Can `LocalSoftwareKeyboardController` and `AndroidView` work together? I’m trying to show the keyboa...

# compose

[julioromano]

Can LocalSoftwareKeyboardController and AndroidView work together?
I’m trying to show the keyboard when the only editable text is inside an AndroidView.
In the update block of AndroidView I first call it.requestFocus() then keyboardController?.show() but nothing happens.

If instead of it.requestFocus() on the view I try to set a focusRequester modifier on the Android view and then call focusRequester.requestFocus() I get an IllegalStateException: FocusRequester is not initialized. But I’d love the keyboard to show up as soon as the composable is first shown on screen.

[Ralston Da Silva]

Since you are using an EditText, instead of a focusRequester, you can call requestFocus on the view. You might need to use postDelayed:

@Composable
fun EditTextInteropDemo(){
    AndroidView({ 
        EditText(it).apply{
            postDelayed({ requestFocus(); showKeyboard() }, 100)
        }
    })
}

fun View.showKeyboard(){
    val InputMethodManager = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE)
    if(InputMethodManager is InputMethodManager){
        InputMethodManager.showSoftInput(this, SHOW_IMPLICIT)
    }
}

[julioromano]

Yeah, this is the only way I could to get it working 😞
I was just hoping I could do away with InputMethodManager inside composables and use LocalSoftwareKeyboardController or FocusRequester instead.

[Sean McQuillan [G]]

This is an interesting edge to AndroidView integration.

Basically, we keep our own keyboard state in Compose as Android is only interacting with the root view. SoftwareKeyboardController can only control the keyboard if compose is tracking an input connection (textfield focus).

I'll open a bug https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/184947932

[Sean McQuillan [G]]

If you have a repro showing the FocusRequester behavior, can you share it there?

[julioromano]

I’ll open a bug https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/184947932 (edited)

Access denied. Perhaps it’s been created as an internal only bug?

[Sean McQuillan [G]]

Ah must have, my bad sorry let me make a public bug for it

[Sean McQuillan [G]]

Public bug here: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/185133387

[julioromano]

It throws:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: FocusRequester is not initialized. One reason for this is that you requesting focus changes during composition. Focus requesters should not be made during composition, but should be made in response to some event.
        at androidx.compose.ui.focus.FocusRequester.requestFocus(FocusRequester.kt:45)

But while building a PoC for the bug I couldn’t reproduce.
I suspect it’s because in the app I’m working on I call FocusRequester.requestFocus() at the same time an animation is running. This might explain the runtime crash.

In an empty app it doesn’t crash, but FocusRequester.requestFocus() does nothing (added the PoC code to the bug).