So the OSK theme landed a few OTAs back. Awesome right?!
And now I'm back with my OSK works....finally!....specifically with the advanced text functionalities in the OSK.
I've prototyped and demoed this almost half a year ago but now I want to make it "PR-ready".
So once I get satisfied, I will propose this officially.

List of changes and additional features

• Added audio and haptic feedback to the word ribbon (auto suggest bar)
• Temporary fix for the issue where cursor mover isn't working correctly in QtWebEngine text fields such as in the Morph Browser (some trade-offs to fix this temporarily)
• Horizontal movement in the cursor mover will now move vertically once the start/end of line is reached. I'm not sure how this really affects the experience but it was definitely implemented like that before for a reason. (a trade-off for the issue above)
• A new way to trigger the cursor mover mode (bottom swipe). This is available anywhere in the OSK so regardless of the layout or type, you can now trigger it. Press and hold in the space bar is still available.
• Implemented text manipulation features which are available in a top bar that shows up when in cursor mover mode.
  • Copy
  • Cut
  • Paste
  • Select All
  • Undo
  • Redo
• Implemented text selection mode (no timeout, needs manually exiting)
  • While in cursor mover mode, double tap/click to enter selection mode. You can also immediately select texts by double tapping then swiping immediately without lifting your finger.
  • Word Selection: Double tap while in cursor mover mode without swiping [Disabled for now to fix QtWebEngine issue]
• Added floating buttons in cursor mover mode
  • Move cursor to the start/end of line or document
  • They can also be used in conjunction with the selection mode!
  • Done button: Used to end selection mode and/or cursor mover mode
• Changed timeout of cursor mover mode to 5 seconds (experimental)

Know Issues:

• The new toolbar buttons and floating buttons sometimes retain their previous color when changing OSK theme.
  FIXED: Just needed to bind the colors

• Using the Start of line/document button from the floating buttons while in selection mode doesn't select texts. I'm not really sure why.
  FIXED: Stupid mistake by me....it worked in my first branch and just had a mistake with this new branch

• The bottom swipe trigger might be difficult to trigger in landscape mode especially for devices with protrusion on the sides/bezels especially those with cases.

Please feel free to try it out from the git branch linked below. You'd need to use crossbuilder to compile it and deploy to your device via ADB.
https://github.com/kugiigi/keyboard-component/tree/xenial_-_textfunctions

NOTE: BEWARE EDGE CHANNEL USERS. This won't work on edge because there's a separate branch for it which I don't have a modified fork yet. If there's plenty of interested then I might consider

Suggestions and feedback will also be greatly appreciated especially on the design

Hello Everyone,

I'm starting this thread because I wanted to share my ideas about improving the OSK in UT.
Back in the Canonical days, I suggested to use the space key for controlling the text cursor.
It was a real joy when I learned that Canonical did implemented it which we can now enjoy with UBports.
And I want continue with that idea and improve or extend its functionality.

At the moment, I have two prototypes.

1. [Swipe to trigger cursor mover]
   Instead of the current "Press and Hold" gesture to trigger the cursor mover, I made it to work with just a horizontal swipe in the space key. For me, this gesture is more natural while typing unlike the current one which will some kind of disrupt your flow by long pressing before swiping. There's a catch though because there's more chance of accidental trigger especially for those who tend to drag fingers while typing. My experience so far is good though and did an accidental trigger just once.
   Demo Video

2. [Swipe to switch OSK language]
   This one adds a functionality to change OSK language via swipe in the space key. Some people needs multiple OSK layout/language enabled and it could be a bit hassle to switch between them especially if you have more than 2...remember emoji? yeah that counts I personally don't have this problem so I can''t attest if this one would be really helpful. And also, at the moment, emoji kinda breaks it because it has a very different layout which doesn't have the space key. I'm also planning to propose a new layout for emoji
   Demo Video

Now I don't have a concrete plan yet on how I will propose these. I'm thinking of adding a Gesture section in the settings app so users can customize the gestures and which functionality they want for them. For example, you can set "PressAndHold" for Cursor Mover then "Horizontal Swipe" for Language switch. But that could be too much settings? can't say yet.

