Android - how to make the button label not capitalized?

[Herve-Guerin]

When running the Android emulator, I see that the buttons' labels are capitalized, which I don't want. I've seen that when developing an Android app, this behavior can be changed by configuring the style at the app's level. What would be the equivalent action at the level of Toga in order to ensure that the lowercase are correctly rendered when going Android. Thank you very much!

[freakboy3742]

The capitalization is part of the default Android style for buttons. Part of Toga's "native GUI" philosophy is that Toga inherits that behavior.

There's no way to disable this at the level of Toga. In principle, it should be possible to override at the Briefcase level by modifying the default stylesheet of the Android app; however, I can't point you at a worked example of this.

[johnzhou721]

My two cents to call anything on a native widget: Use widget._impl.native to get to the native widget, then do whatever you want on the native widget, as long as a supported API exists. Check for platform being android using toga.platform.current_platform == 'platform'.

[johnzhou721]

To elaborate: I'm talking about something like button._impl.native.setTransformationMethod(null) or something like that. https://stackoverflow.com/a/29060698/30238888 seem to suggest that there is a native API. Sorry, I ran out of disk space to install an Android SDK... maybe I shouldn't have posted here in the first place.

[freakboy3742]

There isn't. If there was, I would have referenced it when I responded four days ago.

Once again, I am begging you to consider the signal to noise ratio of your posting strategy. Before you post, please consider "am I actually adding to the conversation?". When a member of the core team has already responded, unless there's an error in what they've said - and you have the receipts to prove that - then adding more comments is just noise.

As I (and others) have indicated to you many times now, every time you post or a stray thought, that gets sent to everyone on the project. That's an entry in my inbox, and Malcolm's inbox, and Charles' inbox, and more - and we all need to process that message. When it's a glib bee pun, or doesn't actually contribute to the overall understanding of what is going on - or, in this case, doesn't actually address the question being asked - that consumes the time, effort and attention of everyone on the project. Please speak less, and say more when you do.

[johnzhou721]

@freakboy3742 Once again, I apologize for posting too much; however, my approach does work.

I've just uninstalled all my simulators in Xcode and installed Android Studio, etc. etc... all the boilerplate stuff... I first tried my solution, and it worked... now, just to be safe, I want to make sure the default theme on my emulator is all caps, so I took the statement out and ended up with this:

"""
My first application
"""

import toga
from toga.style import Pack
from toga.style.pack import COLUMN, ROW


class nocaps(toga.App):
    def startup(self):
        """Construct and show the Toga application.

        Usually, you would add your application to a main content box.
        We then create a main window (with a name matching the app), and
        show the main window.
        """
        main_box = toga.Box()
        
        button = toga.Button("hello world")
                
        main_box.add(button)
        
        self.main_window = toga.MainWindow(title=self.formal_name)
        self.main_window.content = main_box
        self.main_window.show()


def main():
    return nocaps()

And after briefcase update android, (EDITED, typo in posting, not actual command, same as the next instance of this)briefcase build android, briefcase run android, I get

Now if I change my code to

"""
My first application
"""

import toga
from toga.style import Pack
from toga.style.pack import COLUMN, ROW


class nocaps(toga.App):
    def startup(self):
        """Construct and show the Toga application.

        Usually, you would add your application to a main content box.
        We then create a main window (with a name matching the app), and
        show the main window.
        """
        main_box = toga.Box()
        
        button = toga.Button("hello world")
        
        button._impl.native.setTransformationMethod(None)  ## ADD
        
        main_box.add(button)
        
        self.main_window = toga.MainWindow(title=self.formal_name)
        self.main_window.content = main_box
        self.main_window.show()


def main():
    return nocaps()

And after briefcase update android, briefcase build android, briefcase run android, I get

Right there. No all caps.

Once again, I'm sorry for posting so much and before I gather evidence to prove my answer, but it is technically valid in this case; in addition, if the API I use is not recommended, please let me know. Also, sorry if I sound too angry and I sound like I'm just trying to prove a point; my intent is to provide evidence that the solution works.

Thank you.

[EDIT 2. The code shown is the app.py in a freshly generated project by Briefcase, latest version available on PyPI. Let me know if you are unable to reproduce these results.]

---

[EDIT 3 (to not add more noise to this thread)]
Reply to @freakboy3742: Thanks for letting me know about this... in other words,

1. Have a sketch of the complete solution before posting any messages and
2. When you post, post the whole thing... and take less posts to get to the actual stuff, and not just post just to gather attention because you think you might have a solution.
3. [EDITED 4] thanks for clarifying your reponse to which comment.

[freakboy3742]

Awesome - if there's a way to do this, that's great. There is much that I do not know, and Android isn't my area of expertise. Posting something to point out an API I wasn't aware of is definitely "signal".

My question to you - why wasn't "You may be able to do this by calling widget._impl.native.setTransformationMethod(None)" your first post? Why was the post that actually had the answer to the original question your third post on the thread?

My response was to your ".. there might not be a native API for this. Clarified that." comment. That is a comment that suggests you hadn't actually tried anything - you were just making noise. Although the timeline doesn't play out this way, I didn't see your follow up referencing setTransformationMethod() until after I had posted my response. (Github "live updates" only work if you have a 100% reliable, fast, continuously connected internet connection. When you're literally on the other side of the planet to the server, this isn't something that exists - ever).

So - if you have something of value to say, then by all means say it. But have something of value to say. It took 3 posts for you to get to the actual signal on this thread. That is what I (and others on the core team) are complaining about in your communication style.

[Herve-Guerin]

In any case, that works fine for me!