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xvkbd - virtual keyboard for X window system

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xvkbd is a virtual (graphical) keyboard program for X Window System which provides facility to enter characters onto other clients (softwares) by clicking on a keyboard displayed on the screen. This may be used for systems without a hardware keyboard such as kiosk terminals or handheld devices. This program also has facility to send characters specified as the command line option to another client.

Screenshot of xvkbd

The standard keyboard layout is based on the traditional US layout, but it can be configured to use the different layout, such as German layout. The default window size may be too large for systems with small screen, but it can be configured to use smaller space (220x90 pixels, for example). For details, see also "How to Customize xvkbd" and "Screen Shot" below, and sample resoure files in the distribution.



Environment

xvkbd will work on X11R5 or X11R6. It is tested on redhat Linux and Solaris, and it will work also on most UNIX-like systems.

This program uses Xaw (use of Xaw3d is recommended) and no special library is required.


Operation

Input Keys

When xvkbd is started, the image of a keyboard will be displayed on the screen. Clicking any key on the xvkbd window will send the character to the focused window as if the key had been actually typed with the hardware keyboard.

If you want to input upper-case alphabets or other characters on the upper position on the keyboard, you should click the key after selecting Shift by clicking it, or click the key with mouse button 3 (maybe right button) or mouse button 4. In the similar manner, if you want to input Controled characters, you should click the key after clicking Control, or click the key with mouse button 2 (maybe middle button). Alt and Meta can be used in the similar manner with Control, but there are no shortcuts with mouse buttons.

Setting Input Focus

If you are using a window manager and clients where you can set input focus by clicking mouse button on the window (and you don't have to keep pointer in the window after that), you can simply set input focus in the normal way and then click keys on the xvkbd window - the character will be sent to the selected position.

If you are using a window manager or clients where you must keep the pointer in the input field to input from the keyboard, or if the input focus is switched to the xvkbd window when you clicked on the key on the xvkbd window, you must make xvkbd to set input focus explicitly by clicking the Focus button on the xvkbd window and then click on the input field. This input focus can be cleared by clicking Focus button with mouse button 3, or simply clicking Focus button twice.

Main Menu

Main menu Pressing the ``xvkbd'' logo on the main keyboard (placed near left-bottom corner in the default configuration) will popup the main menu.

The menu contains following items:

About...
Show short description of this program.
Manual...
Launch manual page reader.
Keypad...
Open a Keypad panel.
Sun Function Keys...
Open a Sun function keys panel.
Use XTEST Extension?
XTEST extension will be used if this entry is checked. If this entry is set inactive, the X server does not support XTEST extension.
Lock Shift?
Toggle locking/momentary of Shift keys
Lock Control, Alt and Meta?
Toggle locking/momentary of Control, Alt and Meta keys.
Connect to Remote Display...
Open a panel to specify the name of a remote display to be connected, so that following key events will be sent to windows on the remote display.
Revert to Local Display
Disconnect from the remote display so that following key events will be sent to windows on the local display.

Options

xvkbd accept following command line options, in addition to general options such as `-display'.

-xsendevent
Make xvkbd to use XSendEvent() to simulate keyboard events, as it was in xvkbd version 1.0. xvkbd version 1.1 and later will try to use XTEST extension instead in the default configuration.

If XTEST extension is not supported by the X server, xvkbd will automatically switch to this mode.

Resource `xvkbd.xtest: false' has the same function.

-no-jump-pointer
Make xvkbd not to jump the pointer when sending events. In the default, xvkbd will temporary jump the pointer to the focused window, if input focus is set explicitly via Focus button, and XTEST extension is to be used to simulate keyboard events.

Resource `xvkbd.jumpPointer: false' has the same function.

-modal
Make labels on keys in the xvkbd window to be set independently for each of four shift states, not shifted, Shift, AltGr and Shift-AltGr. This is useful when you want to make the xvkbd window very small.

See also "Customizing Keyboard Layout" and sample resoure files in the distribution.

Resource `xvkbd.modalKeytop: true' has the same function.

-geometry
Set window geometry.

