Anybody managing keyboard events on a browser?

[Jorge Silva]

Thanks Colin... that does confirm my suspicions about hybrid apps as the 
most promising approach. It is still a bit early since I am still doing 
research on what others have come up with but I'll keep you posted. In 
the meanwhile, I am reading a thesis from a student who worked on 
alternative mobile access. I'll post the conclusions to the AEGIS/ORF 
tracker (http://redmine.atrc.utoronto.ca/issues/show/440) once I am done 
with it.

cheers!
Jorge

Colin Clark wrote:
> Hey Jorge,
> 
> On 24-Jun-09, at 10:02 AM, Jorge Silva wrote:
>>  I've been looking into on-screen keyboards (OSK) for alternative text 
>> entry in mobile devices and Jess suggested a while ago that this could 
>> be done through the browser. At that time I raised an eyebrow in 
>> disbelief, but after learning that Palm's new interface is 100% 
>> javascript and that Google are well on their way with their keyboard 
>> APIs 
>> (http://googleajaxsearchapi.blogspot.com/2009/06/introducing-virtual-keyboard-api.html), 
>> I think I should reconsider. In the long run though, I do need to 
>> expose events to the host OS to make them available to all 
>> applications. If anybody is already looking into this, I'd appreciate 
>> some advice or maybe I can help out?
> 
> 
> We've done a lot of work with keyboard interaction on the Web, though we 
> haven't tried building an on-screen keyboard. I think it's quite a 
> viable option, however. Web-based development on phones is really 
> picking up; in addition to the Palm Pre, Nokia also offers their Web 
> Runtime. Engage's approach to phone development will take advantage of 
> hybrid web/native applications.
> 
> A Web-based onscreen keyboard is a promising idea. The hybrid style of 
> web/native apps should allow you to also expose events to the host OS 
> with a minimum amount of effort, too. As you're looking into this, keep 
> me in the loop and let me know how I can help. Interesting stuff.
> 
> Colin
> 
> ---
> Colin Clark
> Technical Lead, Fluid Project
> Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto
> http://fluidproject.org
>