Set focus to Entry control to trigger keyboard in .NET MAUI app

Question

I'm trying to set focus to an Entry control when a page loads to automatically trigger the keyboard.

However, while the Entry control receives focus (caret blinking) if done during Loaded event, the keyboard doesn't appear.

If done only in the Appearing event, the caret doesn't even appear.

My page has a single Entry like:

<StackLayout>
    <Entry x:Name="RoundsEntry" Keyboard="Numeric" />
</StackLayout>

In the code-behind, I'm setting focus during the Loaded event:

public RoundsPage()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    Loaded += RoundsPage_Loaded;

    // For Shell navigation, the Appearing event makes more sense, 
    // as page is only loaded once, but we want the Entry control 
    // to receive focus every time the user returns to the page.
    Appearing += RoundsPage_Loaded;
}

private void RoundsPage_Loaded(object? sender, EventArgs e)
{
    RoundsEntry.Focus();
}

Manually tapping the Entry control (even though it already has focus) does trigger the keyboard.

Am I missing something, or is there some other option to programmatically trigger (and later hide) the keyboard?

(Tested on Android.)

Edit: seems related to this issue on GitHub, so I think I'm looking for a viable workaround until it's fixed.

@FreakyAli AFAIK it happens when the visual element has loaded but it's not yet being rendered, that instead happens during the `Appearing` event. — Ted Nyberg, Oct 11 '22 at 18:24
@JianweiSun The problem is getting the keyboard to appear automatically to enter data into the default `Entry` control. — Ted Nyberg, Oct 12 '22 at 11:11
@JianweiSun The code above shows attaching an event handler to the `Loaded` event. All `VisualElement` types have it. Not much documentation about it, though: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.maui.controls.visualelement.loaded?view=net-maui-6.0 — Ted Nyberg, Oct 15 '22 at 14:39
I test code, and it run correctly . Which version you used android API and MAUI or other things？ — Jianwei Sun - MSFT, Oct 17 '22 at 03:18
@JianweiSun The issue is confirmed reproducible: https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues/5983 Are you able to show/hide the on-screen keyboard by setting focus to an `Entry` element? — Ted Nyberg, Oct 17 '22 at 07:26
Yes, indeed. I create a MAUI project and run the code you provided. I can show/hide the on-screen keyboard by setting focus to an `Entry` element. By the I test the code with android API 32/33, they all can achieve effect. — Jianwei Sun - MSFT, Oct 17 '22 at 07:58
API 32, both virtual and physical devices. How/when do you set focus? Can you share your code? — Ted Nyberg, Oct 17 '22 at 09:43

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 30 '23 at 17:48

4

I think it's a question or a bug of which piece of version. Such as Visual Studio, .NET ...

Here is the code：

public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
{
    
    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        Loaded += MainPage_Loaded;
    }

   private void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        entry.Focus();
    }
}

<VerticalStackLayout>        
    <Entry x:Name="entry" Keyboard="Numeric"/>    
</VerticalStackLayout>

VS: Community 2022 (64-bit) 17.3.4 --- .NET:6.0 --- Android: API 32

This is my screen recording

edited Jul 30 '23 at 17:48

Rafael

1,281
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answered Oct 18 '22 at 03:20

Jianwei Sun - MSFT

2,289
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Thanks for testing! Does the keyboard also disappear when invoking `Unfocus()`? For example if you, after a delay of say 2 seconds, call `entry.Unfocus()` or shift the focus to some other element? You could also try adding another `Entry` element (with a different `Keyboard` property value) to your XAML and switch focus programmatically between them to see if the correct keyboard appears. – Ted Nyberg Oct 18 '22 at 08:13
1

@TedNyberg Keyboard can't disappear when invoking `Unfocus()`, unless click `Esc`, I think there are some logics I didn't expect required code implementation. In addition, switching focus programmatically between different `Entry` is ok. [video](https://imgur.com/a/VOajyWO) – Jianwei Sun - MSFT Oct 18 '22 at 09:18
Please accept it ✅ as an answer if it's helpful to others facing the same problem. Thanks in advance! – Jianwei Sun - MSFT Oct 20 '22 at 05:23
Regrettably it's not a solution, it's still a verified bug. Also, doing this during `Appearing` ignores the focus completely (not even a caret in the textbox). I clarified this in OP. – Ted Nyberg Oct 20 '22 at 06:58
2

I tested `Appearing` before, and it doesn't work the same as [the issue on github](https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues/5983) indeed. – Jianwei Sun - MSFT Oct 20 '22 at 07:11
this solution did not work for me – Eyner Mamani Jan 03 '23 at 04:50
this is very outrageous that to date it still does not work – Eyner Mamani Jan 06 '23 at 02:53
@TedNyberg To hide the keyboard and unfocus, I wrote a static function like below, maybe will be useful for someone else: public static class Helpers { public static void HideKeyboard(bool Unfocus = true) { #if ANDROID if (Platform.CurrentActivity.CurrentFocus != null) { Platform.CurrentActivity.HideKeyboard(Platform.CurrentActivity.CurrentFocus); if (Unfocus) Platform.CurrentActivity.CurrentFocus.ClearFocus(); } #endif } } – Ozan Yasin Dogan Jan 20 '23 at 22:19

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 02 '23 at 03:18

3

This was bugging me for a while now.

It seems the Loaded event is too soon to be setting focus. i couldn't find another event after 'loaded' so the dirty work around that worked for me is building in a slight delay.

public partial class MainPage: ContentPage {
  public MainPage() {
    InitializeComponent();
    Loaded += MainPage_Loaded;
  }

  private void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    _ = Task.Delay(200).ContinueWith(t =>{
      entry.Focus();
    });
  }
}

edited Aug 02 '23 at 03:18

Rafael

1,281
2
10
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answered May 30 '23 at 19:58

Dennis de Wilde

31
2

Dirty but effective! It also works in OnAppearing. – CrashM Jul 14 '23 at 11:33

Set focus to Entry control to trigger keyboard in .NET MAUI app

2 Answers2