Merge "Wear 2.0 preview input method documentaation." into mnc-io-docs am:...

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<div id="qv-wrapper">

<div id="qv">

    <h2>In this document</h2>

    <ol>

      <li><a href="#creating">Creating an Input Method for Wear</a></li>

      <li><a href="#invoking">Invoking IME</a></li>

      <li><a href="#considerations">General IME Considerations</a></li>

      <li><a href="#test">Testing your IME</a></li>

    </ol>

</div>

</div>

<p>Wear 2.0 supports input methods beyond voice by extending the Android 

Input Method Framework (IMF) to Android Wear. IMF allows for virtual, on-screen

 keyboards and other input methods to be used for text entry. The IMF APIs used 

 for Wear devices are the same as other form factors, though usage is slightly 

 different due to limited screen real estate.</p>

<p>Wear 2.0 comes with the system default Input Method Editor (IME) 

and opens up the IMF APIs for third-party developers to create custom input 

methods for Wear.

</p>

<h2 id="creating">Creating an Input Method for Wear</h2>

<p>To create an input method for Wear, 

see <a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/text/creating-input-method.html">Creating an Input Method</a>.

</p>

<h2 id="invoking">Invoking IME</h2>

If you are developing an IME for Wear, remember that the 

feature is supported only on Android 6.0 (API level 23) and higher versions of 

the platform. 

To ensure that your IME can only be installed on Wearables that support input 

methods beyond voice, add the following to your application's manifest:

<pre>

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="23" />

</pre>

This indicates that your application requires Android 6.0 or higher. 

For more information, see <a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels">API Levels</a>

 and the documentation for the <a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html">&lt;uses-sdk></a> 

element.

<p>

To control how your application is filtered from devices that do not support Wear

IMEs (for example, on Phone), add the following to your application's manifest:

</p>

<pre>

<uses-feature android:required="true" android:name="android.hardware.type.watch" />

</pre>

<p>Wear provides user settings on the watch that lets the user to enable multiple

 IMEs from the list of installed IMEs. Once the users enable your IME, they 

 can invoke your IME from:</p>

<ul>

<li>A notification or an app using the 

<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/app/RemoteInput.html">RemoteInput</a></code> API.</li>

<li>Wear apps with an 

<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/EditText.html">EditText</a>

 field. Touching a text field places the cursor in the field and automatically 

 displays the IME on focus.</li>

</ul>

<h2 id="considerations">General IME Considerations</h2>

<p>Here are some things to consider when implementing IME for wear:</p>

<ul>

<li><strong>Set Default Action</strong>

<p>

<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/app/RemoteInput.html">{@code RemoteInput}</a> 

and Wear apps expect only single-line text entry. The ENTER key should always trigger

 a call to <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/inputmethodservice/InputMethodService.html#sendDefaultEditorAction(boolean)">sendDefaultEditorAction</a>,

  which causes the app to dismiss the keyboard and continue on to the next step 

  or action.</p>

</li>

<li><Strong>Use full screen mode IME</strong>

<p>

Most on-screen input methods will consume most of the screen, leaving very little

 of the app visible; hence, we discourage Android Wear apps from presenting a 

 visible {@code EditTextView}. Instead, a full-screen IME uses 

 <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/inputmethodservice/ExtractEditText.html">ExtractEditText</a>

  to render its own view of the attached editor, also providing control over the

   styling of this view. You can ignore all editor-related events that the IME 

   doesn't generate.

For more details on full-screen mode, see 

<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/inputmethodservice/InputMethodService.html">InputMethodService</a>.

</p>

</li>

<li><strong>Handle inputType flags</strong>

<p>

For privacy reasons, at a minimum you should handle the {@code inputType} 

flag {@code TYPE_TEXT_VARIATION_PASSWORD} in your IME. When your IME is in 

password mode, make sure that your keyboard is optimized for single key press 

(auto spelling correction, auto completion and gesture input are disabled). 

Most importantly, keyboard in password mode should support ASCII symbols 

regardless of the input language.  For more details, see 

<a href="http://developer.android.com/training/keyboard-input/style.html">Specifying The Input Method Type</a>.

</p>

</li>

<li><strong>Provide a key for switching to the next input method</strong>

<p>

Android allows users to easily switch between all IMEs supported by the platform.

 In your IME implementation, set the boolean 

 <a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/text/creating-input-method.html#Switching">supportsSwitchingToNextInputMethod = true</a>

 to enable your IME to support switching mechanism 

 (so that apps can switch to the next platform-supported IME).

</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2 id="test">Test your IME</h2>

<p>To test your IME, install the 

<a href="https://drive.google.com/a/google.com/file/d/0ByOeMdiY1arvWUk5QXU1V0E3cFU/view?usp=sharing">Input Box</a>

 app which has a simple <i><code>EditText</i></code> field. 

 When responding to messages from chat apps, you can also use the IME on the 

 watch.</p>