Database Info

What if someone skinned the old phone pad to look like the new HTC keypad

There have been lots of posts by people looking to properly disable XT9 that is integrated in the HTC soft keypad and keyboard to make the "regular" word completion work when using the hardware keyboard.
For quick SMS messages, I still prefer a phonepad with XT9. I like the large layout of the HTC keypad, but XT9 drives me nuts. After trying about every SIP I could find, I think the smootest for T9 phonepad input is the HTC Phone Pad (also called Intellipad) that apparently used to be included on HTC roms. It's quick and T9 only rears its face when you're using it.
There are a number of skins out there for it, including a touch-style one that looks close to the new HTC Keypad (sorry for not looking up the creator) but the 0-9 keys are always smaller (due to the extra keys on the sides I guess).
I think it would be great if someone with some knowledge of creating SIPs and skinning them could create a new skin for this Phone Pad that is laid out just like the new HTC Keypad. I imagine this would take a little more modification than just a new skin due to the size of the buttons and the layout. For example, I don't see the need for the arrow buttons on the corners of the Phone Pad, but you can't scroll through the word suggestions with the hardware "D-pad" 'as is'.
I wish I could get this started myself, but unfortunately I have no knowledge of how to make/edit a SIP. I know there's plenty of people out there that can however, so hopefully someone might be interested in making a more usable version of the new HTC Keypad and interested in taking this on.

HD2 Keyboard National layout LT (Lithuanian). Cursor keys swaped,vibro reduced

National Lithuanian for standart HD2 keyboard (Ezinput) Full QWERTY Layout.
Cursor keys swaped (up, right etc..)
Cursor keys moved to left side of the keyboard
Vibro reduced to 1
National keys added (long press).
TAB key instead of XT9
Click volume reduced
No more need for FingerKeyboard or other if you do not demand much from the keyboard
Unistallable, so you can easily revert to original.
Haven't tested without policy disabled (unasigned apps). Perhaps you need to set this option with BsB Tweaks to install the cab.
v2.3 Landscape cursor keys on left side.
v3.1 Landscape cursor keys location something like on fingerkeyboard
Tool that helps to modify keyboard - XmlGui: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551813
If you like may work you can buy me some beer
Donate if you like my work.
.

Not that I would need it, cause I only use english keyboard for everything more or less, but good job anyway!

essensial said:
Not that I would need it, cause I only use english keyboard for everything more or less, but good job anyway!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a problem to make better english version!!! If someone needs it is possible Just ask.
What I did - everything exept "national keys" are useful for everyone- lowered vibro, lowered sound, space moved to right, cursor key placed in first row. It is more comfortable for me.
I do not understand what the guys who made keyb were thinking about - in original layout space not reachable with right thumb, vibro too strong sound to loud - in 10 mins that things become anoying
And whats funny if i rotate screen 270 degrees - keyboard rotates also - but the keys that pop on press a not rotated, I mean they stay as on 90 degrees rotation layout ha ha ha
Why I'm telling that- on HD2 default layout would be more comfortable using 270 but not 90 as is .... Strange why cursor keys are on right side because that position is more comfortable to be on left..on 90 Try...
Is there anybody who can help/give me information about that damn HTC keyboard. I have some ideas but still didn't find out how to do (eg. how to make space of bigger width - where is the png that is used for space button ?)
Thanks in advance.

linuxis,
it's nice to see your work.
I'd like to know how did you make it, because I'd like to make something similar but I'd like to experiment a little ... and probably make a full Bulgarian layout.
What's required to accomplish this?

Updated to version 2.3 - cursor keys moved to left

I would be cool if you could make a keyboard with easy access to "æ, ø, å" for us danish users... I would seriously call you my god if you could pull that off

linuxis said:
Updated to version 2.3 - cursor keys moved to left
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nors ir nenaudoju LT kalbos, bet dekui anyway

Puiku. Bandysiu naudoti.

