Software Keyboard
The software keyboard (swkbd) expects to be passed three IStorages. See also AM_services#Library_Applets.
The below is for normal swkbd usage, see the #InlineKeyboard section for InlineKeyboard.
Library Applet Versions
| System Version | Value |
|---|---|
| 0x0..0x1 | |
| 0x2 | |
| 0x3..4 | |
| [1.0.0+] | 0x5 |
| [2.0.0+] | 0x10006 |
| [3.0.0+] | 0x30007 |
| [4.0.0+] | 0x40008 |
| [5.0.0+] | 0x50009 |
KeyboardConfig
The second IStorage passed to this applet should contain the configuration for the keyboard.
| Offset | Size | Typical Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 4 | Type | |
| 0x4 | 18 | 0 | UTF-16 text displayed in the submit button |
| 0x16 | 2 | 0 | UTF-16 "left optional symbol key" |
| 0x18 | 2 | 0 | UTF-16 "right optional symbol key" |
| 0x1A | 1 | 0 | Enables dictionary usage when non-zero (including the system dictionary). |
| 0x1C | 4 | 0 | Key set disable bitmask |
| 0x20 | 4 | 1 | Initial cursor position (0 = start of string, 1 = end of string) |
| 0x24 | 130 | u"" | UTF-16 header text |
| 0xA6 | 258 | u"" | UTF-16 sub text |
| 0x1A8 | 514 | u"" | UTF-16 guide text |
| 0x3AC | 4 | 0 | stringLenMax |
| 0x3B0 | 4 | 0 | stringLenMaxExt. When non-zero, specifies the max string length. When the input is too long, swkbd will display an icon and disable the ok-button. |
| 0x3B4 | 4 | 0 | Password flag (0 = not password, 1 = password) |
| 0x3B8 | 4 | 1 | textDrawType |
| 0x3BC | 2 | 1 | Return button flag (0 = disable, non-zero = enable) |
| 0x3BE | 1 | 1 | Blur background (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| 0x3C0 | 4 | 20 | Offset of initial string in work buffer (or 0) |
| 0x3C4 | 4 | 0 | Size of initial string in work buffer (bytes) |
| 0x3C8 | 4 | 2024 | Offset of user dictionary in work buffer (or 0) |
| 0x3CC | 4 | 0 | Length of user dictionary (number of entries) |
| 0x3D0 | 1 | 0 | #Text check enable |
| 0x3D8 | 8 | 0 | #Text check callback function address. Not sure why this is included here |
| 0x3E0 | 0x20 | -1 | When set and enabled via textDrawType, controls displayed text grouping (inserts spaces, without affecting output string). Used for DownloadCodes. |
This struct is 0x3E0-bytes with version 0x5. Starting with version 0x30007 this struct is 0x400-bytes.
The 0x20-bytes at offset 0x3E0 is -1 normally, except for DownloadCodes.
Each entry in the user dictionary is 100 bytes long.
stringLenMax: When the input is too long, swkbd will stop accepting more input until text is deleted via the B button (Backspace).
Type
- 0: Normal keyboard.
- 1: Number pad. The buttons at the bottom left/right are only available when the characters at offset 0x16/0x18 are set.
- 2: QWERTY (and variants) keyboard only.
textDrawType
If the length limit (stringLenMax) is 1..32, the type specified by textDrawType will be used. Otherwise, type1 will be used.
- 0: The text will be displayed on a line. Also enables displaying the Header and Sub text.
- 1: The text will be displayed in a box.
- 2: Used for DownloadCodes on 5.0.0+. Enables using the data starting at offset 0x3E0.
Key Set Disable Bitmask
Various bits in this field disable certain keys on the keyboard. This list is incomplete.
0x02: disable ' ' 0x04: disable '@' 0x08: disable '%' 0x10: disable '/' 0x20: disable '\' 0x40: disable numbers 0x80: Used for DownloadCodes. 0x100: Used for UserNames. Disables '@', '%', and '\'.
Work Buffer
This is the third IStorage passed to this applet. It is a transfer memory storage. The transfer memory should have size 0x1000 (0xd000 in certain cases) and permissions 0.
The layout of the work buffer doesn't seem to matter as long as the offsets in the #KeyboardConfig are adjusted, but official code lays it out like this.
Prior to version 0x5, offset 0x0 size 0x14(20) is a header (size 0x10 for version <=0x2).
| Offset | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 20 (decimal) | Unknown | UTF-16 initial string |
| 2024 (decimal) | Unknown | User dictionary |
Text Check
If text checking is enabled in #KeyboardConfig, text will be checked when the submit button is pressed. First, swkbd sends the text via PushInteractiveOutData. Normally size 0x7D4 is allocated for the string.
| Offset | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 0x8 | Buffer size |
| 0x8 | Variable | UTF-16 text |
The application then has an opportunity to validate or reject the text. It creates a new IStorage, writes the response to it, and sends it via PushInteractiveInData. This storage is 0x7D8-bytes.
| Offset | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 0x4 | TextCheckResult |
| 0x4 | Variable | UTF-16 error message (shown in a dialog box) |
TextCheckResult:
- 0: Success, valid string.
- 1: Failure, invalid string. Error message is displayed in a message-box, pressing OK will return to swkbd again.
- 2: Failure, invalid string. Error message is displayed in a message-box, pressing Cancel will return to swkbd again, while pressing OK will continue as if the text was valid.
- 3: Failure, invalid string. With value 3 and above, swkbd will silently not accept the string, without displaying any error.
