Numeric keyboard in android missing "." or "," to enter decimal numbers

Bug Reports
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY: always
OS VERSION: Sailfish OS 4.5.0.24 (Struven ketju)
HARDWARE: Xperia 10 II
UI LANGUAGE: german
REGRESSION: no

DESCRIPTION:

In fact i am not sure that every android app and all possible numeric keyboards are affected by that.
For me the main motivation is the paypal app when one wants to transfer money. I currently have to round up/down to full EUR because i can not enter cents.

PRECONDITIONS:

for the concrete example a paypal account would be needed, and the paypal app from aptoide

alternatively any other android app with a numeric input field might do

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. open paypal
  2. start a transfer or request
  3. try to enter “42,42”, currency does not matter

EXPECTED RESULT:

Would like to be able to enter a decimal number. Or at least paste it.

ACTUAL RESULT:

Can not enter or even paste a decimal number.

MODIFICATIONS:

none

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

There seem to be multiple numeric keyboards and one does have the “dot”. i.e. in the app splitwise i can not repro, and the 2FA numeric keyboard of paypal looks different than the one used for amounts

1 Like
#2

WhatsApp Image 2024-01-29 at 11.28.02
WhatsApp Image 2024-01-29 at 11.28.02685×1600 62.6 KB

This is a screenshot showing the keyboard with which i can not enter decimal numbers where i would like to be able to.

1 Like
#3

Is that a custom keyboard? I don’t recognize the *p “key”, but remember that that is used to enter dialling pauses.

Also, can you swipe to another layout at this moment?

#4

I have not installed any custom keyboards, and there is no way to swipe to a working keyboard.

Would be nice if someone would try to reproduce. If others are not affected we can find differences in the setups, and if others are maybe they can find clues on what might be going on.

#5

the paypal keyboard does not really need a decimal separator, because it automatically starts on cent level and pushes the digits through to the front,basically you enter the desired amount in cents.

#6

give me your paypal, i request 42.42 and you pay that request, after that i pay you back 42.42 from my laptop … so you would be betting 4199.58 eur on that?

Maybe it did some day, now it does not. i have version 8.54.2 from aptoide.

It might well be an issue in the app itself, but that keyboard looks rather sailfish “native” to me.

#7

I just realized that I have mistaken the paypal website for the paypal app, my bad

#8

Do you have the app on a sailfish device and could you reproduce the issue i described?

#9

I think/guess that the keyboard the paypal app is opening is actually the phone number keyboard.

/usr/share/maliit/plugins/com/jolla/PhoneNumberLayoutPortrait.qml

which also has that “*p”

I did not try changing that layout to add the “dot”, which might well work around the problem.

So either the paypal app is indeed requesting a phone keyboard, or it maybe wants to have another one which is incorrectly mapped to phone.

#10

I fully agree - the missing comma on the numerical keyboard is bothering me since ages. I oftentimes use the memo app and copy and paste the number (with comma)

The hassle is not only with paypal but with many web sites that have a numerical input field and that automatically invokes the numerical keypad.

1 Like
#11

Ok, the layout from the screenshot seems to be PhoneNumberLayoutPortrait.qml, which has the *p key and no decimals.

What you want is NumberLayoutPortrait.qml instead, which does have a locale-specific decimal key.

(These files live in /usr/share/maliit/plugins/com/jolla/).

Now, I wonder if this is a bug in SFOS/AAS, or in the app - maybe the app is actually requesting a “Enter Phone Number” keyboard, or maybe in Android there’s no distinction?

Or is it indeed a bug in AAS, where it should present the Numeric version but instead selects PhoneNumberGeneric.

2 Likes
#12

There’s a workaround for this. Install Gboard (the Google keyboard) and set it as standard keyboard in the Android keyboard settings. This will also solve the issue in some non-localised Android apps where you have to enter a decimal point but the numeric keyboard only has a comma available. I find typing in Gboard easier and less prone to typing errors too.

#13

Not sure that is good advise, i will ignore that. IMHO if you are accepting anything g on the phone, rather take a real thing and stop fiddling with sailfish. For me anything g is surely off limits.

#14

This is a really stupid comment.
I have been 10 years with Sailfish and I need to run Android apps. If you don’t, it means you are not using your smartphone as such.

#15

there are also other keyboard alternatives available, it doesn’t have to be google keyboard.

#16

It would be nice to focus on the topic. Confirm the problem, find possible causes and move on to fixes.

Workarounds are evil in the long run, but thanks for suggesting them for those who might care in the short term.

#17

That looks like it has gotten a phone numerical keyboard, and not a general numerical keyboard. I can definitely get an Android app to have a numerical keyboard with decimal point. I don’t know how many types of keyboard can be requested in Android, but it could quite simply be that the app is requesting the wrong type.

#18

Sorry to tell you, but this bug is nearly ten years old and never got a fix. I reported it in June 2014 over on jolla togther :laughing:
https://together.jolla.com/question/47038/bug-missing-decimal-point-in-alien-dalvik-numeric-keypad/

2 Likes
#19

And it seems to also have been answered (with undeserved down-votes to boot). So unless Sailfish maps some of the number types to phone wrongly, it is the Android app actively requesting the wrong type of keyboard.

#20

Thank you for reporting and commenting. I have filed an internal bug and tagged this Forum post with ‘tracked’.
I was able to reproduce the defect with the 4.6.0/devel build.

Yes, that must be the reason for this issue.

2 Likes