Wouldn’t it be nice to have your WPF application behave just like a Windows Store app, and automatically show the touch keyboard when an input control gains focus by touch? Well, you can, and I am going to show you how. Sure this works, but it is not the ideal experience.
In order to enter any type of data into your WPF input controls, they would have to manually open the touch keyboard by tapping on the keyboard icon located in the taskbar. Well, they can, but it won’t be obvious to them. This means, that if a user loads your awesome WPF application onto their Surface Pro 2, and touches a input control, they have no way of entering data into that control.
As you have probably discovered, there is no API in WPF to access the Windows 8 touch keyboard. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as we would like. Specifically, when dealing with running your WPF application on a Windows 8 Pro tablet, without the need for a mouse and keyboard. This means, that if you are a desktop developer and want your WPF applications to work in this new mobile world, you need to make your WPF apps more touch accessible. This is a nice feature built into the platform.Īlthough Microsoft has been shoving Windows Store apps down everyone’s throat, Windows Store apps are not a desktop solution, and in it’s current form, cannot replace certain desktop applications. On the other hand, if I am using a mouse and keyboard, and I give focus to the TextBox by clicking it with the mouse, the touch keyboard does not show, but rather I use the keyboard to enter my data. Windows Store apps are smart enough to know when I am not using a mouse and keyboard, and I give focus to a TextBox by touching it, it will show the touch keyboard to allow me to input data. Windows Store apps integrate perfectly with the device, such as automatically showing the Windows 8 touch keyboard when giving focus to an input element in the application. This is all fine and dandy if you are building Windows Store applications that run on any version of Windows 8, and are built with touch as a first class citizen. Even Microsoft has released their very own Surface brand to satisfy this need to run Windows in a mobile world. Manufacturers are scrambling to create mobile devices that can run Microsoft Windows with the touch of a finger, without the need for a keyboard and mouse. With the release of Windows 8, the era of touch devices is in full swing.
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