Traditional T9

TT9 is an IME (Input Method Editor) for Android devices with hardware keypad. It supports multiple languages and predictive text typing. NOTE: TT9 is not usable on touchscreen-only devices.

This is an updated version of the original project by Clam-.

Using Traditional T9

If you just wish to install and use TT9, see the user manual. You don't need to read anything below this line.

Building

The recommended way of building is using Android Studio. As the of time of writing this, the current version is: Android Studio Dolphin | 2021.3.1.

Building a Debug .apk

If you have not configured Android Studio yet, follow the official manual, then follow the simple steps below to get the project running.

• Import the project in Android Studio.
• Prevent the "Default Activity not found" issue. The app does not have a default view or a launcher icon. For this reason, you must configure Android Studio not to launch anything after installing, otherwise it will fail with "Default Activity not found" or a similar message. To do so:
  • Open "Edit Configurations..." (Press Shift 3 times and select it from the command list)
  • Go to "General" tab.
  • Change "Launch Options" to "Nothing"
  • Hit "OK"

That's it! Now you should be able to deploy and debug the app on your device.

You can find more info in this Github issue.

Building a Release .apk

The project is configured to build an unsigned release variant by default.

• Select the "release" variant from Android Studio options (Build -> Select Build Variant...)
• Build -> Rebuild Project. After that, just ignore all warnings until you get to the end of the process.
• Find the .apk in the generated 'build/' folder.

Note that it may not be possible to install an unsigned .apk on newer versions of Android. You must either manually sign it or build a signed one instead.

Building a Signed .apk

Make sure you have a signing key. If you don't have one, follow the official manual.

• Select Build -> Generate Signed Bundle / APK....
• Select APK and proceed to the next screen.
• Enter your key details (or create a new one) and continue to the next screen.
• Choose the "Release" variant, then click Finish to start building.
• Android Studio will tell you where the .apk is, but if it does not, try looking for it in the release/ folder.

Adding a new language

To support a new language one needs to:

• Add status icons
  • Create a proper icon for each screen size. The icon needs to contain the abbreviation of the language. (e.g. "En" for "English").
  • The font must be Roboto Lt at an adequate size to fit the icon square with minimum padding.
  • The text must be white and the background must be transparent as per the official Android guide.
  • To simplify the process, you could use Android Studio. It has a built-in icon generator accessible by right-cicking on "drawable" folder -> New -> Image Asset. Then choose "Icon Type": "Notification Icons", "Asset Type": Text, "Trim": No, "Padding": 0%.
• Find a suitable dictionary and add it to assets folder.
• Create a new language class in languages/definitions/. Make sure to set all properties. The ID must be the next available one. Currently, the range is limited between 1 and 31, so there can be 31 languages in total.
• Add the new language to the list in LanguageCollection.java. You only need to add it in one place, in the constructor. Please, be nice and maintain the alphabetical order.
• Add a new entry in res/values/const.xml. Make sure the new ID matches the one in the language class.
• Add new entries in res/values/arrays.xml.
• Add translations in res/values/strings-your-lang. The Android Studio translation editor is very handy.

Word Lists

Here is detailed information and licenses about the word lists used:

• Bulgarian word list
• English word list
• French word list
• German word list
• Russian word list
• Ukrainian word list

License

• The source code, the logo image and the icons are licensed under the conditions described in LICENSE.txt.
• The word lists / dictionaries are licensed under the licenses provided in the respective readme files, where applicable.
• Silver foil photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com
• "Roboto" font is under Apache License, Version 2.0.
• "Negotiate" and "Vibrocentric" fonts are under The Fontspring Desktop/Ebook Font End User License.