I am writing an accessibility service. I've been trying to focus EditText fields in a way that pops up the software keyboard and I have been unsuccessful. I am able to get the cursor into the EditText field, but the soft keyboard doesn't pop up. Given EditTextNode is an AccessibilityNodeInfo that I have gotten from various accessibility events and that said nodeInfo isEditable, isFocusable, isVisibleToUser and isClickable when I attempt all of these actions and they all return true upon completion.
editTextNode.performAction(AccessibilityNodeInfo.ACTION_CLICK);
In my mind the above should simply work, and the fact that it does not is a bug in the Accessibility API, if not for my entire android version, at the very least on my device (Droid Ultra, Android 4.4.4). I have also tried:
editTextNode.performAction(AccessibilityNodeInfo.ACTION_FOCUS);
Puts focus into the field so I can see the input cursor, but no keyboard.
editTextNode.performAction(AccessibilityNodeInfo.ACTION_ACCESSIBILITY_FOCUS);
Doesn't really do anything unless talkback is enabled.
editTextNode.performAction(AccessibilityNodeInfo.ACTION_SET_SELECTION, someBundle);
Along with appropriate arguments this will work, but only if there is already text in the editText field. I need to pull the keyboard up on empty text fields as well. Yes, I tried inputing 0,0 for start and end text selection arguments. The SET_SELECTION method only works with text in the field!
This has been frustrating me for a couple days, hopefully you guys can help. Though I believe I've stumbled onto a bug and am going to have to wait for Android to update. Because the ACTION_CLICK method should really be all that is needed. But, I could be missing something silly, Accessibility API Doc is somewhat scant. Am willing to attempt anything.
