my dumbphone and I am looking for a replacement at a reasonable price, but unfortunately, they are so expensive everywhere.

[arihid]

I didn't quite get your idea with the Button Mapper.

The idea is to assign different function in the home screen, as I killed as many docomo related apps as I can. Otherwise it complains that there's no app to open. It's a feature for the bottom 3 bottons and the side button. I'm quite annoyed that they just shove all sideloaded apps into "Tools" submenu, not in the main menu. A simple App Drawer did work for that. Initially I want to bind it to "Menu" button.

After confirming how Button Mapper will work, it will just call the mapped function instead of calling two functions simultaneously (native app function and mapped function). I thought it will do both, but I was wrong. Default settings will work everywhere, but it has a bypass option. But one critical thing is missing. I can enable bypass only to installed apps. System apps like messaging is unaffected, so remapped function will be called instead of native function there. I will have to think some other way...

I suppose, these functions are hardcoded either in the launcher or in the native keyboard, or in both.

Initially I thought that using TT9 will make those functions disappear, but I was partly wrong. It indeed disappear in 3rd party apps, but those functions remain in native apps. I also found that the native keyboard has at least 2 input methods, directly and by using some sort of form. TT9 apparently can only do direct input so there're missing functions.
For example, let's take a look at Browser.

If you press "Select" it will bring you this window:

And here where the native keyboard shines. TT9 can't reach this input window so there're many missing functions, including deleting characters (well, not natively), since "CLR" is also functions as "Back", pressing that button will just take you back in that first input screen.

I tried to install the native keyboard into my Poco F5, and it doesn't display anything. My guess is the UI is handled by something else, but I might be wrong. I'll try to pull more apps later.

[sspanak]

But one critical thing is missing. I can enable bypass only to installed apps. System apps like messaging is unaffected, so remapped function will be called instead of native function there. I will have to think some other way...

Apps can take over control and even hide the key press events from keyboards. I understand that the system may own some keys like Home or Power for security reasons, but all apps being able to consume the key events first is a bad design decision, in my opinion. Anyway, it is how Android works.

I tried to install the native keyboard into my Poco F5, and it doesn't display anything. My guess is the UI is handled by something else, but I might be wrong. I'll try to pull more apps later.

That soft key button bar may be the "menu bar" or "options bar" discussed in the TCL Flip bug. It is not available in the standard SDK, so I haven't seen it and I don't know exactly how it works. I think it is not part of any keyboard or app but it is a separate component, probably part of the system. The Poco F5 is an entirely different device and it doesn't need this options bar. It is probably not installed there (or not included in the core source code).

Unfortunately, due to my lack of knowledge, I can't provide much help.