WebView textarea doesn't pop up the keyboard

Question

When I display a WebView, I don't see the soft keyboard popping up. The hard keyboard also doesn't work!

What are the usual shortcomings.

The code which I use to access the WebView is:

package com.example.blahblah;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.preference.PreferenceManager;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.KeyEvent;
import android.view.Window;
import android.webkit.JsResult;
import android.webkit.WebChromeClient;
import android.webkit.WebSettings;
import android.webkit.WebView;
import android.webkit.WebViewClient;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class createAccount extends Activity {

private static final String LOG_TAG = "Create Account";
private WebView mWebView;
private static final String URL = blah_app.urlSelected+"createAccount.html";    
private Handler mHandler = new Handler();

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
    super.onCreate(icicle);
    Toast.makeText(createAccount.this, "URL = " +URL, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_PROGRESS);
    setContentView(R.layout.webview);
    getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_PROGRESS, Window.PROGRESS_VISIBILITY_ON);

    mWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);

    WebSettings webSettings = mWebView.getSettings();
    webSettings.setSavePassword(true);
    webSettings.setSaveFormData(true);
    webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
    webSettings.setSupportZoom(true);


    final Activity activity = this;
    mWebView.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient() {
    public void onProgressChanged(WebView view, int progress) {

        activity.setProgress(progress * 1000);
      }
    });

    mWebView.addJavascriptInterface(new DemoJavaScriptInterface(), "demo");
    mWebView.clearCache(true);
    setProgressBarVisibility(true);
    mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
          public void onReceivedError(WebView view, int errorCode, String description, String failingUrl) {
            Toast.makeText(activity, "Oh no! " + description, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
          }

           @Override  
           public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url)  
           {  
               mWebView.loadUrl("javascript:(function () { " +
                       "setVariables("+blah_app.numberSelected+",'"+blah_app.urlSelected+"');" +
                       "})()");
           }
        });

    mWebView.loadUrl(URL);
}

final class DemoJavaScriptInterface {

    public void setData(String fname, String lname, String gacct, String phone) {

        SharedPreferences prefCreateAccount = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(createAccount.this);
        SharedPreferences.Editor editor = prefCreateAccount.edit();
        editor.putString("FirstName", fname);
        editor.putString("LastName", lname);
        editor.putString("GmailAcct", gacct);
        editor.putString("Phone", phone);
        editor.commit();    

    }
    DemoJavaScriptInterface() {

    }

    /**
     * This is not called on the UI thread. Post a runnable to invoke
     * loadUrl on the UI thread.
     */
    public void clickOnAndroid() {
        mHandler.post(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                mWebView.loadUrl("javascript:wave()");
            }
        });
    }
}

/**
 * Provides a hook for calling "alert" from javascript. Useful for
 * debugging your javascript.
 */
final class MyWebChromeClient extends WebChromeClient {
    @Override
    public boolean onJsAlert(WebView view, String url, String message, JsResult result) {
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, message);
        result.confirm();
        return true;
    }
}

public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
    if ((keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) && mWebView.canGoBack()) {
        startActivity(new Intent(getApplication(), blah_app.class));
        return true;
    }
    return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}
}

Answer 1

The full solution is a bit more than what Sana had. It is documented as a bug over at the Android site ( http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=7189 ):

webView.requestFocus(View.FOCUS_DOWN);
webView.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener()
{
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event)
    {
        switch (event.getAction())
        {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                if (!v.hasFocus())
                {
                    v.requestFocus();
                }
                break;
        }
        return false;
    }
});

Answer 2

The problem was that webview wasn't getting focus when it was loaded hence using

webView.requestFocus(View.FOCUS_DOWN);

solved the problem.