Windows XP Media Center Edition SDK Supporting the Remote Control for Text Entry
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Supporting the Remote Control for Text Entry
Because the Media Center Extender does not support a physical keyboard or mouse, your application must enable the user to enter text where needed by using just the remote control. An application typically requires the user to enter text during the following scenarios:
- Initial service sign-up
- Login
- Search
Applications that run in the Media Center Extender session use either the triple-tap method or the on-screen (soft) keyboard method to enable the user to enter text through the remote control. In the triple-tap method, the user enters letters by pressing number keys on the remote control. By repeatedly pressing a particular key, the user can cycle through the set of letters associated with that key. Many cellular phones use this method to enable the user to enter names into a phone book.
In the soft keyboard method, an application presents an image of a keyboard on the screen, allowing the user to select letters by using the remote control's arrow buttons and the OK/Enter button. The soft keyboard must contain letters, numbers, symbols, control keys, (for example, backspace and shift), and characters from other languages, if appropriate. HTML pages that use the soft keyboard must be carefully designed to provide a coherent, intuitive user experience, ensuring that the user can correct errors, shift between different types of characters, and enter text into the correct field.
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later includes a preinstalled ActiveX text entry control called the Triple-tap/Soft-keyboard control that you can use in your hosted HTML applications. It supports both the triple-tap and on-screen keyboard methods of text entry. For more information, see Using the Triple-tap/Soft-keyboard Control.
Although your application should support text entry in the Media Center Extender session, it is usually best to direct the user to the host computer for one-time scenarios that require a large amount of text entry, such signing up for a service, or operations that include the caching of login credentials.
See Also
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