B4A Library [Lib] Masked EditText

Dave O · Apr 7, 2016

Informatix said:
Fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Confirmed, it's working better now. I'll check again to see if the text not dimming is reproducible in a simple example, but that's also an easy one to work around in any case.

Thanks for the quick update!

Widget · May 16, 2016

I went through your demo and it looks like a library that will be used a lot.

I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions that may make it even better. Now I'm new to B4A so I don't know how much of this is possible or not.

1) Is it possible to add a new property called "Literals"? This is a String property whose value contains special characters like "/:" or "@" that when the user types them in, control moves immediately to the field's location following the literal that was just pressed?

Example:
ET1.Format = "Date/time: ##/##/#### ##:##"
ET1.Literals = "/:"

When the user types in "1/", input then moves to the first "#" after the next "/" so we get "1/##/#### ##:##" . If the user then presses "5/" we get "1/5/#### ##:##" etc. So pressing any of the characters in the Literals property will jump to the next input character after the literal that was just pressed. Does this make sense?

The keyboard would of course have to display a button for each of the Literals "/" and ":" for this date field. If we were entering an email address and Literals="@" then an "@" button would be on the keyboard.

If the Literals property could be implemented, I think it will make data entry much faster.

2) When entering data for a MultiLine edit box, can you put a Next View button ">" on the keyboard so the user can use this key to leave the MultiLine edit view and move to the next view?

TIA

Informatix · May 17, 2016

Widget said:
I went through your demo and it looks like a library that will be used a lot.

I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions that may make it even better. Now I'm new to B4A so I don't know how much of this is possible or not.

1) Is it possible to add a new property called "Literals"? This is a String property whose value contains special characters like "/:" or "@" that when the user types them in, control moves immediately to the field's location following the literal that was just pressed?

Example:
ET1.Format = "Date/time: ##/##/#### ##:##"
ET1.Literals = "/:"

When the user types in "1/", input then moves to the first "#" after the next "/" so we get "1/##/#### ##:##" . If the user then presses "5/" we get "1/5/#### ##:##" etc. So pressing any of the characters in the Literals property will jump to the next input character after the literal that was just pressed. Does this make sense?

The keyboard would of course have to display a button for each of the Literals "/" and ":" for this date field. If we were entering an email address and Literals="@" then an "@" button would be on the keyboard.

If the Literals property could be implemented, I think it will make data entry much faster.

2) When entering data for a MultiLine edit box, can you put a Next View button ">" on the keyboard so the user can use this key to leave the MultiLine edit view and move to the next view?

TIA

The virtual keyboard is not something that I created. It's the stock IME of Android. So I can't create buttons or replace the existing ones (except in the case of the Next button that I can force to display Done).
In your first suggestion, "1/5/####" is not possible as # is not an optional char.

Dave O · Jun 6, 2016

Minor wish: Add HintColor as a property in the Designer.

I couldn't figure out why my hints were not appearing, until it occurred to me to try changing the color in code. That worked, but would be easier in the Designer if that's possible.

Informatix · Jun 6, 2016

Dave O said:
Minor wish: Add HintColor as a property in the Designer.

I tried but that did not work as expected. Don't know why.

ykucuk · Sep 24, 2016

Hello,

I set mask and it works great but i have a problem with it.

I use mask for phone numbers. it works well if user click on edit text and move cursor to begin otherwise its starts point where user click on edit text.

is there way for start to write begin of edit text each time user click on it

Thank you

B4X:

edtMail.Format = "+1"  &" ### ### ####"

Informatix · Sep 24, 2016

ykucuk said:
Hello,

I set mask and it works great but i have a problem with it.

I use mask for phone numbers. it works well if user click on edit text and move cursor to begin otherwise its starts point where user click on edit text.

is there way for start to write begin of edit text each time user click on it

Thank you

B4X:

edtMail.Format = "+1" &" ### ### ####"

Interesting question. Unfortunately, I have no solution to offer for now.

mojako · Oct 26, 2016

INPUT_TYPE_TEXT_WITH_CAPS not work for me. when I type text, it still appears to be lowercase.

Informatix · Oct 26, 2016

mojako said:
INPUT_TYPE_TEXT_WITH_CAPS not work for me. when I type text, it still appears to be lowercase.

Including the first letters? INPUT_TYPE_TEXT_WITH_CAPS is supposed to convert only the first letter of each word. If you want to convert everything to caps, use a filter like in the demo.

mojako · Oct 26, 2016

Informatix said:
Including the first letters? INPUT_TYPE_TEXT_WITH_CAPS is supposed to convert only the first letter of each word. If you want to convert everything to caps, use a filter like in the demo.

thanks ... it works like sample.. nice library..

Fausto Loss · Nov 17, 2016

Very good !!!! Thanks !!!

peacemaker · Nov 9, 2017

Please, any example of using "_Filter" event. Or more detaled description.

Informatix · Nov 9, 2017

peacemaker said:
Please, any example of using "_Filter" event. Or more detaled description.

