How can I set the focus (and display the keyboard) on my EditText programmatically

Question

I have a layout which contains some views like this:

<LinearLayout>
<TextView...>
<TextView...>
<ImageView ...>
<EditText...>
<Button...>
</linearLayout>

How can I set the focus (display the keyboard) on my EditText programmatically?

I've tried this and it works only when I launch my Activity normally, but when I launch it in a TabHost, it doesn't work.

txtSearch.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
txtSearch.setFocusable(true);
txtSearch.requestFocus();

http://www.android-ios-tutorials.com/93/android-show-hide-soft-keyboard-programmatically/ — Houcine, Feb 05 '14 at 09:11
Possible duplicate of [How to show soft-keyboard when edittext is focused](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5105354/how-to-show-soft-keyboard-when-edittext-is-focused) — raukodraug, May 20 '17 at 22:05

score 392 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 31 '15 at 19:30

392

Try this:

EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.myTextViewId);
editText.requestFocus();
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.showSoftInput(editText, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#requestFocus()

edited Oct 31 '15 at 19:30

Rafael Ruiz Muñoz

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answered Jan 24 '12 at 17:48

David Merriman

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Updated with code to force the keyboard to show from this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5105354/how-to-show-soft-keyboard-when-edittext-is-focused – David Merriman Jan 24 '12 at 18:10
5

it works only when i launch my activity normally , but when i launch my activity on a TabHost , it doesn't work , – Houcine Jan 24 '12 at 18:23
How are you setting up your TabHost? – David Merriman Jan 24 '12 at 18:32
@Sharmilee : yes, i've changed the TabActivity to FragmentActivity and it works using the code above. To show or hide keyboard programmatically , you can see this tutorial :http://bit.ly/1kCmP9s – Houcine Jun 06 '14 at 11:37
32

This doesnt work. This one works for me InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE); imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, 0); – Günay Gültekin Jan 24 '16 at 12:38
7

"This doesn't work brother". In some cases you need to call this code asynchronously from postDelayed(). I had a case when I had to open keyboard after user pressed "OK" on the dialog. And when dialog was closing it was messing with the focus. So I've called the code above from postDelayed(). It executed after dialog had closed. Profit. – Danylo Volokh Dec 12 '16 at 12:56
but this method open up keyboard forcefully, and even when we close app via home button, keyboard will be there. – Minkoo Nov 14 '17 at 05:59
2

237 up votes on the answer and 62 on "it doesn't work brother" I tested it to get own opinion and it works perfect!) – Daniel Jul 18 '18 at 13:10
What is **Context**? – Hamid Shafie Asl Oct 31 '18 at 09:09
I don't know why "This doesn't work brother" get so many upvote.. But it works for me – zihadrizkyef Jun 16 '19 at 10:04
@Minkoo, no, this method works well with Home button. But `InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED` solution really has a bug with Home button. – CoolMind Jul 02 '19 at 09:52
@zihadrizkyef, this method sometimes doesn't work. In TabHost, AlertDialog and in onCreateView. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/52663774/2914140. – CoolMind Jul 02 '19 at 09:58
1

Just to share the experience: I just added the code to four different fragments within my current app project. With the first three fragments the code worked flawlessly. With the last fragment no keyboard was shown until I started the code from onViewCreated with a 100ms delay using Kotlin Coroutines. – Nantoka Sep 05 '19 at 14:40
1

Addendum: I found another fragment where I needed the 100ms delay plus a view.clearFocus() before executing the code. – Nantoka Sep 05 '19 at 16:34

score 176 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 19 '15 at 00:42

176

use:

editText.requestFocus();
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY);

answered Feb 19 '15 at 00:42

ungalcrys

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After trying more than 5 other approaches, this was the only one that worked for me (from a `View` subclass) – William Mar 26 '15 at 21:08
16

This suggestion lead to the keyboard being fixed, even when the field looses focus. – untill Apr 20 '15 at 08:17
3

yes, it works for me too, and `imm.showSoftInput()` doesn't work. – Spark.Bao Feb 24 '16 at 09:28
11

