[Windows Phone 7 Software Development] ofir54321:
Hi Everyone,

My name is Ofir, and I want to share with you an App called Windows phone keyboard (Great name ha? :) ).

This app isn't accually a keyboard. it's more like a workaround for people without a keyboard in there native language - which will help us get along with most of the critical things we need from our phone.

This app has a Keyboard-like layout, and a text box, which let you write text in every language you like, and send it to an app - like SMS, Mail, Bing, Google.

So most of the things are covered.

It's not like opening a keyboard from within a app, but it still something :)

I based it on the Greek keyboard (greekwp7.codeplex.com - Thanks Guys!) and added a Right to left support (Hebrew... Yes, i'm from Israel too).

I've changes the keyboard's layout for supporting one more character that was required for Hebrew.

I also added a settings page for choosing a language of YOUR choice.

Right now, English, Greek, and Of cource Hebrew are supported, but adding support for any language is easy as editing an XML file which will automatically loaded and added to the Settings page (as long as you did everything right.

There is a CodePlex page for the app which you can follow and add request (and of course add patches and languages):

This page is NOT yet published as i'm waiting for an autorization, but it will be available very soon (Hopefully tomorrow).

WPKeyboard.codeplex.com

I've attached some screenshots from the App.

This app is still not published on Marketplace, so i'm adding the XAP file here too.

OF COURSE - you will need to deploy it to your device.

If you wan't to add a language by your self, you can go ahead and do it yourself by doing the following:

1. Rename the XAP file extention to ZIP and extract it to a folder.

2. navigate to the extracted folder and look for the file \xml\languages.xml and open it for editing.

3. add a new LanguageDetails xml element (you can clone the English element and modify it)

4. Set the LanguageDetails attributes: key (should be uniqe) for the change language button, direction (LTR or RTL - all languages except Hebrew and Arabic needs LTR) for the right to left support, and caption for the language name as it will be presented on the settings page.

5. Edit the Value and Caps attributes for the keys in the newly created LanguageDetails (do NOT change the ID attribute, it is for mapping you characters to the english-based keyboard).

6. save the XML file and exit.

7. ZIP the folder again, and change the file extention to XAP again.

8. Deploy and text away!

You can leave comments and requests here, and when the CodePlex page will be opened - THERE!

Everyone who is modifing the languages XML file, please send it to me and i'll add it to the APP, so EVERYONE can enjoy your work.

After all, its all about the community right? :)

Hopefully, we'll be able to create a more customized (and real) keyboard like the russian guys did when modifying the spanish keyboard, but until then, this is what we have.

Have fun,

Ofir.

---------------------- UPDATE 1 ---------------------------

I've updated the app to fix the issue with the 123& button.

---------------------- UPDATE 2 ---------------------------

Now we have Beta release with Click sound and vibration, multi characters deletion and many bug fixes.

you can get it on wpkeyboard.codeplex.com.