# system.gui.inputBox with Touchscreen mode enabled

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition79\
**Created:** [November 29, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146 "2018-11-29T19:41:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cesrom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@cesrom](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/cesrom)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146/1 "2018-11-29T19:41:57Z")

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Being this the first time I work with touchscreens I just noticed that the keyboard is not shown when entering text on an input pop-up.

Both `system.gui.inputBox` and `javax.swing.JOptionPane.showInputDialog` fail to summon the soft keyboard.

Is it a bug or a “feature not [yet] implemented”?

Is it that my only option is to create a Popup Window for this scenario?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![jonathan.taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jonathan.taylor/32/4048_2.png) [@jonathan.taylor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jonathan.taylor)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146/2 "2018-11-30T15:33:47Z")

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Are you enabling touchscreen mode?

> system.gui.setTouchscreenModeEnabled(1)

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**Author:** ![cesrom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@cesrom](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/cesrom)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146/3 "2018-11-30T20:56:41Z")

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Yes, it is enabled, but still doesn’t do it for either type of input pop-up.

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146/4 "2018-11-30T20:58:59Z")

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This is probably not possible to do in Vision - which is why it’s not implemented.  
The inputBox function (and `showInputDialog` both open dialogs - which are _modal_ windows that completely block the event loop in the background.  
The touchscreen keyboard is _also_ a modal dialog. There’s no way for Ignition to open a second modal while one is active - Java Swing explicitly disallows concurrent modal dialogs.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cesrom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@cesrom](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/cesrom)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-gui-inputbox-with-touchscreen-mode-enabled/21146/5 "2018-11-30T21:03:54Z")

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Fortunately the workaround I found was creating a Popup Window, as expected.

That way the window **does** display the touchscreen keyboard when an input component gets focus.

Thanks.