One of the items those who create embedded touchscreen devices with Qt often request is a good, extensible virtual keyboard. We have listened, and I am extremely happy to announce that a Technology Preview of the new Qt Virtual Keyboard is available as a value-add component for Qt Enterprise customers.
There is already a simple virtual keyboard available for Qt Enterprise Embedded, but now we are releasing a Technology Preview of a new and completely re-implemented virtual keyboard. It provides a solid base to be used in various different embedded devices, especially ones with a touchscreen user interface. Because the virtual keyboard is fully licensed under Qt Enterprise, it can easily be included into all kinds of embedded devices without concerns for 3rd party license compatibility, as well as extended with both commercial and open-source spell checkers and word prediction engines. The new virtual keyboard allows for a fully custom visual appearance. We provide two example styles with the Technology Preview: one modern and one retro style.
English keyboard layout:
- Solid C++ backend and versatile Qt Quick UI
- Fully customizable graphics and styling
- Scalability to different screen sizes and resolutions
- Support for different keyboard layouts – English, Finnish and Arabic included in the technology preview
- Automatic capitalization, character preview and alternate keys list (e.g. for accents and additional characters)
- Can be included into a Qt application or used as a system’s default input method
- Word prediction support with reference implementation using Hunspell, with selection list support for choosing the right suggestion
- Possibility to extend with other input methods using C++ or Qt Quick APIs
The following video contains a short overview of the key functionality of the new virtual keyboard as well as a demonstration of how nicely it integrates with Qt Enterprise Embedded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeDZLGIwbM
The virtual keyboard technology preview is available for download from the Qt Enterprise Customer Portal, or via the Qt Enterprise online installer. The technology preview is intended for Linux, embedded Linux and embedded Android on top of Qt 5. The virtual keyboard will also be a pre-integrated component in the upcoming major update of Qt Enterprise Embedded. For more information, please check out the virtual keyboard product page.