Thanks Linuxis ! Good job.

pankov said:
linuxis,
it's nice to see your work.
I'd like to know how did you make it, because I'd like to make something similar but I'd like to experiment a little ... and probably make a full Bulgarian layout.
What's required to accomplish this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a tool look inside the cab. Basically these files are modified.
0C09.xml
0D09.xml
1C00.xml
LQ_Bg.png
LQ_Bg_Inv.png
PQ_Bg.png
PQ_Bg_Inv.png
LQSym_Bg.png
LQSym_Bg_Inv.png
All layout is in xml files, they inside has links to the images.
By the images you can say what layout they represend.
LQ - Landscape
PQ - portrait
LQSym - numeric keyboard layout
xxx.xml xxx - code of the language you modify.
xml structure is very simple, just layout tag/ page tag (several pages eg in numeric layout)/ key tags with coordinates. You can find key by key ID, and change the key or the values on long key press.
I think that is enough to start.

pspbirte said:
I would be cool if you could make a keyboard with easy access to "æ, ø, å" for us danish users... I would seriously call you my god if you could pull that off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just need to know what symbols shoud be placed where and what layout is the best for the danish symbols because I do not know danish . I mean - first row-long press (like lithuanian layout) or "æ" on "a" longpress ? And the symbols also needed.

linuxis said:
I just need to know what symbols shoud be placed where and what layout is the best for the danish symbols because I do not know danish . I mean - first row-long press (like lithuanian layout) or "æ" on "a" longpress ? And the symbols also needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on your information in this tread, I did make a Norwegian/Danish layout. Thank you very much to pull me in the rigth direction.
It's available here:
http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php?showtopic=1163736&st=2780&p=15366818&#entry15366818

Has anyone made a Swedish keyboard?

i'd like a german layout with the € symbol at the e key, the arrows in landscape on the other side, disabled xt9 key and the rest standard would it be possible?
or could you share the base files so i can mod them myself ?

nice i managed to do the mods for myself, at least the mods with changing the keys!
but as i saw the layout editing isn't that hard either, just redo all coords and the png file
nice linuxis for your inspiration!
but i asked myself, if it is possible to do smiles on a long press function, as i understood the xml code, it's not that easy cause a normal <char> tag prints all the keys while a <LP_char> tag gives the option to choose ...

Thanks mate for a long awaited LT keyboard.

endursa said:
nice i managed to do the mods for myself, at least the mods with changing the keys!
but as i saw the layout editing isn't that hard either, just redo all coords and the png file
nice linuxis for your inspiration!
but i asked myself, if it is possible to do smiles on a long press function, as i understood the xml code, it's not that easy cause a normal <char> tag prints all the keys while a <LP_char> tag gives the option to choose ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more tip for modders - check this tool XmlGui: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551813
It also helps for changing keyboard layout

One more tip:
index.xml in this file you can change vibro stregth and file to play (tick.wav)

Ačiū, linuxis, labai laukiau.
Thanks for a long awaited LT keyboard

Can somebody please upload 0C09.xml and 0D09.xml from a standard US keyboard, please? The files are located in the Windows directory.
Thanks... /TubGirl

Dvorak keyboard layout

Hi does any one know of a dvorak keyboard layout for our evos? I have a sneaking suspicion that we would see some nice speed gains in typing using that layout.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I think this would be interesting to have. I tried teaching myself Dvorak last semester, but I had too many things to type up so I was faced with 1) stick with QWERTY and ruin my learning, or 2) use Dvorak and slow my typing down to 15 WPM. Maybe I will give it another shot in the future.
Edit: AnySoftKeyboard in the Market has a Dvorak add-on pack.