EXPAND IT FURTHER!
Currently, I have another idea to expand this idea further and I'm trying to do a quick hack for it.
The idea is to also use the "cursor mover" feature for text selections/manipulations. My initial thought is to use double click/tap (without releasing) to start the text selection. I would also like to put Copy, paste, select all buttons above the OSK. I want to see and use it first in action before thinking of the best way to implement these gestures. Unfortunately, I can't even do the first step yet which is to enable text selection from the OSK and it seems like I have to modify the C++ part of maliit and recompile which I am not familiar enough.

Any thoughts, opinion, violent reaction, help maybe?

FUN FACT: When I got the idea of the "Space key cursor mover", it was a "Eureka" moment for me and I thought I was the first one in the world to come up with that idea. Then days after that, I saw the exact same functionality on my friend's LG G3. At least it was my original idea and it just happened someone got it first LOL

Some screenshots

Cursor mover mode

Selection Mode

Hi,
I'm Kugi and I'm just mimicing this post
I'm posting this to introduce a new tool that I DON'T RECOMMEND to anyone but anyone is free to use No seriously, it can be dangerous to your system so it's important that you know what you are doing and know how to reflash in case of breakage.

Introducing the Jerk Installer!

What is Jerk?

No, it's not an offensive word. It's a physics term just like Snap, Crackle and Pop
Jerk is a script to easily install and uninstall customization on the system (rootfs). It's mostly only applicable on patches that involve text-based files like QML files. I haven't tested with binaries but maybe in the future?

What kind of customization?

Many things! Such as UI changes in Lomiri, new features in the keyboard, and Bluetooth configuration changes. Those are just the ones I came up with but there are more possibilities.

How do I use it?

I won't repeat myself here. You can go to the repo and read the....README
But basically, just download the whole repo, make the jerk script executable and run ./jerk --help. There are sample packages included in the repo.

Sample Packages

I've included many packages in the repo that you can try out. These are mostly the customization and experiments I've done in my devices. I highly recommend the package Lomiri_Ubuntu_22.04.tar.gz. 20.04 (focal) transition is taking a really long time to arrive so let's just skip and go straight to the latest Ubuntu
You can run ./jerk describe <packagename> to check what each package does.

It blocks OTA updates

Yup, it automatically blocks OTA updates until you uninstall all the packages you installed and/or intentionally unblocks it with ./jerk unblock-ota or reset all components with ./jerk reset all. I made this decision so users can avoid installing OTA updates that can possibly have conflicts with the installed packages. It's a good practice to remove all packages before updating then just reinstall after updating. Jerk will tell you if the package is still compatible or not.

I wanna create my own package!

Sure, why not? If you're like me who likes experimenting stuffs and want to share them to others, you can create your own package. Just check the...README
For the target component/path, it'll be better to make a PR to create new configuration if it's not present yet so the script is always aware of all the components with installed packages.

Is it perfect?

YES! No! Of course no
I'm not an expert with bash scripting and the script is a bit simplistic in terms of checking compatibility and no proper way to remember the installed packages. As always, PRs welcome

Can I trust you?

That's up to you

Can I see some screenshots of sample customization/patches?

NO!

Hello Everyone,

I would just like to gather random ideas that we can maybe implement or fix in Ubuntu Touch.
I already have ~100 in my list of ideas but I thought it would also be cool to get other people's ideas. I base my ideas from my personal experience and preference so your ideas may give me wider perspective on things. Of course, I won't be promising anything and it will still depend if my skills would allow me to put your ideas into reality

So that you'll have an idea on what my skills can do, here's a list of some of my previous, current and planned works.

