[Release] PSP Browser Javascript Keyboard

[Deerwings]

New PSP Virtual Keyboard!

Hey, folks, this is my first time post. I've been a long time watcher of the site and felt like contributing something to the community. I've seen all the wonderful work on the Danzeff's keyboards and such for homebrew applications, but one thing that still sucks, is text entry in the Web Browser. Everyone knows how the built-in OSK is, and I haven't actually ever seen a replacement for the OSK that does something similar.

So I wrote something that works just as well. This is a Javascript PSP keyboard that works for your web browser. It comes with its own help page. This javascript keyboard is basically an html page that you load with your browser, and then set as your homepage or load as a favorite as you like, in order to open up webpages more quickly and less frustratingly.

Features:
* Built-In Google Search button - Allows you to enter plain text into the field and automatically submit to Google. Get your results even faster!
* Built-In Google Proxy - Allows you to use Google's Small Device proxy. Breaks up pages to fit on cellphones and other small devices. Getting out of memory errors? This may help!
* Full QWERTY Keyboard - Includes commonly used symbols as well as letters and numbers, and a keypad for direct IP address entry.

To install this, all you have to do is unzip it to your root MSO:/ , (Or wherever you like) and then open your browser and navigate to file:/kb.html (Or wherever you put it). Then set it as your homepage for quick loading, or a favorite, and you're off!

If someone can find a way to replace the built-in OSK with something like this, it would be much appreciated!

*edit* I'm a goofball, I'm still learning the format for posts.

[Maxy_PSP]

Nice,

But i still like the orginal psp keyboard

[Moose]

Sweet, but how do you access it while viewing a page?

[Bubbletune]

Originally Posted by Moose_Island

Sweet, but how do you access it while viewing a page?

You can't yet, he said this in his post:
If someone can find a way to replace the built-in OSK with something like this, it would be much appreciated!
Too bad, I would use it if there was a way

[sconer]

save this as a pure javascript command, then try putting it as a bookmark and experiment until it becomes a dynamic keyboard overlaying the current website. still wont be easy to select a textbox though..

in my flash portal i have my own browser that gets the source code of pages and displays the html, my keyboard automatically inserts the characters into the targeted text box.

[Deerwings]

Originally Posted by Moose_Island

Sweet, but how do you access it while viewing a page?

Sadly, you can't, but this makes it easier to enter you url's or Google search strings. In my opinion, anyway. Once you're on a page, you still have to use the Built-in OSK to enter into fields. Theoretically, one could have it in a second tab, but I'm not sure how to pass you URL to open a second window, or to pass strings between windows.

[Yongobongo]

Originally Posted by Deerwings

Sadly, you can't, but this makes it easier to enter you url's or Google search strings. In my opinion, anyway. Once you're on a page, you still have to use the Built-in OSK to enter into fields. Theoretically, one could have it in a second tab, but I'm not sure how to pass you URL to open a second window, or to pass strings between windows.

Nice work! Everyone is suggesting that this be usable while on other pages, why not just make a simple javascript web browser with a frame that contains the webpage, and have a button to show/hide the keyboard layer when needed? Just a thought

[Deerwings]

Originally Posted by Yongobongo

Nice work! Everyone is suggesting that this be usable while on other pages, why not just make a simple javascript web browser with a frame that contains the webpage, and have a button to show/hide the keyboard layer when needed? Just a thought

That's a good idea. I'll have to look into that and see whether or not it's practical. My main concerns are memory constraints and Javascript rendering speed in the browser. I'm also not sure if the simple act of selecting a text box either in a page or in the javascript browser will cause the OSK to pop up (That's why I have the URL display a non-selectable box) but it definitely merits looking into. The nice thing about this current incarnation is that it works just fine on the Phat and should work just as well on the Slim & Lite. When you enter in the URL, it doesn't remain resident to eat up any extra memory that you would otherwise need for browsing. I've never tried to code a Javascript browser, though. Interesting proposition!

[Deerwings]

I've been tweaking the keyboard page a little bit more, and now it has the ability to open pages in the current tab the keyboard is in, or work with the other two tabs without closing the keyboard tab as well. You can switch between tabs with Square + LTrig. At this time, I don't think I can make the keyboard pass text entered in the field to another input box on a different tab, especially considering that the PSP browser automatically opens the built-in OSK, which forces you to have to close it before returning to the browser. This is a current limitation to the PSP browser I cannot bypass at this time. It would require a re-write to the PSP browser itself, and I don't have those skills.

However! In accordance with other suggestions I'm looking into the potential of using Javascript to render pages, but I think that may be too costly memory-wise without the use of some kind of pre-renderer that would reduce the page sizes and still may not solve the text entry problem. This was outside the scope of this particular project in the first place anyhow.

Perhaps someone might code a completely new PSP browser (Other than Lynx) with completely custom entry methods?

Here is the PSP Browser Javascript Keyboard version 1.1!

[GameBox47]

There's something like this in Encore (PSPWxp 4.0), you'll see once it's released. Every time a input form is up (in Encore) it opens the virtual keyboard.

Nice job.

[Deerwings]

Thanks! I would dearly appreciate any help in creating a standalone javascript browser that this project could co-incide with. Ultimately, I would adore being able to leave the browser behind, as a ground-up project would be even better, such as compatibility with PSPRadio, or such, automatically opening links on Shoutcast pages, for example.