I've tried the any keyboard and didn't like it. If we could get that layout for the stock or modded htc keyboard that would be sweet.
I would mod it myself but I have no knowledge of these things and from all the digging haven't been able to figure out where to start.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I have been doing some digging myself, because I really want this to happen, and it looks like in order to make a dvorak keyboard layout, we would have to start with the source code found here, and build our own.
h**p://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/inputmethods/LatinIME.git
The layout information can be found in the java/res/xml/kbd_qwerty.xml file, seen here:
h**p://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/inputmethods/LatinIME.git;a=blob;f=java/res/xml/kbd_qwerty.xml
However, the big problem with just changing all those keys to dvorak ones is that the symbol keys on dvorak are on the top, but on the bottom on qwerty. So if you count just the actual letters, the letters per row will be off.
Basically, what we need to do is move the delete key to the upper right, and rearrange the number of keys per row.
I've never done any coding for Android before, and so I've tried, but I'm still trying to figure out if I can build only the LatinIME.

I finally found some time to take this on.
It's not perfect, but maybe it will work for you.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=809930

Resco Keyboard 6.0 review

I've used Resco Keyboard off and on for quite a long time. But while I continued to use it on my iPaq I more or less shelved it on my last two phones because the "thumb board" never seemed to be what it was advertised to be, and the normal mode wouldn't resize to take advantage of the higher resolution and larger screens. Fast forward to last night.
I downloaded the trial of the new version (6.0), and installed it. First thing I noticed is that the thumboard works. It looks somewhat similar to the Full Qwerty kb that comes on the HD2, though there is a space between each of the keys. And this makes for fewer mistakes while typing.
What makes Resco's kb so appealing has always been the extra things and customization that you can do with it, and in this new version the process of customizing it is extremely easy. I had modified the old version to work for me in terms of key layouts but it was tough to do. This new version uses only two files, and both are in the MS Siliverlight format. They are csv files and I only had to modify one of them, _Symbols.csv in order to make the two numeric boards appear exactly as I wanted them to, and it only took me an hour or so to do it. I had no prior experience with the format used, it's just that easy to modify the files. I was even able to reassign the values of the two center keys at the bottom of each of the numeric keyboards to act as a spacebar of sorts. And now, between the qwerty and the first numeric board I have all of the keys I need for 99% of my typing. There are only 2 keys on the 2nd numeric board that I need to use it for.
In addition to making the process of changing the key values much easier Resco continues that idea with their FX board. This feature allows you to store phrases, date and time stamps, hyperlinks and just about any kind of string you use frequently, each to be added to your open document, appt. etc, with the press of a single key. And this time, just as with the keyboards, the process of adding these special strings is so much easier than with previous versions.
I only needed to use this for as long as it took me to figure out the reassignment of keys to realize that this was worth the $9.95 price. I've been using it as much as possible today and have no regrets, it's a very slick keyboard. And it seems to work just as well in landscape. Because you can try before you buy I would recommend it to anyone. It's worth a look imho.
edit: Almost forgot to mention, one of the screens contains large buttons for all four arrow keys, and also Cut, Copy, Paste, Del, Select All, and an extra backspace key. Pretty slick.

so, can u tell me why when i use resco keyboard pro 6 as default the windows mobile UI seems to be sluggish.. the menu scroll is not as smooth when using HTC keyboard..
sorry for my bad english.. hope you understand..

does anyone know of any skins for resco 6.0

I have seen no difference at all in the performance of the phone or the UI with Resco 6.0 installed. Of course I'm running a very clean ROM. And I'm not using Sense. I have Spb Mobile Shell installed. Works like a charm
Resco doesn't have any skins showing on their site, though I haven't yet checked their forum. I am sure the skins from previous versions would not be compatible. I wouldn't mind a little color but I wouldn't mess with the layout I have with it now. Just my personal preference, that.

resco keboard registry product key
I have HTC p6500 Mantle wm6.5 with a resco keboard installed and running. I need to factory reset and will need the product key which I have lost all trace of.
Can the product key be found in the registry?
Or!
Can a product key be found somewhere else?
Regards William

