[Android 1.6+] External Keyboard Helper Pro

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kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
ExternalKeyboardHelperPro.jpg


Get it from Google Play: External Keyboard Helper Pro

Make your Android device play nice with your non-US external keyboard.

A non visible soft keyboard (Input Method) intended to be used with hardware Bluetooth and USB keyboards. It automaticly detects Bluetooth keyboards (and in some cases also USB keyboards) and brings up the Input Method dialog. It also supports a lot of different keylayouts for non-US external keyboards.

This app does NOT require a rooted device.

Features
  • International keyboard layouts.
  • Remaps the Escape key to BACK (optional)
  • Allows you to control which characters should be threated as combining characters.
  • A "null" Soft Keyboard to use with hardware keyboards (Bluetooth & USB).
  • Automaticly brings up Input Method selection dialog when Bluetooth keyboard connects or disconnects.
  • Automatic detection can also work with USB keyboards on some platforms (experimental)
  • App that brings up Input Method selection (for easy access)

Currently supported keyboard layouts
  • Austrian
  • Belgian
  • Bosnian
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • English (GB)
  • English (US-International)
  • Estonian
  • Faroese
  • Finnish
  • French (Canada)
  • French (France)
  • French (Switzerland)
  • German
  • German (Switzerland)
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Italian
  • Latvian
  • Lithuanian (Numeric)
  • Norwegian
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbian
  • Slovak
  • Slovene
  • Spanish (Latin America)
  • Spanish (Spain/Int)
  • Swedish
  • Turkish (Q)
  • Vietnamese

All layouts are based on standard USB Keyboard layouts. Bluetooth keyboards sometimes do not follow the standard completely but you can customize the layout yourself if it doesn't match perfectly.


Characters that can be threated as combining characters
  • acute
  • breve
  • caron
  • cedilla
  • circumflex
  • diaeresis/umlaut/dialytika
  • dialytika tonos
  • dot above/dot below
  • double acute
  • grave
  • ogonek
  • ring
  • tilde
  • tonos

What it does NOT
  • It won't fix your Bluetooth or USB connected keyboard if it wasn't working in the first place.
  • It does not automaticly switch Input Method. It only shows the dialog and you will have to choose Input Method manually. This is an intentional limitation built into Android by Google. No app is allowed to change Input Method without user interaction (unless the app is a system app).

Planned features
  • Support for more keyboard layouts.
  • DONE!Support for manually remapping keys.
  • DONE!If requested I may also make it work on Android versions lower than 2.3.
 

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  • ExternalKeyboardHelperPro.jpg
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Last edited:

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
Since yesterday it works with Android 1.6+ and custom remapping feature has been added along with some more predefined layouts and some more combining characters.

A demo version will be created soon.
 

vpavlin

New member
Apr 10, 2012
3
0
Czech layout

Hi! Your app is perfect. I think it is really great idea. But I have one little problem.. there isn't czech layout. Is there any possibility You could add it in next version?

If you tell me what do you need, I can help you prepare it for you app.
 

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
Hi! Your app is perfect. I think it is really great idea. But I have one little problem.. there isn't czech layout. Is there any possibility You could add it in next version?

If you tell me what do you need, I can help you prepare it for you app.

Sure, the reason why I haven't added it allready is that I'm not sure which one of the 3 different Czech layouts that are the most commonly used.

Czech: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/keyboards/kbdcz.html
Czech QWERTY: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/keyboards/kbdcz1.html
Czech Programmer: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/keyboards/kbdcz2.html

Which of these three is the most common one?
 
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vpavlin

New member
Apr 10, 2012
3
0
Common czech layout

Sure, the reason why I haven't added it allready is that I'm not sure which one of the 3 different Czech layouts that are the most commonly used.

Czech:
.
.
.

Which of these three is the most common one?

I would recommend this first one

From common czech kb it differs just in key with the forward slash ("/"). Common czech keyboard has there -,_ (SHIFT), * (ALTGR)

Thank you very much!
 

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
I would recommend this first one

From common czech kb it differs just in key with the forward slash ("/"). Common czech keyboard has there -,_ (SHIFT), * (ALTGR)

Thank you very much!
The "dot above" dead key (altgr+8) is supposed to generate E I and Z with dot-above according to this layout: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/keyboards/kbdcz.html

Are "dot-above-E" (ėĖ) and "dot-above-I" (İ) really used in the Czech language? It would save me some work if I can skip those two combinations.
(not to be confused with èÈ éÉ and ìÌ íÍ)
 
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vpavlin

New member
Apr 10, 2012
3
0
Dot above E

The "dot above" dead key (altgr+8) is supposed to generate E I and Z with dot-above according to this layout: ...

Are "dot-above-E" (ėĖ) and "dot-above-I" (İ) really used in the Czech language? It would save me some work if I can skip those two combinations.
(not to be confused with èÈ éÉ and ìÌ íÍ)

Hi,

no, we don't use the dot symbol. I have even never noticed it on the keyboard:D

Anyway, the czech layout is the same as on Wikipedie (link from your previous post). I found this layout before, bude XDA didn't let mi post the link to it;)

Thanks

Vaclav
 

lxeran

Member
Apr 16, 2012
5
1
hebrew language

hey,

i purchased your program and it looks like a great program but im unable to use it because it doesn't have the hebrew layout, is there a way to add it?

thanks.
 

reachksv

Member
Dec 7, 2011
8
1
Hi, this app seems to really solve my problem of using keyboard to ssh. I am trying to map the ctrl key on my igo keyboard to send ctrl key code. But in the preset list of options i don't see ctrl as one of the options. Could you please help me out here.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA
 

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
Hi, this app seems to really solve my problem of using keyboard to ssh. I am trying to map the ctrl key on my igo keyboard to send ctrl key code. But in the preset list of options i don't see ctrl as one of the options. Could you please help me out here.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

The keycodes for the CTRL keys where added in Android 3.0 (API Level 11):
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html#KEYCODE_CTRL_LEFT

What version are you using?
 

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
hey,

i purchased your program and it looks like a great program but im unable to use it because it doesn't have the hebrew layout, is there a way to add it?

thanks.
Adding it is possible. You can even do it yourself allready with the customize feature if you know all the unicodes needed.

However Hebrew writes from right to left unless I am misinformed and I'm not sure if Android handles that automaticly. You can do some testing with the demo version. You'll find the unicodes here by putting the mouse pointer on each key:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/keyboards/kbdheb.html

Change U+NNNN to 0xNNNN and the codes will work directly in my app.

EDIT: Nevermind. Just tried adding two hebrew characters manually and at least in Android 4.0.4 where I test it automaticly handles this. I'll add Hebrew. You can do it yourself using the customize keymap feature if you do not want to wait.
 
Last edited:

lxeran

Member
Apr 16, 2012
5
1
Wow!

This is great :) thank you.
I just finished adding the mapping, and i love it.
great product, good job!
 
Last edited:

indiziert

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2012
75
12
update to 2.5,

keyboard customize mapping somehow doesnt recognize the new mapping i inserted.

so i map manually the BT_HID.kl.

do you need any logcat?

using custom ROM HC on HTC Flyer
using GeneralKey Keyboard Bluetooth
 

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
update to 2.5,

keyboard customize mapping somehow doesnt recognize the new mapping i inserted.

so i map manually the BT_HID.kl.

do you need any logcat?

using custom ROM HC on HTC Flyer
using GeneralKey Keyboard Bluetooth

- Did previous version work?
- Have you switched to External Keyboard Helper Pro input method?
- Have you enabled a "switch key" in advanced remapping and accidently switched mapping off?
- Is no key remapped at all or is it some specific keys that is not working?
- What device ID does your keyboard show if you use the "debugging" option in "Advanced settings"?
 

kallt_kaffe

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2010
1,484
1,161
www.apedroid.com
I've noticed that there is a "cracked" version of my app floating around. I honestly don't care if anyone cannot afford $3 to get their $50-$100 dollar keyboard to work correctly but what worries me is that this "cracked" version I found has been modified and resigned. About 30kb (or more) code has been added and I have no idea what the added code does because I have no intention to install that version.

I've added none of Googles Licensing code so there is nothing to "crack" in the app so there should be no reason whatsover for anyone to add about 30kb to the executable.

The site where I found it also offers tons of other "cracked" apps and most likely they have also been modified. Maybe they've "only" added advertisment code to profit from the "cracked" apps but I guess a more likely scenario is that they've added malicious code. If you for some reason choose to download a "cracked" version of an Android app, a "cracked" Input Method is propably the worst possible choice of app to pirate.

I've written a blog post about it with some more information about it.
 
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indiziert

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2012
75
12
- Did previous version work?
No, it didnt work.

- Have you switched to External Keyboard Helper Pro input method?
External keyboard helper pro is selected

- Have you enabled a "switch key" in advanced remapping and accidently switched mapping off?
Its enabled and assign to F12, which i can activated during the bluetooth keyboard usage.

