Unexpected-Keyboard/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Thanks for contributing :)

Building the app

The application doesn't use Gradle and it might be hard to use some features of Android Studio.

Fortunately, there's not many dependencies:

• OpenJDK 8
• Android SDK: build tools (minimum 28.0.1), platform 30
• Make sure to have the $ANDROID_HOME environment variable set.

For Nix users, the right environment can be obtained with nix-shell ./shell.nix. Instructions to install Nix are here.

Building the debug apk:

make

If the build succeed, the debug apk is located in _build/juloo.keyboard2.debug.apk.

Using the local debug.keystore on the Github CI actions

It's possible to save the local debug.keystore into a github secret, so the same keystore is utilized to build the debug apk in the CI github actions. Doing this, they wil have the same signature, thus the debug apk can be updated without having to uninstall it first.

After you sucessfully run make, (thus a debug.keystore exists) you can use this second command to generate a base64 stringified version of it

cd _build
gpg -c --armor --pinentry-mode loopback --passphrase debug0 --yes "debug.keystore"

A file will be generated inside the local _build/ folder, called debug.keystore.asc

You can copy the content of this file, and with that, paste it into a new github secret in your repo settings.

The secret must be named DEBUG_KEYSTORE

Debugging on your phone

First Enable adb debugging on your device. Then connect your phone to your computer using an USB cable or wireless debugging.

And finally, install the application with:

make installd

The released version of the application won't be removed, both versions will be installed at the same time.

Debugging the application: INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE

make installd can fail with the following error message:

adb: failed to install _build/juloo.keyboard2.debug.apk: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE: Package juloo.keyboard2.debug signatures do not match previously installed version; ignoring!]
make: *** [Makefile:20: installd] Error 1

The application can't be "updated" because the temporary certificate has been lost. The solution is to uninstall and install again. The application must be enabled again in the settings.

adb uninstall juloo.keyboard2.debug
make installd

Guidelines

Adding a layout

Layouts are defined in XML, see res/xml/qwerty.xml. An online tool for editing layout files written by @Lixquid is available here.

An entry must be added to the layout option in res/values/arrays.xml, to both pref_layout_values (correspond to the file name) and pref_layout_entries (display name).

The layout must also be referenced in srcs/juloo.keyboard2/Config.java in layout_of_string.

Adding a programming layout

A programming layout must contains every ASCII characters. The current programming layouts are: QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak.

See for example, Dvorak, added in https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard/pull/16

It's best to leave free spots on the layout for language-specific symbols that are added automatically when necessary. These symbols are defined in res/xml/method.xml (extra_keys).

It's possible to place extra keys with the loc prefix. These keys are normally hidden unless they are needed.

Some users cannot easily type the characters close the the edges of the screen due to a bulky phone case. It is best to avoid placing important characters there (such as the digits or punctuation).

Adding a localized layout

Localized layouts (a layout specific to a language) are gladly accepted. See for example: 4333575 (Bulgarian), 88e2175 (Latvian), 133b6ec (German).

They don't need to contain every ASCII characters (although it's useful in passwords) and dead-keys.

Adding support for a language

Supported locales are defined in res/xml/method.xml.

The attributes languageTag and imeSubtypeLocale define a locale, the attribute imeSubtypeExtraValue defines the default layout and the dead-keys and other extra keys to show.

The list of language tags (generally two letters) and locales (generally of the form xx_XX) can be found in this stackoverflow answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7989085

Translations

Translations are always welcome !

See for example: 1723288 (Latvian), baf867a (French). The app can be translated by writing res/values-<language code>/strings.xml (for example values-fr, values-lv), based on the default: res/values/strings.xml (English).

The store description is found in metadata/android/<locale>/, short_description.txt and full_description.txt. Translating changelogs is not useful. Changelogs are written quickly just before a release and older ones are never shown to anyone currently.

The app name might be partially translated, the "unexpected" word should remain untranslated.

Adding key combinations

Key combinations are defined in srcs/juloo.keyboard2/KeyModifier.java. For example, keys modified by the Fn key are defined in method apply_fn_char.

Keys with special meaning are defined in KeyValue.java in method getKeyByName. Their special action are defined in KeyEventHandler.java in method key_up