Below is an instruction set to create a better input model for your Windows Phone 7 app by invoking the TextBox control. Enabling this capability will make the typing experience easier for your potential customers by using input scopes where appropriate. It is a differentiator that can go a long way amidst similar Windows Phone 7 applications.
The on-screen keyboard can be used to input text on a Windows Phone, and it is deployed automatically when a TextBox control becomes active. Windows Phone has several context-specific on-screen keyboard layouts that you can use for application development including the keyboard types in the following table:
| Keyboard Type | Layout |
| Default | Standard QWERTY layout |
| Text | Standard layout with ASCII-based emoticons |
| E-mail Address | Standard layout with .com and @ keys |
| Phone Number | Typical 12-key layout |
| Web Address | Standard layout with .com key and customized Enter key |
| Maps | Standard layout with a customized Enter key |
| Search | Semi-transparent layout with a Search and .com key |
| SMS Address | Standard layout with easy access to phone number layout |
Here is how you would enhance that setting by assigning the keyboard input scope
To set the input scope
- Open any project and on MainPage.xaml, drag a TextBox control from the Toolbox onto the designer. You can also create a TextBox control directly using the following XAML code. You may position or scale the control based on your preference.
<TextBox Height=”31″ HorizontalAlignment=”Left” Margin=”31,256,0,0″ Name=”textBox1″ Text=”TextBox” VerticalAlignment=”Top” Width=”423″ >
</TextBox>
- In the XAML code, between the <TextBox></TextBox> tags, add the following code to set the input scope. For this example, the “Url” keyboard layout is selected and a .com key is exposed.
<TextBox.InputScope>
<InputScope>
<InputScopeName NameValue=”Url”/>
</InputScope>
</TextBox.InputScope>