When you are attempting to set window position with the distance from right/bottom of the screen, please note that you must take account of size of the window border. (If you specify `-geometry -0-0', the window will not fit in the screen.)

This can be set by xvkbd.windowGeometry resource (note that it is not xvkbd.geometry), too.

-no-repeat
Do not auto-repeat even if key is depressed long time.

If auto-repeat is enabled (this is the default), time before start auto-repeat can be set as `xvkbd*Repeater.initialDelay: 600', and period of repeat can be set as `xvkbd*Repeater.minimumDelay: 100' (unit of there parameters are milli-seconds).

Resource `xvkbd.autoRepeat: false' has the same function.

-no-functionkey
Do not display function keys.

Resource `xvkbd.functionkey: false' has the same function.

-no-keypad
Do not display keypad.

Resource `xvkbd.keypad: false' has the same function.

-compact
Do not display function keys nor keypad.

Resource `xvkbd.compact: true' has the same function.

-keypad
Display only keypad. This option will be ignored if `-no-keypad' or `-compact' is specified.

Resource `xvkbd.keypadOnly: true' has the same function.

-text string
Send the string to the focused window (see also `-window' option).
If this option is specified, xvkbd will not open its window and terminate soon after sending the string.

The string can contain:

Please note that modify with ``\S'' will be ignored in many cases. For example, ``a\Cb\ScD\CE'' will be interpreted as a, Control-b, c, Shift-D, and Control-Shift-E.

-file filename
Send the contents of the specified file to the focused window (see also `-window' option).
If this option is specified, xvkbd will not open its window and terminate soon after sending the string.

-window window
Specify the ID (hexadecimal value leaded with `0x', or decimal value) or name (instance name or class name) of the window to set input focus. If this is not specified, xvkbd will use input focus under control of the window manager, unless focus is specified explicitly via Focus button. Even if this option is specified, you can set input focus to other windows using Focus button, or clear the input focus.
If there are two or more windows which have the name specified with this option, the window which was found first will be selected.

-widget widget-name
Specify the name of the widget to set the input focus. To use this feature, the client must support Editres protocol. In general, this option will be used with `-window' option.
If you want to set input focus to the widget foo.bar.zot, you can write zot, bar.zot or foo.bar.zot as widget-name. To avoid confusion, the widget-name should match with a single widget of the client.

For example,

xvkbd -window xarchie -widget searchText -text "\Ca\Ckabc\r"
will enter the string ``abc'' to the ``Search Term'' field of a xarchie window.

-true-keypad
If this option is specified, xvkbd will attempt to use keysyms such as XK_KP_1 instead of XK_1.

Resource `xvkbd.keypadKeysym: true' has the same function.


Screen Shot

Default
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-normal.gif
German Layout
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-german.gif
Swiss-German Layout
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-swissgerman.gif
Japanese (JIS X 6004) Layout
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-jisx6004.gif
Keyboard contains most Latin-1 characters
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-latin1.gif
Small Keyboard (maybe suitable for PDAs)
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-small.gif


Download

Latest Official Release
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-1.6.tar.gz
- source of version 1.6 (2001-11-10), 40kB

previous release
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-1.5.tar.gz
- source of version 1.5 (2001-10-08), 39kB
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-1.4.tar.gz
- source of version 1.4 (2001-04-22), 37kB

xvkbd is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.


Install

  1. untar the source in a directory, and move to the directory

  2. If you wish to use genuine Xaw insead of Xaw3d, edit Imakefile and remove (or comment-out) `#define XAW3D'.

    When you are installing xvkbd (for example) in very old systems, you may also want to remove `#define XTEST' and `#define I18N' to disable XTEST and internationalization facility respectively.

  3. Run xmkmf; make install install.man


Customization

How to Customize xvkbd

Some degree of customization of xvkbd is possible by setting resources. Some resources are already described above, and resources to customizing keyboard layout are described below.

To set resources, you can:

  1. put them in your $HOME/.Xdfaults file, or
  2. load them via xrdb(1), or
  3. set the filename to the $XENVIRONMENT environment variable, or
  4. put them in application default directory as `XVkbd-suffix' and set resource ``xvkbd.customization: -suffix'', or
  5. put them in application default directory as XVkbd.

