Android show Keyboard by default

Problem

Sometimes we the Keyboard doesn’t show up by default if we e.g. open a dialog and request the focus for an input element. Even following the default tutorials doesn’t really help. As soo here some samples how it will show up.

Solution

Show Keyboard in Dialogs / DialogFragment

Usually the solution the the Android Guide  just works using:

Solution 1

    @Override
    public void onViewCreated(View view, @Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState);
        // Get field from view
        mEditText = (EditText) view.findViewById(R.id.txt_your_name);
        // Show soft keyboard automatically and request focus to field
        mEditText.requestFocus();
        getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(
            WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_VISIBLE);
    }

Solution 2

My personal experience was, that this (solution 1) isn’t really working always — more the happy case. More reliable is the following solution:

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        final Dialog dialog = super.onCreateDialog(savedInstanceState);
        // show the keyboard as soon we get the focus ...
        dialog.setOnShowListener(new DialogInterface.OnShowListener() {
            @Override
            public void onShow(DialogInterface dialogInterface) {
                txtInput.post(new Runnable() {
                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        final InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) txtInput.getContext().getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
                        imm.showSoftInput(txtInput, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);
                        txtInput.requestFocus(); // needed if you have more then one input
                    }
                });
            }
        });
        return dialog;
    }

This solutions also just works with the normal AlertDialog as it uses the show listener.

Important to note is, that in either case requestFocus should either be called or set in the xml layout file for the element.

Solution 3: Always show they Keyboard

Where is alway the possibility to always show the keyboard — even if not always really useful:

getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(
    WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_VISIBLE);

The keyboard could now be shown even if the user can’t input something into any input element. Where in solution 2 the keyboard is only shown of the element gets the focus, in this case the keyboard is just shown.

Request Focus for an Element using XML Layout File

Just add the Tag <requestFocus /> to the body of the element.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/txtInput"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:inputType="text">
    <requestFocus />
</EditText>