How to check whether the input is given by barcode scanner or by soft keyboard?

Question

I wanted to check programmatically that whether the input given by user is either from soft keyboard or the barcode scanner attached to the android tablet.

There is no edit text in activity where I want to apply this so please avoid providing solutions that are applicable through EditText.

check this link https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29769204/detect-input-from-software-or-hardware-keyboard — AskNilesh, Aug 30 '17 at 11:42
ok thanks but I wanted to know if in an activity in which there is no edittext but still user giving inputs from hardware keys. — Sachin Verma, Aug 30 '17 at 11:51
If there is no `EditText`, then usually there is no input method editor (soft keyboard) showing, and therefore any input is coming from device buttons, Bluetooth keyboards, USB keyboards, etc. — CommonsWare, Aug 30 '17 at 11:56
yes thank you that is one point I can check on and if I have barcode scanner — Sachin Verma, Aug 30 '17 at 12:18

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 21 '17 at 10:04

1

With dispatchKeyEvent you can listen for any KeyEvent from the barcode scanner.

@Override
public boolean dispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent e) {
// do something on input
   return false; // prevent default behaviour
}

answered Nov 21 '17 at 10:04

Margerite

31
3

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '17 at 12:35

Use following code to read input/values from barcode scanner, so onKeyDown you need to override in your activity/dialog

String barcode="";
@Override
public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
    log("Key Down keyCode " + keyCode);
    if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) {
        return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
    } else if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER) {//if scanner doesn't return enter key code then make sure that any view must not have focus in window
        //write your code to process the scanned barcode input
        barcode = "";
    } else {
        Character input = (char) event.getUnicodeChar();
        log("Scanner Input " + input);
        if (Character.isDigit(input) || Character.isLetter(input)) {
            barcode += input;//concat the characters
        }
    }
    return true;
}

How to check whether the input is given by barcode scanner or by soft keyboard?

2 Answers2