Android keyboard layouts

Edit Aug, 16: I have found out that the XT9 subsystem is used for specifically our docking stations. If you go to Settings -> Languages & Input -> ASUS Keyboard -> About, you'll see the big stupid XT9 icons. Therefore, our keyboards have to be using the XT9 database files and the only way to procure different languages seems to be via ASUS (that's what Nuance's site said anyway). The manipulation of the keyboard dock layout mentioned below seems to be our only way until 1) we procure these additional language files from a different source (might require tweaking), 2) someone with an XT9 license makes the files for us, 3) we find an editor that we can use to create / edit the XT9 files, or 4) we find out how to rework the keyboard framework to use different altogether.
Because of the way our system uses the XT9 subsystem, the JB keyboard update itself won't help us. Officially, it all depends on what ASUS gives us to enable additional langs/layouts for our keyboard docks.
---- Original
All right. Here is what I have collected thus far regarding the way that Androids handle keyboard layouts. I put it here in development as I'm sure only the people in this area would really have an interest/use for it. As I still have yet to satiate my own curiosity and preference for a different keyboard layout, I do hope that somehow someone can figure out how to get us proper alternative keyboard layouts.
----
Our keyboard layouts are spread into 2 separate data form categories: the buttons and the characters. The buttons are the real buttons (physical keyboard or virtual) that have a specific numerical identifier. The characters are the glyphs and their various states that can occur when using character modifier buttons (shift, control, alt, etc) when the associated key number button is pressed.
All of these values are found in "/system/usr" with those found in the "keychars" directory being for the glyphs and the "keylayout" for the arrangement of button number with associate character represented. Both types of files (".kcm" for characters and ".kl" for layours) are really just text documents and seeing the association between the two is easy during comparison:
Example: 'A'
in the "Generic.kcm", it is defined as
Code:
key A {
label: 'A'
base: 'a'
shift, capslock: 'A'
ctrl, alt, meta: none
}
while in the "Generic.kl", it is defined as
Code:
key 30 A
Therefore, Key 30 is Mapped to Key 'A' that can have the states 'a' or 'A'.
Unfortunately, these two files that constitute a layout are combined in the XT9 subsystem and not totally used "as is". There is a configuration text file for the XT9 database that can be found at "/system/usr/xt9/config/databases.conf" and in there you can see mappings of languages to database files (also note that all are derived from QWERTY format). You'll notice that the databases are of type ".kdb", ".ldb", or ".dat". A quick search on the 'Net will tell you that the ".kdb" is a keepass file and ".ldb" is a Microsoft Access file. These are wrong! I suspect they are both the same file type but I do not know of what type they are so I cannot view nor edit them. I have tried the "suggested" programs and I tried SQLite since that format is used for our "registry". I'm thinking that they might be T9 database files but I haven't found an editor to even verify that hypothesis.
The organization used to create our layouts is highly flexible and therefore really complex. There's some type of combination of format + language that is calculated in order to determine the correct layout to use. No wonder ASUS (and practically everybody else) has limited keyboard layouts. Additionally, this scheme also controls the majority of our hardware keyboard buttons as well.
For the physical keyboard dock, we have direct ways of manipulating the hotkeys or brute-forcing the layout within our grasp. The hotkeys are somehow contained in our "/system/app/keyboard.apk" and for the basic layout, all we really need to do is modify the "asusdec.kl" to shoehorn our preferences into the system.
An example to test if you want a DVORAK keyboard layout is to copy & paste this into the asusdec.kl and restart (back up the file first!) and it should now be in DVORAK format (though it will not be selectable from the menu). Same thing for the "Generic.kl" - edit the chars associated with the key numbers and the buttons will change values. I do not recommend this method as it is hacky/evil/dirty/bad and all sorts of other negative adjectives. However, until a better way is found, it may be our only real way of modding the keyboard the way we want.
I humbly ask if there are any of our beloved geniuses with further knowledge on how this system to please post additional information here in hopes that maybe we may create better keyboard options for our devices.
Thanks for reading
PS: Found out that Jelly Bean will have additional keyboard layouts. From this thread, "Android 4.1 includes 27 international keymaps for keyboards, including Dvorak." That's a good thing.