- Is no key remapped at all or is it some specific keys that is not working?
Keymapping is enabled, newlya assigned key is not working. predefine key work fine.

- What device ID does your keyboard show if you use the "debugging" option in "Advanced settings"?
Device ID is -1
 

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  • 12
    ExternalKeyboardHelperPro.jpg


    Get it from Google Play: External Keyboard Helper Pro

    Make your Android device play nice with your non-US external keyboard.

    A non visible soft keyboard (Input Method) intended to be used with hardware Bluetooth and USB keyboards. It automaticly detects Bluetooth keyboards (and in some cases also USB keyboards) and brings up the Input Method dialog. It also supports a lot of different keylayouts for non-US external keyboards.

    This app does NOT require a rooted device.

    Features
    • International keyboard layouts.
    • Remaps the Escape key to BACK (optional)
    • Allows you to control which characters should be threated as combining characters.
    • A "null" Soft Keyboard to use with hardware keyboards (Bluetooth & USB).
    • Automaticly brings up Input Method selection dialog when Bluetooth keyboard connects or disconnects.
    • Automatic detection can also work with USB keyboards on some platforms (experimental)
    • App that brings up Input Method selection (for easy access)

    Currently supported keyboard layouts
    • Austrian
    • Belgian
    • Bosnian
    • Croatian
    • Czech
    • Danish
    • English (GB)
    • English (US-International)
    • Estonian
    • Faroese
    • Finnish
    • French (Canada)
    • French (France)
    • French (Switzerland)
    • German
    • German (Switzerland)
    • Greek
    • Hebrew
    • Hungarian
    • Icelandic
    • Italian
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian (Numeric)
    • Norwegian
    • Portuguese (Brazil)
    • Portuguese (Portugal)
    • Romanian
    • Russian
    • Serbian
    • Slovak
    • Slovene
    • Spanish (Latin America)
    • Spanish (Spain/Int)
    • Swedish
    • Turkish (Q)
    • Vietnamese

    All layouts are based on standard USB Keyboard layouts. Bluetooth keyboards sometimes do not follow the standard completely but you can customize the layout yourself if it doesn't match perfectly.


    Characters that can be threated as combining characters
    • acute
    • breve
    • caron
    • cedilla
    • circumflex
    • diaeresis/umlaut/dialytika
    • dialytika tonos
    • dot above/dot below
    • double acute
    • grave
    • ogonek
    • ring
    • tilde
    • tonos

    What it does NOT
    • It won't fix your Bluetooth or USB connected keyboard if it wasn't working in the first place.
    • It does not automaticly switch Input Method. It only shows the dialog and you will have to choose Input Method manually. This is an intentional limitation built into Android by Google. No app is allowed to change Input Method without user interaction (unless the app is a system app).

    Planned features
    • Support for more keyboard layouts.
    • DONE!Support for manually remapping keys.
    • DONE!If requested I may also make it work on Android versions lower than 2.3.
    2
    Also works on my Xperia s android 2.3.6

    USB or Bluetooth keyboard?
    2
    Didn't work anymore after upgrade Android 8.0 to 8.1
    Please fix this.
    I can open EKH Settings, and I can choose EKH Switch in Keyboard settings for external keyboards, but EKH Switch didn,'t work anymore on 8.1
    Yesterday, before upgrade to 8.1 all works like a charm.
    Please fix this.
    2
    I've noticed that there is a "cracked" version of my app floating around. I honestly don't care if anyone cannot afford $3 to get their $50-$100 dollar keyboard to work correctly but what worries me is that this "cracked" version I found has been modified and resigned. About 30kb (or more) code has been added and I have no idea what the added code does because I have no intention to install that version.

    I've added none of Googles Licensing code so there is nothing to "crack" in the app so there should be no reason whatsover for anyone to add about 30kb to the executable.

    The site where I found it also offers tons of other "cracked" apps and most likely they have also been modified. Maybe they've "only" added advertisment code to profit from the "cracked" apps but I guess a more likely scenario is that they've added malicious code. If you for some reason choose to download a "cracked" version of an Android app, a "cracked" Input Method is propably the worst possible choice of app to pirate.

    I've written a blog post about it with some more information about it.
    2
    Go to Menü, Speech and Input Settings, there are the whole Keyboards, also the external keyboard helper pro, and there klick at the settings, here you are....... :). Greetz