Pop-up TextBox

By default, a TextBox is presented as a pop-up TextBox displayable since Java Runtime 2.1 for Symbian. Setting TextBox as full screen TextBox can lead to problems with MIDlets that use Canvas, because setting a full screen TextBox on top of customized full screen Canvas can break the look and feel of the application badly.

A pop-up TextBox is supported on newer S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices and on devices with Java Runtime 1.3 for S60 or newer. It reduces look and feel problems by providing a text input component that does not hide the underlying Canvas completely. A full screenTextBox is used instead of pop-up TextBox if Nokia-UI-Enhancement: FullScreenTextBox JAD attribute is defined, otherwise pop-up TextBox is used.

In MIDlet code and on the device display, the pop-up TextBox is used like a normal TextBox, with the following limitations:

• Ticker cannot be used normally. It can be added to and retrieved from the TextBox, but it is never visible within the TextBox.

• Text input capacity indicator is not shown.

For illustrations on the different TextBox variations, see the following images:

Figure: Full screen TextBox, Default pop-up TextBox on normal Canvas and Default pop-up TextBox on full screen Canvas

For an example of using a pop-up TextBox, see article How to use pop-up TextBox in Java ME in the Nokia Developer Wiki.

For details on the evolution of pop-up TextBox implementation, see the following list: