v8.1.25
OS: Windows 10
Touch panel: Advantech TPC1551WP-E3AE
(note: I wouldn't recommend this HMI for anything other than to someone who likes to drink a lot of coffee, as an HMI with an Atom processor with ~400 CPU passmarks, it's barely capable of launching Windows within the time it takes to drink 4 coffees - it's also super old now and probably isn't even available anymore)
(PS. We use Beckhoff HMIs now which have > 8000 passmarks)
I just wanted to document here some findings, as I have had issues recently and in the past with the OSK automatically displaying (and correctly) in Perspective Workstation on touchscreens without physical keyboards. All issues appear to stem from the OS.
Install all Windows updates, including optional ones (most notably any driver updates). I have found many issues with automatically displaying the OSK without updating Windows, even in Windows OS fields itself (e.g. start menu search).
Windows 10 LTSB has issues. This has been replaced by LTSC
This version, even with all updates, I found shows the OSK automatically but it automatically closes again after a second, making it useless.
The OSK doesn't automatically show at all in the Perspective Workstation launcher (e.g. when trying to add an application connection to launch a client). Opening the OSK manually does work and you are able to use it to input into fields as expected. I haven't found a solution to this yet
I'd be interested in others' notes on this as well with other OS' and other touch panels.
This is actually a bug i am tracking with JavaFX. There is an override prop (javafx.virtual.keyboard) in the workstation.json file to enable the javafx virtual keyboard if its needed on that system.
Sharing for Linux Users:
Linux Ubuntu 20.04, moving the unzipped 'perspectiveworkstation' folder to the user shared applications directory allows for the native OSK in Ubuntu from Perspective Workstation to function.
Download perspective workstation (tar.gz) file and unzip it in the downloads folder.
The /usr/local/share/applications folder does not exist by default in 20.04, so make the folder using terminal:
$ cd /usr/local/share
$ sudo mkdir applications
Open a terminal wherever the tar file was unzipped. Move the unzipped 'perspectiveworkstation' folder to /usr/local/share/applications
I change the property javafx.virtual.keyboard to true
i import the configuration
Then i restart workstation and launch a project but the keyboard doesn't appear when trying to enter a value.
When export again the settings config i see that the propertie javafx.virtual.keyboard is back to false.
It seems that at import the property is not override or is set back to false by the launcher.
I'm using the last version available of the workstation on a linux mint 21.1 Cinnamon
Have you any idea why that property is not working?
The launched Perspective Session uses Chromium, which uses the OS's settings for OSK. Typically this is through some accessibility settings to enable it.
The javafx.virtual.keyboard property applies only to the "configuration" side of the launchers due to a JavaFX bug. OSKs within the running session/browser are controlled by the OS.
Thanks for the response. I didn't understand like that.
The problem than that i have is that in most linux distribution i have tried (Linux mint, Ubuntu or kubuntu) the on screen keyboard doesn't appear when using workstation (When using firefox or chrome it's working without any problems).