Input Method Editor

Overview The purpose of this API is to allow third parties to develop IMEs for Chrome OS via extensions. Use cases This API would be used to create IMEs that aren’t included in Chrome OS. This could include Cloud IME solutions, alternate CJK IMEs, or English IMEs and writing assistants. There are three basic types of input we should support:

• Text Generators: Generates a block of text to input into a text window. Voice Input is an example of this.
• Keystroke Generators: Generates distinct keystroke, which are passed to the active IME. Virtual Keyboard and Handwriting inputs are examples of this.
• IMEs: Manages the candidate window, composition, and processes key events.

An input method extension can behave as any or all of these, but only a single extension can be active as an IME at a time. Could this API be part of the web platform? This is a client side feature, and doesn’t make much sense to add to HTML5 Do you expect this API to be fairly stable? Once finalized, I don’t expect this API to change in any way that would break backwards compatibility.

What UI does this API expose? On ChromeOS, the user interacts with this API through the IME selection button, and the candidate window. As such, no new UI would need to be added. To implement this API on Windows, Mac and Linux, an IME selection method would need to be added, and the candidate window would need to be exposed. Candidate Window Language Selection How could this API be abused? The biggest danger of this API is that it could easily be used to create key loggers. Android deals with this issue by adding additional security dialogs to enable third party IMEs. The danger is mitigated slightly by the fact that password dialogs do not send their keystrokes to IME. Extensions that generate keystrokes such as virtual keyboards will still be able to send keystrokes to password fields and could record this data, however. This should be protected by both the standard security warning during installation, and an additional warning/confirmation dialog when enabled for the first time. How would you implement your desired features if this API didn’t exist? There is currently no way for third parties to add IMEs to Chrome OS. Allowing IMEs executing in any other context than sandboxed Javascript seems much more dangerous from a security standpoint. Are you willing and able to develop and maintain this API? Yes.

Draft API spec To prevent abuse of IMEs, the API will be guarded by the “ime” permission in manifest.json.

Manifest Entries:

To use the ime.engine APIs, you need to specify an input_components entry in the manifest. It will contain an array describing any input components in the extension.

It should look like:

"input_components" = [

{

"name": "My IME", // A user visible name.

"type": "ime", // The type of input component.

"id": "my_ime", // The id that will be passed to callbacks

"description": "My Input method for Japanese", // A user visible description

"language": "ja", // The primary language this IME is used for

"layouts": {"jp::jpn", "us:dvorak:eng"} // The supported keyboard layouts for this IME

}

]

Types:

• MenuItem (Object)
  • id (String)
  • label (optional String) (default: “”)
  • style (optional Integer) - Enum representing if this item is: None, Check, Radio, or a Separator. Radio buttons between separators are considered grouped.
  • visible (optional Boolean) (default: true)
  • enabled (optional Boolean) (default: true)
  • checked (optional Boolean) (default: false)
  • children (optional Array of MenuItem)
• KeyboardEvent (Object) - See http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Events/#events-KeyboardEvent
  • type (String) - One of 'keyup' or 'keydown'.
  • key (String) - Value of the key being pressed
  • altKey (optional Boolean) - Whether or not the ALT key is pressed.
  • ctrlKey (optional Boolean) - Whether or not the CTRL key is pressed.
  • shiftKey (optional Boolean) - Whether or not the SHIFT key is pressed.
• InputContext (Object)
  • textID (Integer) - This is used to specify targets of text field operations. This ID becomes invalid as soon as onBlur is called.
  • type (String) - Type of value this text field edits, (Text, Number, Password, etc)

Methods: chrome.

input.ime

.setComposition**

• Description
  • Set the current composition. If this extension does not own the active IME, this fails.
• Parameters
  • Object
    • contextID (Integer) - ID of the context with the composition text. This is the value provided in the InputContext from onFocus.
    • text (String)
    • selectionStart (optional Integer) - Position in the text that the selection starts at.
    • selectionEnd (optional Integer) - Position in the text that the selection ends at.
    • cursor (Integer) - Position in the text of the cursor
    • segments (optional Array) - List of segments and their associated types.
      • Object
        • start (Integer)
        • end (Integer)
        • style (String) - [underline, doubleUnderline] This is an enum that indicates what type this segment is.
  • callback (optional Function(Boolean success) {} ) - Called when the operation completes. success indicates whether the operation succeeded, on failure, chrome.extension.lastError is set.

chrome.

input

.ime

.clearComposition**

• Description
  • Clear the current composition. If this extension does not own the active IME, this fails.
• Parameters
  • Object
    • contextID (Integer) - ID of the context with the composition text. This is the value provided in the InputContext from onFocus.
  • callback (optional Function(Boolean success) {} ) - Called when the operation completes. success indicates whether the operation succeeded, on failure, chrome.extension.lastError is set.

chrome.