While this method does work, it has a down side, quitting the application with the home button (hardware) will let the keyboard on screen. You will have to press the return button (hardware) to hide the keyboard despise it being useless on your home screen. – Adrien Horgnies Jul 07 '16 at 19:20
Other approaches didn't work for me, this one did. thank you. – Iman Akbari Jul 12 '16 at 08:26
@AdrienHorgnies You're right. A possible solution, would be override onPause or onStop and then hide the keyboard. – Alexandre Prazeres Aug 10 '17 at 02:31
This worked for me also when showing keyboard on dialog open. – javier Cuervas Jul 26 '18 at 14:51
this solution clear all the existing text on edittext. Any body faced such issue ?? – abhi Aug 10 '20 at 10:47

score 56 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

56

This worked for me, Thanks to ungalcrys

Show keyboard:

editText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.myTextViewId);
editText.requestFocus();
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(this.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED,InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY);

Hide keyboard:

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(this.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(editText.getWindowToken(), 0);

edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Community

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answered Sep 03 '15 at 13:29

Danilo Raspa

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The only full solution. Thanks. – korro Jun 27 '17 at 18:32

score 45 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 25 '16 at 11:30

45

final EditText tb = new EditText(this);
tb.requestFocus();
tb.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        InputMethodManager inputMethodManager = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
        inputMethodManager.showSoftInput(tb, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);
    }
}, 1000);

answered Aug 25 '16 at 11:30

Kunal Bhatia

601
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1

I had to do this in order to get it showing up in onResume(). Without the delay, nothing would happen using every single solution described in this thread. – FranticRock Dec 13 '16 at 18:17
1

There it is. That was the answer I was looking for. Though, you don't necesarily need an entire second delay. I tried just 150 millis, and that worked fine as well. – Rubberduck Jul 17 '17 at 12:10
4

Thanks! This works even for 0 ms (`tb.post({ showKeyboard(tb) })`). Notice that we need a EditText view (`tb`), not a fragment view. – CoolMind Jul 01 '19 at 15:33

score 41 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 27 '14 at 08:26

41

showSoftInput was not working for me at all.

I figured I needed to set the input mode : android:windowSoftInputMode="stateVisible" (here in the Activity component in the manifest)

Hope this help!

edited Jun 27 '14 at 08:26

Houcine

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answered Jun 27 '14 at 07:13

vincebodi

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This just showed the keyboard when the activity was started. – William Mar 26 '15 at 21:22
1

Awesome :) Tried a bunch of answers but only with this, I could make it work :) Thank you so much. – Srikanth Sep 27 '15 at 05:52
very underrated answer – Avinash R Jul 23 '16 at 10:41
Perfect answer. Works with only "editText.requestFocus()". Thanks. – AVJ Nov 19 '19 at 07:26

score 27 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 18 '17 at 21:05

27

Here is how a kotlin extension for showing and hiding the soft keyboard can be made:

fun View.showKeyboard() {
  this.requestFocus()
  val inputMethodManager = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
  inputMethodManager.showSoftInput(this, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT)
}

fun View.hideKeyboard() {
  val inputMethodManager = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
  inputMethodManager.hideSoftInputFromWindow(windowToken, 0)
}

Then you can just do this:

editText.showKeyboard()
// OR
editText.hideKeyboard()

answered Jun 18 '17 at 21:05

alvarlagerlof

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this is a better solution as compared to rest – d-feverx Jun 23 '20 at 16:05
This worked for me in mar 2021. Did it in a Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).postDelayed( { ... }, 1000) – Nick M Mar 10 '21 at 22:23

score 6 · Answer 7 · edited Jul 15 '20 at 15:21

Here is KeyboardHelper Class for hiding and showing keyboard

import android.content.Context;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.inputmethod.InputMethodManager;
import android.widget.EditText;

/**
 * Created by khanhamza on 06-Mar-17.
 */

public class KeyboardHelper {
public static void hideSoftKeyboard(final Context context, final View view) {
    if (context == null) {
        return;
    }
    view.requestFocus();
    view.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
assert imm != null;
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.getWindowToken(), 0);
}
}, 1000);
}

public static void hideSoftKeyboard(final Context context, final EditText editText) {
    editText.requestFocus();
    editText.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
assert imm != null;
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(editText.getWindowToken(), 0);
}
}, 1000);
}


public static void openSoftKeyboard(final Context context, final EditText editText) {
    editText.requestFocus();
    editText.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
assert imm != null;
imm.showSoftInput(editText, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);
}
}, 1000);
}
}

score 6 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 25 '19 at 13:47

I recommend using a LifecycleObserver which is part of the Handling Lifecycles with Lifecycle-Aware Components of Android Jetpack.

