Here's an update to my Javascript Thaana Keyboard library which provides easy entry of Thaana on web pages without the involvement of OS-based keyboard switching. Hit the demo page to see it in action.
This release is solely a bugfix release addressing an issue with the display of newly entered text in multiline fields where text exceeds the size of the visible area. I originally cut this release in February but decided to hold back on a public release till I had further issues to fix or had new features added, neither of which has come since...
Thanks goes to Ahmed Ali for bringing the bug to my attention.
Changelog
+ Fixed issue with the display of newly entered text in multiline fields where text exceeds the size of the visible area.
Here's a minor update to my Javascript Thaana Keyboard library. This release, version 4.2, amounts to a single bugfix addressing an error in key translation for some keys when operating under the "Phonetic-HH" keyboard mode. Everything else remains as per the earlier v4 series releases.
Thanks goes to Nattu for bringing the bug to my attention.
Changelog:
+ Fixed handling of keys when in Phonetic-HH keyboard mode
I published an article last year, titled "Guide to using Thaana on the WWW", with the aim of presenting a quick overview of the various approaches/methods for developing Thaana-based websites. It introduced 6 different methods and included enough implementation details to help a beginner get started. I've now rewritten bits of the article for increased clarity and also added some examples to help fortify the usage instructions.
I released Javascript Thaana Keyboard v4.0 only 10 days ago but I've since been made aware of a few bugs in the script that had gone unnoticed during testing back then. I decided to cut another release to fix those bugs which, although minor, could potentially be annoying to end-users. This new release also crams in a few tweaks to improve performance.
Changelog:
+ Fixed handling of Delete key and other special keys
+ Added correct handling for Thaana brackets "()"
+ Improved performance
Here is an update to my Javascript Thaana Keyboard (JTK). This 4.0 release packs in a bunch of new features, making JTK much more powerful and more flexible than any of the earlier releases.
Keyboard support:
Most notable on this new release is the introduction of support for the various different types of Thaana keyboard in use. JTK now supports the following keyboard layouts:
Phonetic (Segha version): This keyboard is perhaps the most popular Thaana keyboard layout. JTK identifies this keyboard as "phonetic".
Phonetic (Hassan Hameed version): This keyboard is similar to above but notably differs in its mapping of alifu, abafili, aabaafili, gaafu and the sukun. JTK identifies this keyboard as 'phonetic-hh'.
Typewriter: This is the standardized Thaana layout used on typewriters. JTK identifies this keyboard as 'typewriter'.
Browser support:
JTK 4.0 adds support for IE5.5, which has a very significant market share still. Hence JTK should now work perfectly well on Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5+, Mozilla Firefox 1+, Opera 9+, Apple Safari 2+ and Google Chrome 0.1+.
Basic usage:
The basic usage allows for fast and easy integration of JTK on your Thaana web pages.
1. Link the file in the HEAD section of the page:
2. For any element accepting input (i.e. INPUTs, TEXTAREAs, content-editable DIVs), assign them the special class name "thaanaKeyboardInput". JTK will automatically handle text entry to any element with that class name. You can assign further classes to the elements without ill-effect, if needed.
3. There are two ways to set the keyboard used for an element. defaultKeyboard method: This method allows setting a default keyboard to be used on all elements handled by JTK. To do this, add the following to the HEAD section of your web page but make sure it is added after the code inserted from step 1 above.
thaanaKeyboardState method: This method allows per element control on the type of keyboard used by an element handled by JTK. To do this, add a form element (can be a radio, checkbox, select, hidden or text field) with its name set to the text entry element id suffixed with the string "_thaanaKeyboardState". The value of these fields should specify either 'off', 'phonetic', 'phonetic-hh' or 'typewriter', indicating the status and the keyboard in use.