Output
When either the submit button is pressed and input has been validated, or the user cancels the text entry, swkbd will push its response and exit. The response IStorage has the following format. This storage is 0x7D8-bytes.
| Offset | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 0x4 | Result code (0 = OK, 1 = Cancel) |
| 0x4 | Variable | UTF-16 text |
InlineKeyboard
This doesn't run in the foreground and has completely different input/output IStorages. This is essentially an asynchronous version of the regular swkbd. Whether it displays on the screen is controlled by the user-process. The user-process can also get the gfx data via Display_services. InlineKeyboard was added with 2.0.0, however it wasn't added to sdk-nso until the version corresponding to sysver 3.x (even though 2.0.0 system titles use it).
InitializeArg
| Offset | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 0x4 | Unknown, normally 0. |
| 0x4 | 0x1 | Controls the LibraryAppletMode when launching the applet. Non-zero indicates LibraryAppletMode=0x1, otherwise LibraryAppletMode=0x3. |
| 0x5 | 0x1 | Set to 0x1 with [5.0.0+] in a separate init func by official sw, originally set to value 0. |
| 0x6 | 0x2 | Padding |
AppearArg
| Offset | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 0x4 | Initialized to value 0x2. |
| 0x4 | ? | UTF-16 string |
| 0xC | 0x8 | |
| 0x14 | 0x6 | |
| 0x1A | 0x1 | |
| 0x1B | 0x1 | |
| 0x1C | 0x4 | u32, Unknown. |
| 0x20 | 0x4 | s32, Unknown. Initialized to value -1. |
| 0x24 | 0x4 | s32, Unknown. Initialized to value -1. |
| 0x28 | 0x1 | |
| 0x29 | 0x2 | |
| 0x2B | 0x1 | |
| 0x2C | 0x4 | |
| 0x30 | 0x1 | Initialized to value 1. |
| 0x31 | 0x17 |
The above struct is cleared to 0 during initialization, besides the fields specified otherwise.
CalcArg
| Offset | Size | Flags bitmask | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | 0x4 | Set to 0x30000. | |
| 0x4 | 0x2 | Size of this struct. | |
| 0x6 | 0x1 | Unknown, set to value 0x1. | |
| 0x7 | 0x1 | Unknown, set to value 0x1. | |
| 0x8 | 0x8 | Flags | |
| 0x10 | 0x8 | 0x1 | #InitializeArg |
| 0x18 | 0x4 | 0x2 | float volume |
| 0x1C | 0x4 | 0x10 | s32 cursorPos |
| 0x20 | 0x48 | #AppearArg | |
| 0x68 | 0x3D4 | Not known to be set by official sw? | |
| 0x43C | 0x1 | 0x20 | utf8Mode |
| 0x43D | 0x1 | Unknown | |
| 0x43E | 0x1 | 0x8000 | enableBackspace. Added with 5.x in the user-process sdk-nso. |
| 0x43F | 0x3 | Unknown | |
| 0x442 | 0x1 | 0x200 | keytopAsFloating |
| 0x443 | 0x1 | 0x100 | footerScalable |
| 0x444 | 0x1 | 0x200 | alphaEnabledInInputMode |
| 0x445 | 0x1 | 0x100 | inputModeFadeType |
| 0x446 | 0x1 | 0x200 | disableTouch |
| 0x447 | 0x1 | 0x800 | disableUSBKeyboard |
| 0x448 | 0x5 | Unknown | |
| 0x44D | 0x2 | ||
| 0x44F | 0x1 | ||
| 0x450 | 0x4 | 0x200 | float keytopScale0 |
| 0x454 | 0x4 | 0x200 | float keytopScale1 |
| 0x458 | 0x4 | 0x200 | float keytopTranslate0 |
| 0x45C | 0x4 | 0x200 | float keytopTranslate1 |
| 0x460 | 0x4 | 0x100 | float keytopBgAlpha |
| 0x464 | 0x4 | float, unknown | |
| 0x468 | 0x4 | 0x200 | float balloonScale |
| 0x46C | 0x4 | float, unknown | |
| 0x470 | 0x20 | ||
| 0x490 | 0x10 |
This is 0x4A0-bytes.
All floats except for keytopTranslate0/keytopTranslate1 are initialized to value 1.0f.
The applet-specific IStorage for data input is the #InitializeArg within this struct.
Runtime
Once the applet is running, official sw can call a func which does the following:
- Checks whether the applet exited via an event, then handles exit if so and returns.
- Otherwise:
- If the Flags field in the #CalcArg state is non-zero, sends a Calc #Request then clears the Flags field.
- Enters a loop which pops each applet Interactive output IStorage, reads 2 u32s from the #Reply storage and processes the reply.
- The u32 from offset 0x0 from the last processed storage is then returned as the retval.
Request
| RequestCommand | Data Size | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x4 | 0x0 | Finalize | |
| 0x7 | 0x70 | SetCustomizeDic | |
| 0xA | 0x4A0 | Calc | Data is #CalcArg. |
Requests are sent via an applet Interactive input IStorage: the u32 at offset 0x0 is the RequestCommand, and the rest of the storage is the request-specific data. While swkbd supports other requests, official sw only uses requests 0x4, 0x7, and 0xA.
Reply
| ReplyType | Data Size | Name | Notes |
|---|
See #Runtime. In the storage, the first u32 is the retval, while the second u32 is the ReplyType. The rest is the reply-specific data.