Re: inputmode attribute

So you want a more hint-like attribute, rather than enforcement of the
type, right?
I think "inputmode" attribute originally introduced for such purpose, but
has not gained
enough interest from browser implementors, unfortunately.

The original one was introduced before the mobile-first era, so we may
reconsider the spec
from the current architecture of input for modern mobile environment.

A bit of history...

As far as I know, once Chrome tried to implement some of Japanese
IME-related modes in inputmode,
but the effort was abandoned due to low interest and feasibility for
non-Windows platforms, especially
mobile platforms.
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=248482
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=244688
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=642800
At least we should remove the script-specific types (e.g. japanese-kana)
from the spec.

Other modes have overlap with type= attribute (e.g. type=number), and type=
is currently
the preferred way of specifying the type of the input (also the spec is
saying so).
IIUC Android Chrome implements type=number.

I'd think this kind of modality should not be specified via CSS, as it has
nothing to do with styles.

(FYI, IME related mode settings were available in IE and Firefox via CSS.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/ime-mode
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=4490
which I think, is a wrong approach, either)


On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Lars Solberg <lars.solberg@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello
>
> I am trying to figure out the story of the inputmode attribute for the
> <input> element.
> I'm seeing discussions about that attribute long back (5-10 years), and
> based on https://caniuse.com/#feat=input-inputmode, it was supported back
> in firefox 17-20.
>
> But what happened to it? Why are no browsers adopting it? Giving hints to
> mobile platforms about which keyboardtype to use seams very powerful. Using
> type=number sets a lot of other limitations on the field.
>
> The best way would be to set hints like this using css.
>
> Is there a work in progress here?
> Is, and will it be type=inputmode that is the way to do this, including
> it's limitations?
> Will there be a bigger standard for controlling things like this on mobile
> devices, as it becomes more popular?
>
> Best regards
>   Lars
>



-- 
Takayoshi Kochi