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I'm writing a WinRT game for Windows 8, in C#, using the excellent MonoGame. I've reached the part where the user has achieved a high score and needs to enter their name. This is causing me more pain than I'd anticipated so I thought I'd ask for help.

  • First of all, is there a simple "enter some text" function that I can call, similar to Guide.BeginShowKeyboardInput in Windows Phone 7, or the ancient InputBox command in VB? I'm using Windows.UI.Popups.MessageDialog for displaying simple dialog messages, but can't find any similar thing for requesting text from the user.

  • Failing that, is there a way I can easily use a little piece of XAML to present a textbox for the user to use?

If neither of these are possible, I guess I'll have to wire this all up myself... I then would plan to intercept keystrokes and display the required text on screen myself. As I don't have a physical tablet (just the simulator) I'm struggling to start with this. How can I:

  • Detect whether the device has a physical keyboard, so I know whether or not to display the on screen keyboard?

  • If there is no physical keyboard, how can I show and hide the on screen keyboard?

Some of these sound like they should be easy to answer, but I've yet to track down answers to any of them.

Many thanks!

Adam.

Adam Dawes
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2 Answers2

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Hey there is such a way to do this in monogame. There is a new template that allows you to create a XAML + Game game which allows you to use the game class you a used to with the xaml bits as well. These links should get you started. The monogame team rocks.

There are the three game types listed there. You want XAML + Game there is a template for it now if you get the proper version of monogame.

https://github.com/mono/MonoGame/wiki/Windows-8-Project-Types

let me know if you need more help

kbo4sho88
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This is not a cross platform solution but you could use a FlyOut and place the controls for data entry on the window. FlyOut guidelines are here and UI Controls for text input guidelines are here. I have also used MessageDialog in a MonoGame for asking the user simple questions (up to 3 options) or to get a Yes|No response. You can get details of that class here.

Bob Familiar
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