You have an example provided with the library. From the example:

B4X:

Sub ET2_Filter(NewText As String, Position As Int, Replace As Boolean) As String
   'All characters are converted to lower case
   Log("Incoming=" & NewText & " (" & NewText.Length & ") Position=" & Position & " Replace=" & Replace)
   Return NewText.ToLowerCase
End Sub

"Filter" allows to replace the modified text whenever a change occurs (typed key, pasted text) before the change is displayed to the user (so you can fully control the result of any input).

mehdimf20 · Mar 10, 2018

how to work padding ?

Informatix · Mar 10, 2018

mehdimf20 said:
how to work padding ?

This view was done before the Padding property was added to the B4A EditText so it is not exposed but it can be called with JavaObject:
Dim JO As JavaObject = yourMaskedEditText
JO.RunMethod("setPadding", Array(100, 100, 100, 100))

biometrics · Jun 25, 2018

When I copy and paste masked edit fields from one layout to another and run the code and open that layout with Activity.LoadLayout I get this error. Then no matter if I recreate the masked edit field it keeps doing this. The masked edit fields works fine in the original layout.

Any help will be appreciated! I'm now stuck with project as this won't run.

B4X:

*** Service (starter) Create ***
** Service (starter) Start **
** Activity (main) Create, isFirst = true **
** Activity (main) Resume **
Error occurred on line: 255 (Main)
java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.RuntimeException: Field txtphonenumber1 was declared with the wrong type.
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.keywords.LayoutBuilder.loadLayout(LayoutBuilder.java:170)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.objects.ActivityWrapper.LoadLayout(ActivityWrapper.java:209)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.shell.Shell.runMethod(Shell.java:735)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.shell.Shell.raiseEventImpl(Shell.java:360)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.shell.Shell.raiseEvent(Shell.java:260)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.ShellBA.raiseEvent2(ShellBA.java:144)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.objects.Timer$TickTack.run(Timer.java:105)
   at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
   at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
   at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:234)
   at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5526)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
   at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726)
   at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Field txtphonenumber1 was declared with the wrong type.
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.keywords.LayoutBuilder.loadLayoutHelper(LayoutBuilder.java:431)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.keywords.LayoutBuilder.loadLayoutHelper(LayoutBuilder.java:454)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.keywords.LayoutBuilder.loadLayoutHelper(LayoutBuilder.java:454)
   at anywheresoftware.b4a.keywords.LayoutBuilder.loadLayout(LayoutBuilder.java:148)
   ... 15 more

biometrics · Jun 25, 2018

Seems some of them were still Dim'ed as EditText in Globals. That's a nice few hours wasted. /slaps head

Guenter Becker · Apr 17, 2019

Hello Informatix,

your lib is great. I tried it to use it as input field.
If I set the mask for example as ##.##.#### and I did not enter anything and then retriving the value like strX = maskededittext.text strX should be Null or "" because there was no user input. But I got strX = __.__.____ as return and this is not correct!

Is there a way to avoid this?

A solution is really important because yet I am not able to test if the user did an input or not. This is needed not to store the value of maskededittext fields with no user input in a database. Doing it now the returned value of __.__.____ is stored and this is not what I want neither is it correct.

Thank you for your answer and best regards from Germany
Guenter

Informatix · Apr 21, 2019

Guenter Becker said:
Hello Informatix,

your lib is great. I tried it to use it as input field.
If I set the mask for example as ##.##.#### and I did not enter anything and then retriving the value like strX = maskededittext.text strX should be Null or "" because there was no user input. But I got strX = __.__.____ as return and this is not correct! Is there a way to avoid this?

A solution is really important because yet I am not able to test if the user did an input or not. This is needed not to store the value of maskededittext fields with no user input in a database. Doing it now the returned value of __.__.____ is stored and this is not what I want neither is it correct.

Thank you for your answer and best regards from Germany
Guenter

Did you look at the demo ? See RawText.

Guenter Becker · Apr 22, 2019

Thank you Informatix. I am using now an enhanced version of RawText. Because if I check with your Rawtext and have no Input but a mask like ##.##.#### string "0" is returned? I debuged the function step by step and it strips off the mask correct but I could not recognize where the "0" is comming from. My workaround is as followes:

Sub RawText(ED As MaskedEditText,isDate As Boolean) As String
'Returns a copy of the text without the mask characters
Dim Raw As StringBuilder
Raw.Initialize
Dim mskCar, txtCar As Char
Dim Text As String = ED.text
Dim Mask As String = ED.Format
If Mask.Length = 0 Or Mask = "" Then
Return ED.Text
Else
For i = 0 To Mask.Length - 1
If i >= Text.Length Then Exit
mskCar = Mask.CharAt(i)
If mskCar = "#" Or mskCar = "A" Or mskCar = "H" Or mskCar = "L" Or mskCar = "?" Then
txtCar = Text.CharAt(i)
If txtCar <> ED.Placeholder Then
Raw.Append(txtCar)
End If
End If
Next
Dim res As String = Raw.ToString
If isDate And res = "0" Then res =""
Return res
End If
End Sub

This works and does what it should for me and I am able to use the MaskedEditText as Inputfield for a Date.

Thank you for the quick asstistance
best Regards from Germany
Guenter

B4A Library [Lib] Masked EditText

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