How to open a BasicTextField focused with blinking cursor in it?

Question

I have a BasicTextField in one of my views. I am showing the soft keyboard by default and when I start typing letters on the keyboard, nothing is shown in the BasicTextField, since it has no cursor.

To make my keyboard actions visible, I have to tap into the TextField, to make the cursor visible. Now, whenI tap on the keyboard, I see the result in the BasicTextField.

How can I open the BasicTextField with an active blinking cursor in it?

EDIT: the proposed solution from here did not work for me

val focusRequester = FocusRequester()
val keyboardController = LocalSoftwareKeyboardController.current

//..

    .focusRequester(focusRequester)
    .onFocusChanged {
        if (it.isFocused) {
            keyboardController?.show()
        }
    }

Did neither activated the cursor nor made the keyboard appear. In addition to that

DisposableEffect(Unit) {
    focusRequester.requestFocus()
    onDispose { }
}

leads to a crash:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: FocusRequester is not initialized. Here are some possible fixes:

   1. Remember the FocusRequester: val focusRequester = remember { FocusRequester() }
   2. Did you forget to add a Modifier.focusRequester() ?
   3. Are you attempting to request focus during composition? Focus requests should be made in
   response to some event. Eg Modifier.clickable { focusRequester.requestFocus() }

    at androidx.compose.ui.focus.FocusRequester.requestFocus(FocusRequester.kt:54)

Does [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68268544/how-to-auto-request-focus-to-a-text-field-when-navigated-to-a-composable-in-jetp) answer your question? — Phil Dukhov, Mar 16 '22 at 14:20
Why don't you follow "possible fixes"? Especially the first one. — Phil Dukhov, Mar 17 '22 at 03:33
@PhilipDukhov The link you provided exactly has 1 answer from GabrieleMariotti and I applied that. — Ralf Wickum, Mar 17 '22 at 09:18

Ralf Wickum · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-10T15:01:24.883

5

I got it working:

val focusRequester = FocusRequester()

//..

.focusRequester(focusRequester)

and instead of

DisposableEffect(Unit) {
    focusRequester.requestFocus()
    onDispose { }
}

I used

LaunchedEffect(Unit) {
    focusRequester.requestFocus()
}

edited Nov 10 '22 at 15:01

answered Mar 18 '22 at 20:21

Ralf Wickum

2,850
9
55
103

What is isFocused in the latest block in your answer ? – A. Albrg Nov 08 '22 at 16:51
Just a boolean flag under which condition you want to focus. Remove if you want to focus under any condition. I removed irritating leftover – Ralf Wickum Nov 10 '22 at 15:01

How to open a BasicTextField focused with blinking cursor in it?

1 Answers1