Android - customized keyboard key and action

Question

If you own Android phone you are no doubt have noticed how in the certain apps the keyboard layout can change from the standard issue to digits-only or to have .com

Answer 1

The thing that concerns me is that "inputType" is listed as a deprecated property, meaning it may work for a while, but - eventually - Android will stop supporting it. Is there another alternative?

UPDATED: My bad - I'm confusing with inputMethod.

Answer 2

It is controlled by the android:inputType XML attribute (or the setInputType() method).

For info on the available options see the pages for the XML attribute or the object's method.

As an example, the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
    <EditText 
        android:text="example text"  
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:inputType="phone" />
</LinearLayout>

will give you this layout:

whereas changing the inputType to textEmailAddress will give you this:

You can customize the "action" button as explained here, but I don't believe there's any way to do full customization of keyboards at this time, but I could be wrong.