How to disable physical keyboard in code(use virtual keyboard all the time)

Question

You might ask why do I want that. Here is the reason:

I used a barcode scanner for the login screen of my application. However connecting the barcode scanner will force my tablet to use the physical keyboard (it thinks the scanner is the keyboard) and that prevents the virtual keyboard from coming up (which I want for some other screens). I have to manually click on the system bar to disable the physical keyboard for the virtual keyboard to popup.

So, is there a way to disable the physical keyboard in code or make the virtual keyboard come up even if some "keyboard" is connected?

Answer 1

Try the following

Settings > Language & Input > Under Keyboard and input methods click Default. Is there an option to to uncheck or disable Hardware/Physical Keyboard?

It's counter intuitive, but after doing that, I can use both a physical keyboard and the virtual keyboard on my device (Android 4.2)