Previous works:

1. Advanced text manipulations in the OSK (selection mode, copy/paste, etc.)
2. Theme support in the OSK
3. New Downloads UX in Morph

Current works:

1. Check my github profile to see my open PRs (https://github.com/kugiigi)
   Most of my recent PRs are related or beneficial to tablets because I recently got one
2. Floating and one-handed mode in the OSK. It's still not an official PR but it's already working and here's a preview
   

Future plans:

1. Split mode and numbers row option in the OSK
2. Redesign language menu to something similar to Sailfish OS/2nd level characters
3. Try to implement tab navigation history save/restore feature in Morph

In summary, I'm quite knowledgeable with QML+JS and I can do a bit of C++ (templating from existing codes ).
Most of my ideas are not life changing and won't compare to the essential works from the core devs, rather, they improve the day to day experience with UT, well at least that's the goal

I've been a bum since early this year so I'm basically full time with Ubuntu Touch so I will have plenty of time working on the ideas I may pick. I'm dealing with something the past weeks though and maybe for a few more but I'm pretty sure I'll be back at full speed eventually

If you want to support me to stay being a bum while contributing to UT, I would greatly appreaciate any amount
http://www.paypal.me/Kugi
https://liberapay.com/kugi_eusebio/donate

I'm looking forward seeing your ideas

I won't mention anyone specifically but I'm very thankful to this whole community!
It's been great to be a part of this

@Lakotaubp There will indeed be a huge wave of new users once PinePhone is generally released.
But I think many of those people expects a traditional linux OS and many will complain about UBports being "limited" and might go to other OS.
But in any case, this will be big for UT and I'm pretty we'll still get legit happy new users

And I'm about to be brave with a heart and buy a PinePhone

@PINE64 That sounds really promising. I might get one just to do some mobile OS-hopping

Morph can only open files from the Downloads folder. Try copying them there.

I'm honestly not satisfied yet. The behavior of horizontal swipes might be erratic with one hand.
And I really want to add a better trigger than just the current "press and hold" the space bar.
Hopefully, I can work on it very soon so it'll be included in OTA-11.

Enjoy everyone! and don't be hesitant to nitpick so we can improve

@tswanshi You might have hit a bug in the browser where scrolling stops working on a specific tab. This shouldn't be the case when using on external displays.

But yeah, most of these are known issues with the external display feature. Battery drains is a lot worse because in windowed/desktop mode, apps don't suspend and the device is basically in performance/power hungry mode.

@nomad Then I don't there's anything UT can do about that. And also to add to Keneda's comment, taking 48mp photos won't necessarily mean it has a better quality. The file size will just be massive for sure I have a device with 48mp device too and I can confirm that. Not worth it in UT since we don't have post-processing or software magic to make photos look better than the sensor is capable of.

@nomad Does it have multiple cameras? If yes, multiple camera support is being worked on and might land in the next OTA update. If not, then maybe it just defaults to 12MP. You can change the resolution by swiping from the bottom.

@thousandtopics Uninstalling Waydroid isn't easy and simple yet. You'll have to delete stuffs manually like the desktop files at ~/.local/share/applications.

@rogier-oudshoorn Cool! What receiver did you use? I think in this particular post, we are only concerned about the wireless projection experience. For other experience with the UI, apps, system, etc, you can file bugs under Lomiri or the Ubuntu Touch repo

@ra Do calendar apps usually handle tasks too? If yes, then I guess it's better to do it in the calendar app instead of creating a separate app.

@mihael I don't know. Perhaps check the source of uVolman. If this is something that can be simple, I can also try creating a custom patch for Lomiri to give you these functions.

@mihael I guess it's possible. If volume of different audio roles can be adjusted via script, maybe it's gsettings for example. Then you can use evtest to check the details like the keycode of what the toggle use for each state. Then you can go from there. This is just a high level I can think of and I can't help you further

@gt Here's the steps for my script for installing my patch. Run these from the terminal.

1. wget https://github.com/kugiigi/jerk-installer/releases/latest/download/jerk.zip -O ~/Downloads/jerk.zip
2. unzip ~/Downloads/jerk.zip -d ~/jerk
3. ~/jerk/jerk setup

I don't know how to send you the actual package though since it's not allowed here Do you have telegram or matrix?

I'm the developer of Sapot and I intentionally made it confined so I had to change the downloads path. I don't have a plan to change that though, sorry.