I want to open and close the Keyboard when the Fragment/Activity appears. Firstly, define two extension functions for the EditText. You can put them anywhere in your project:

fun EditText.showKeyboard() {
    requestFocus()
    val imm = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
    imm.showSoftInput(this, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT)
}

fun EditText.hideKeyboard() {
    val imm = context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
    imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(this.windowToken, 0)
}

Then define a LifecycleObserver which opens and closes the keyboard when the Activity/Fragment reaches onResume() or onPause:

class EditTextKeyboardLifecycleObserver(private val editText: WeakReference<EditText>) :
    LifecycleObserver {

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_RESUME)
    fun openKeyboard() {
        editText.get()?.postDelayed({ editText.get()?.showKeyboard() }, 100)
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_PAUSE)
    fun closeKeyboard() {
        editText.get()?.hideKeyboard()
    }
}

Then add the following line to any of your Fragments/Activities, you can reuse the LifecycleObserver any times. E.g. for a Fragment:

override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)

    // inflate the Fragment layout

    lifecycle.addObserver(EditTextKeyboardLifecycleObserver(WeakReference(myEditText)))

    // do other stuff and return the view

}

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 16 '19 at 04:25

I tried a lot ways and it's not working tho, not sure is it because i'm using shared transition from fragment to activity containing the edit text.

Btw my edittext is also wrapped in LinearLayout.

I added a slight delay to request focus and below code worked for me: (Kotlin)

 et_search.postDelayed({
     editText.requestFocus()

     showKeyboard()
 },400) //only 400 is working fine, even 300 / 350, the cursor is not showing

showKeyboard()

 val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
 imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, 0)

Hadi Note · Answer 10 · 2019-05-08T06:06:51.793

First way:

    etPassword.post(() -> {
        etPassword.requestFocus();
        InputMethodManager manager = (InputMethodManager) getContext().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
        manager.showSoftInput(etPassword, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);
    });

Second way:

In Manifest:

    <activity
        android:name=".activities.LoginActivity"
        android:screenOrientation="portrait"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="stateVisible"/>

In code:

etPassword.requestFocus();

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 02 '20 at 12:52

editTxt.setOnFocusChangeListener { v, hasFocus ->
            val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
            if (hasFocus) {
                imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY)
            } else {
                imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(v.windowToken, 0)
            }
        }

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 12 '20 at 10:00

I tried the top answer by David Merriman and it also didn't work in my case. But I found the suggestion to run this code delayed here and it works like a charm.

val editText = view.findViewById<View>(R.id.settings_input_text)

editText.postDelayed({
    editText.requestFocus()

    val imm = context.getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as? InputMethodManager
    imm?.showSoftInput(editText, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT)
}, 100)

score 1 · Answer 13 · edited May 02 '21 at 04:40

1

Put this into onResume() method.

binding.etxtSearch.isFocusableInTouchMode = true
binding.etxtSearch.isFocusable = true
binding.etxtSearch.requestFocus() 
val inputMethodManager = context?.getSystemService(Activity.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
inputMethodManager.showSoftInput(binding.etxtSearch, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT)

edited May 02 '21 at 04:40

AgentP

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answered May 01 '21 at 22:46

sunny

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 03 '21 at 07:03

I finally figured out a solution and create a Kotlin class for it

object KeyboardUtils {

    fun showKeyboard(editText: EditText) {
        editText.requestFocus()
        val imm = editText.context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
        imm.showSoftInput(editText, 0)
    }

    fun hideKeyboard(editText: EditText) {
        val imm = editText.context.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
        imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(editText.windowToken, 0)
    }

}

score -1 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 20:14

-1

I couldn't get any of these answers to work on their own. The solution for me was to combine them:

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.toggleSoftInput(InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED, InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY);
editText.requestFocus();
imm.showSoftInput(editText, InputMethodManager.SHOW_FORCED);

I'm not sure why that was required for me -- according to the docs it seems that either method should have worked on their own.

answered Jul 21 '16 at 20:14

mwu

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6
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This is definitely not a good practice. Perhaps, Activity or Fragment transaction was intervening with the soft keyboard or the Input Method flags were not set correctly but either way, this solution should not be used. – Marcel Bro Nov 14 '18 at 12:17

How can I set the focus (and display the keyboard) on my EditText programmatically

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