So, if you had a text entry field with the id "fullname" then the keyboard could be specified using a hidden field as follows:
4. Make sure that the text direction for the Thaana fields is set to "rtl". This can be easily achieved using CSS, by adding a class definition for the "thaanaKeyboardInput" class or by any other method of your choice. Adding the following to your CSS definition should suffice for most uses:
If the above instructions are followed correctly, the JTK Thaana functionality would be in effect soon as the page has loaded!
Advanced Usage: The JTK object, methods and properties
To facilitate advanced integration functionality for developers looking to have (finer) control over its behavior, JTK now makes itself available as a public object named "thaanaKeyboard".
The following properties and methods exposed by the "thaanaKeyboard" object:
defaultKeyboard: [property] The Thaana keyboard layout type to default to when JTK enabled elements do not have a keyboard specified.
Valid values are: 'off' to keep Thaana disabled, 'phonetic' to use the standard phonetic layout, 'phonetic-hh' to use the phonetic layout by Dr. Hassan Hameed and 'typewriter' to use the typewriter layout.
setHandlerById ( id, action ): [method] Sets the state of the JTK handler for a page element.
The id argument should be a string containing the id of any content-editable element. The action argument should specify either "enable" or "disable" depending on whether input handling for Thaana should be enabled or disabled, respectively.
setHandlerByClass ( class, action ): [method] Sets the state of the JTK handler for a set of page elements.
The class argument should be a string containing the class name of any content-editable element (i.e input, textarea etc). The action argument should specify either "enable" or "disable" depending on whether input handling for Thaana should be enabled or disabled, respectively.
License:
JTK 4.0 is released under the MIT License, allowing its use in both personal and commercial applications as long as the copyright and license permission notice remains intact.
I released my Javascript Unicode Keyboard Handler for Thaana early this year as open-source software so that web developers producing Dhivehi websites can allow users to type Thaana straight into text entry fields without forcing them to switch keyboard using the relevant features on the user's computer operating system. The code has since made its way into many different Dhivehi websites. However, the code I released then was mostly as-is from it's original version which I had written back in 2003 which, sadly, means that its behavior could be a little bit unpredictable with certain modern browsers - especially Opera and Safari.
I've now rewritten the code with the intent of producing cleaner, easier-to-use code that works without fail on all modern browsers. This version is (more or less!) guaranteed to work, and has been tested, on Firefox 2+, Opera 9+, Internet Explorer 6+ and Safari 2+ and has also been tested on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
I am a big fan of separating code from design, so in keeping with that ideal this new version uses a more modern way of assigning the Thaana keyboard functionality in favour of inline javascript event handling used by the previous version (look below for an example). Since everything needs a spunky name I've also changed the old name to the more descriptive "Javascript Thaana Keyboard", which future versions of the script will maintain.
As before, it is being released under the MIT License, which allows its use in both personal and commercial applications as long as the copyright and license permission notice remains intact - so what the guy at basfoiy.com has done is a definite no-no.
Usage:
1. Link the file in the HEAD section of the page:
2. For any text input element (i.e INPUTs or TEXTAREAs), assign them the class name "thaanaKeyboardInput". You can assign further classes to the elements without ill-effect, if needed.
3. Using CSS, set any Unicode-compatible Dhivehi font (and size) to be used for the fields. You can easily do that by adding a class definition for the "thaanaKeyboardInput" class or by any other method of your choice.
4. The Thaana functionality would be automatically applied to any elements with the required class name when the page is loaded!
Here is a PHP 5 class that provides a drop-in function replacement/equivalent for the built-in PHP date() function to output formatted dates in Thaana/Dhivehi. It follows the standard method of writing Gregorian dates in Thaana by using transliterations of the English month names and using the native Dhivehi names for the week days. It accepts all the usual formatting arguments permitted by the original date() function thus allowing the same degree of formatting freedom as the original. The output returned from the function uses ASCII Thaana and, if needed, can then be converted to Unicode/UTF-8 by using the Thaana Conversions class. This class does not support Hijri dates (yet).