input

.ime

.commitText**

• Description
  • Commits the provided text to the current input.
• Parameters
  • Object
    • contextID (Integer) - ID of the context where the text will be committed.
    • text (String)
  • callback (optional Function(Boolean success) {}) - Called when the operation completes with a boolean indicating if the text was accepted or not. on failure, chrome.extension.lastError is set.

chrome.

input

.ime

.setCandidateWindowProperties**

• Description
  • Sets the properties of the candidate window. This fails if the extension doesn’t own the active IME
• Parameters
  • Object
    • engineID (String)
    • properties (Object)
      • visible (optional Boolean) - True to show the Candidate window, false to hide it.
      • cursorVisible (optional Boolean) - True to show the cursor, false to hide it.
      • vertical (optional Boolean) - True if the candidate window should be rendered vertical, false to make it horizontal.
      • pageSize (optional Integer) - The number of candidates to display per page.
      • auxiliaryText (optional String) - Text that is shown at the bottom of the candidate window.
      • auxiliaryTextVisible (optional Boolean) - True to display the auxiliary text, false to hide it.
  • callback (optional Function(Boolean success) {}) - Called when the operation completes.

chrome.

input

.ime

.setCandidates**

• Description
  • Sets the current candidate list. This fails if this extension doesn’t own the active IME
• Parameters
  • Object
    • contextID (Integer)
    • candidates (Array)
      • item (Object)
        • candidate (String)
        • id (Integer) - User defined id that will be used to identify this candidate. It must be unique in the current list of candidates.
        • label (optional String)
        • annotation (optional String)
        • candidates (Array of items) - Sub-candidates
  • callback (optional Function(Boolean success) {}) - Called when the operation completes.

chrome.

input

.ime

.setCursorPosition**

• Description
  • Set the position of the cursor in the candidate window. This is a no-op if this extension does not own the active IME.
• Parameters
  • Object
    • contextID (Integer)
    • candidateID (Integer) - ID of the candidate to select.
  • callback (optional Function) - Called when the operation completes

chrome.

input

.ime

.setMenuItems**

• Description
  • Adds the provided menu items to the language menu when this IME is active.
• Parameters
  • Object
    • engineID (String) - ID of the engine to use
    • items (array of MenuItem) - MenuItems to add. They will be added in the order they exist in the array.
  • callback (optional Function) - Called when the operation completes

chrome.

input

.ime

.updateMenuItems**

• Description
  • Updates the state of the MenuItems specified
• Parameters
  • Object
    • engineID (String) - ID of the engine to use
    • item (MenuItem or array of MenuItem) - One or more MenuItems to update.
  • callback (optional Function) - Called when the operation completes

chrome.

input

.ime

.sendKeyEvent**

• Description
  • Sends a keystroke to the system
• Parameters
  • Object
    • contextID (Integer) - ID of the context with the composition text.
    • key (KeyEvent) - Key data to send
  • callback (optional Function) - Called when the operation completes

Events chrome.

input

.ime

.onActivate**

• Description
  • This event is sent when an IME is activated. It signals that the IME will be receiving onKeyPress events.
• Parameters
  • engineID (String) - ID of the engine receiving the event

chrome.

input

.ime

.onDeactivated**

• Description
  • This event is sent when an IME is deactivated. It signals that the IME will no longer be receiving onKeyPress events.
• Parameters
  • engineID (String) - ID of the engine receiving the event

chrome.

input

.ime

.onFocus**

• Description
  • This event is sent when focus enters a text box. It is sent to all extensions that are listening to this event, and enabled by the user.
• Parameters
  • context (InputContext) - an InputContext object describing the text field that has acquired focus.

chrome.

input

.ime

.onBlur**

• Description
  • This event is sent when focus leaves a text box. It is sent to all extensions that are listening to this event, and enabled by the user.
• Parameters
  • contextID (Integer) - the ID of the text field that has lost focus. The ID is invalid after this call

chrome.

input

.ime

.onInputContextUpdate**

• Description
  • This event is sent when the properties of the current InputContext change, such as the the type. It is sent to all extensions that are listening to this event, and enabled by the user.
• Parameters
  • context (InputContext) - an InputContext object describing the text field that has changed.

chrome.

input

.ime

.onKeyEvent**

• Description
  • This event is sent if this extension owns the active IME.
• Parameters
  • engineID (String) - ID of the engine receiving the event
  • keyData (KeyEvent) - Data on the key event
• Return value
  • handled (Boolean) - True if the keystroke was handled, or false if it should be

chrome.

input

.ime

.onCandidateClicked**

• Parameters
  • engineID (String) - ID of the engine receiving the event
  • candidateID (Integer) - ID of the candidate that was clicked.
  • button (String) -[left, right, middle] Which mouse buttons was clicked.

chrome.

input

.ime.onMenuItemActivated

• Parameters
  • engineID (String) - ID of the engine receiving the event
  • name (String) - Name of the MenuItem which was activated

Open questions