Show & hiding the Windows 8 on screen keyboard from WPF

Question

I\'m writing a WPF application for a Windows 8 tablet. It\'s full windows 8 and not ARM/RT.

When the user enters a textbox I show the on screen keyboard using the fo

Answer 1

A little bit late, I'll just improve tasaki example for a complete one of what I did to enable show/hide on gotFocus/LostFocus event when user click on a textBox in my WPF application for windows 8 tablet.I hope this help people with similar headache, because disabling InkHelper, doesn't really work well if u want to scroll with touch event...

First of all u must add these reference to your App.Xaml.cs File.

using System.Management;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

The code:

    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs eventArgs)
    {
        EventManager.RegisterClassHandler(typeof(TextBox), UIElement.GotFocusEvent,
                                new RoutedEventHandler(GotFocus_Event), true);
        EventManager.RegisterClassHandler(typeof(TextBox), UIElement.LostFocusEvent,
                                new RoutedEventHandler(LostFocus_Event), true);

       MainApplication.Show();
    }

    private static void GotFocus_Event(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
       // TestKeyboard();
        OpenWindows8TouchKeyboard(sender, e);
    }
    //http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/29d7e0/get-the-key-board-details-of-your-system-in-windows-form/
    private static bool IsSurfaceKeyboardAttached()
    {
        SelectQuery Sq = new SelectQuery("Win32_Keyboard");
        ManagementObjectSearcher objOSDetails = new ManagementObjectSearcher(Sq);
        ManagementObjectCollection osDetailsCollection = objOSDetails.Get();
        //Windows 8 tablet are returnign 2 device when keyboard is connecto
        //My application won't be used for Desktop so this condition is fine
        //But u might want to see if keyboard is usb and == 1 so you are 
        //returning true or not on tablet.  
        return osDetailsCollection.Count <= 1 ? true : false;
    }

    private static void OpenWindows8TouchKeyboard(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var textBox = e.OriginalSource as TextBox;        
        if (textBox != null && IsSurfaceKeyboardAttached())
        {
            var path = @"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip.exe";
            if (!File.Exists(path))
            {
                // older windows versions
                path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System) + @"\osk.exe";
            }
            Process.Start(path);
            textBox.BringIntoView();//SetFocus so u dont lose focused area
        }
    }
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern int FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, int lParam);

    public const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
    public const int SC_CLOSE = 0xF060;
    public const int SC_MINIMIZE = 0xF020;

    private void CloseOnscreenKeyboard()
    {
        // retrieve the handler of the window  
        int iHandle = FindWindow("IPTIP_Main_Window", "");
        if (iHandle > 0)
        {
            // close the window using API        
            SendMessage(iHandle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_CLOSE, 0);
        }
    }

    private void LostFocus_Event(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // It's time to close the onscreen keyboard.
        CloseOnscreenKeyboard();
    }