Here, application default directory can be either of:

When the application default file is to be stored in the system's application default directory, the file must contain ``#include "XVkbd-common"'' near top of the file.

xvkbd is distributed with some sample application default files, and they will be installed in the system's application default directory.

Making Window Small

Size (and position) of xvkbd window can be set by `xvkbd.windowGeometry' resource. When making window small, you may need to choose the smaller font, too.
  xvkbd.windowGeometry: 220x90
  xvkbd.compact: true
  xvkbd*Font: 6x12

You may also want to set:

  xvkbd.modalKeytop: true
to display only the labels for the current shift state, instead of trying to always display all of them in the small keytop.

See also XVkbd-small.ad in the xvkbd distribution.

Removing Unwanted Keys

Keys on xvkbd window can be removed by setting its width to 1.

To remove Compose key and make Shift key larger, you can write:

  xvkbd*Multi_key.width: 1
  xvkbd*Shift_R.width: 75

To remove right Alt and Meta key, you can write:

  xvkbd*Alt_R.width: 1
  xvkbd*Meta_R.width: 1

Customizing Keyboard Layout

Layout of keys on the xvkbd window can be customized with following resources:
xvkbd.NormalKeys
list of keys available when neighter of Shift and AltGr are selected
xvkbd.ShiftKeys
list of keys available when Shift is selected
xvkbd.AltgrKeys
list of keys available when AltGr is selected
xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeys
list of keys available when both AltGr and Shift are selected
xvkbd.KeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys
xvkbd.NormalKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys when neither of Shift and AltGr are selected.
xvkbd.ShiftKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys when Shift is selected
xvkbd.AltgrKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys when AltGr is selected
xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys when both AltGr and Shift are selected

Four resources to set labels on the keys (xvkbd.NormalKeyLabels, xvkbd.ShiftKeyLabels, xvkbd.AltgrKeyLabels and xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeyLabels) will be used instead of xvkbd.KeyLabels when xvkbd.modalKeytop resoruce is set true.

In all of those resources, each keys are separated by spaces, and rows of keys are terminated with ` \n\' (note that `\n' must have space before it). Please refer XVkbd-german.ad and XVkbd-latin1.ad in the xvkbd distribution for more about these resources.

XVkbd-german and XVkbd-latin1 will be installed in the system's application default directory, and setting the resource ``xvkbd.customization: -german'' will make xvkbd to use the German layout. For another method to activate those settings, please refer "How to Customize xvkbd" above.

Assigning Text to Function Keys

Text can be assigned to each function keys (and, actually, to most other keys). If text is assigned to the function key, clicking on the key will send the assigned text instead of the function key itself. When pointer is on a key where text is assigned, the text will be displayed near the key.

The setting will be read from a text file which contains text for each function keys as:

  F1 text for F1
  F2 text for F2
  s:F1 text for Shift-F1
  c:F1 text for Control-F1
  m:F1 text for Meta-F1
  a:F1 text for Alt-F1

The file is $HOME/.xvkbd in default, and it can be changed by setting the filename with xvkbd.keyFile resource.


Miscellaneous Informations

Notes

Additional Informations

FAQ - Possible Problems and Solutions
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/faq.html

Note about how to send key events
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/events.html


Change Log

Version 0.1 (2000-05-13)

Version 0.2 (2000-09-15)

Version 0.3 (2000-10-05)

Version 1.0 (2000-11-03)

Version 1.1 (2000-12-23)

Version 1.2 (2001-02-18)

Version 1.3 (2001-03-19)

Version 1.4 (2001-04-22)

Version 1.5 (2001-10-08)

Version 1.6 (2001-11-10)


Author

xvkbd was written by Tom Sato, and it is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Please send any feedback (such as bug reports, requests or comments) to Tom Sato <VEF00200@nifty.ne.jp>.

The latest version of this software and more information about it may be available at http://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/. Release of the new version will be announced on the Freshmeat (http://freshmeat.net), and you can receive the announce via e-mail if you wish.


by Tom Sato, 2001-11-10