Wow, thanks. The information you've provided, is really helpful, and well layed out.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

LMMT said:
Wow, thanks. The information you've provided, is really helpful, and well layed out.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad that you think so though I don't know how helpful this post will actually be. This is a rare topic to find information on and even rarer to find information that is directly useful. However, I hope that the information I provided would be at least enough to give us a direction when/if development for keyboard layouts start.
Maybe I'll go over to the Prime forums later to read up further on any advancements they have made.

alienedd said:
Edit Aug, 16: I have found out that the XT9 subsystem is used for specifically our docking stations. If you go to Settings -> Languages & Input -> ASUS Keyboard -> About, you'll see the big stupid XT9 icons. Therefore, our keyboards have to be using the XT9 database files and the only way to procure different languages seems to be via ASUS (that's what Nuance's site said anyway). The manipulation of the keyboard dock layout mentioned below seems to be our only way until 1) we procure these additional language files from a different source (might require tweaking), 2) someone with an XT9 license makes the files for us, 3) we find an editor that we can use to create / edit the XT9 files, or 4) we find out how to rework the keyboard framework to use different altogether.
Because of the way our system uses the XT9 subsystem, the JB keyboard update itself won't help us. Officially, it all depends on what ASUS gives us to enable additional langs/layouts for our keyboard docks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already contacted ASUS regarding is_IS layout and they will not support it, so I would not hope for much change there. It would be great if ASUS would release some kind of remapping tool so we could map the keys correctly ourselves.
I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread, and will post if I find something interesting.

Okay, after googling a bit I found an app called External Keyboard Helper Pro that allows me to enable my layout perfectly on the dock.
I'd recomend people seeing if it has their layout of choice.
Edit: There is a thread here on xda: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1541916

Doing these changes after JB
alienedd said:
...
Example: 'A'
in the "Generic.kcm", it is defined as
Code:
key A {
label: 'A'
base: 'a'
shift, capslock: 'A'
ctrl, alt, meta: none
}
while in the "Generic.kl", it is defined as
Code:
key 30 A
Therefore, Key 30 is Mapped to Key 'A' that can have the states 'a' or 'A'.
...
PS: Found out that Jelly Bean will have additional keyboard layouts. From this thread, "Android 4.1 includes 27 international keymaps for keyboards, including Dvorak." That's a good thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had modified the .kcm and .kl files in ICS and had successfully mapped Bluetooth->Mute to be F1-F12 while allowing Caps lock (when on ) to restore those buttons to their original function. I had also modified the Lock and Wireless buttons to function as Delete and ESC respectively. I had made a few other changes as well. After updating to Jelly Bean I made a backup of the new files that had overwritten my edits and then recopied my edits over the new files and rebooted. The edits no longer worked at all and most of the keys I had made changes to now did nothing. I then tried to restore the backups of the files I had changed and then rebooted but nothing changed even though they were seemingly back in their original configuration. Does anyone have any clue as to what might have happened?
Also, anyone else have any success in JB in changing their layouts?

daerwynn said:
I had modified the .kcm and .kl files in ICS and had successfully mapped Bluetooth->Mute to be F1-F12 while allowing Caps lock (when on ) to restore those buttons to their original function. I had also modified the Lock and Wireless buttons to function as Delete and ESC respectively. I had made a few other changes as well. After updating to Jelly Bean I made a backup of the new files that had overwritten my edits and then recopied my edits over the new files and rebooted. The edits no longer worked at all and most of the keys I had made changes to now did nothing. I then tried to restore the backups of the files I had changed and then rebooted but nothing changed even though they were seemingly back in their original configuration. Does anyone have any clue as to what might have happened?
Also, anyone else have any success in JB in changing their layouts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i'm in the same position you are in i managed to edit my kcm file exactly how i wanted it for ICS but now i have "upgraded" to JB and the changes have been lost it appears JB does not use the files in the XT9 folder at all and i cannot find out how to edit it with JB!!! Very frustrating.
All i want is the backslash key to be a backslash in UK "mode". It is producing a # unless i change modes which is very annoying each time i want it. Wondering if there is any other solution than to downgrade back to ICS?
Please help us someone!
Thanks