Why Won't Ignition's Touchscreen Keyboard Show on Save?

On a keyboardless panel PC, system.dataset.exportCSV() opens a Save dialog that the operator cannot type into. system.gui.showTouchscreenKeyboard() cannot be placed anywhere in the script that makes it feed that dialog. Collect the filename with the touchscreen keyboard first, then write the file with system.file.writeFile() and skip the dialog. Launching the Windows On-Screen Keyboard (osk.exe) alongside the dialog works on Windows 7 panels. It is unreliable on Windows 10 panels.

Why does the keyboard never reach the Save dialog's filename box?

When the export button is pressed, the operator sees a standard Save window with a filename field and no way to type in it. Both script functions open their own modal dialog on the client's GUI thread:

• system.gui.showTouchscreenKeyboard(initialText [, fontSize] [, passwordMode]) blocks until the operator presses Enter or cancels, then returns a string to the script. It does not type into whatever window has focus.
• system.dataset.exportCSV(filename, showHeaders, dataset) opens a file chooser, blocks until the operator confirms or cancels, then returns the chosen path. It returns None on cancel.

A keyboard called before exportCSV closes before the chooser appears. A keyboard called after it runs only once the chooser is already gone. While one modal dialog is waiting, the script cannot open the other. That is why the keyboard appears to be "pre-empted" by the save dialog. The Ignition keyboard is a value-returning prompt, not a system-wide input device. The fix is to change where the filename comes from, not to reorder the calls.

Check 1: Does the operator actually need to choose the folder?

Answer this before touching any code. It decides which branch you take.

Two configurations avoid the dialog, and both work. Prefer the Text Field version on production panels. The operator sees the proposed name on screen before pressing Save. The field can hold a timestamped default, and there is no popup sequence to get stuck in.

The Text Field version depends on touch mode:

• Enable touch screen mode in the Vision client project properties (User Input section).
• Set the Text Field's touchscreen mode property so a tap opens the keyboard.

If tapping the field does nothing, that is a configuration fault, not a script fault.

Check 2: Does osk.exe start from the client on this panel?

This check applies only if the operator must browse folders. The workaround launches the Windows keyboard when the button is pressed and kills it after the export:

# mousePressed
import os
os.popen("osk.exe")

# end of actionPerformed, after the export
os.popen('taskkill /IM osk.exe')

This works on Windows 7 and fails on Windows 10. Diagnose it on the panel itself:

1. Open Run (Win+R) and enter osk.exe.
   • If the keyboard does not open, the OS image or a group policy blocks it. Fix that at the Windows level; nothing in Ignition will help.
   • If it does open, continue to step 2.
2. Check the bitness of the Java runtime that runs the Vision client against the OS bitness.
   • A 32-bit process on 64-bit Windows has System32 redirected to SysWOW64, where osk.exe is typically absent.
   • Launch C:\Windows\Sysnative\osk.exe from the 32-bit client, or run the client on a 64-bit runtime.
3. Replace os.popen with system.util.execute(["osk.exe"]) (or the Sysnative path). This makes the launch non-blocking and keeps it in Ignition's scripting API.
4. If the keyboard opens but taskkill leaves it on screen, the kill is being refused by Windows. Leave the keyboard open and let the operator close it, rather than escalating client privileges.

If any step fails and cannot be fixed at the OS level, drop back to the no-dialog branch. It has no OS dependency.

How do I replace exportCSV's dialog with a keyboard prompt?

1. Choose the export folder. Store it in a client tag or a custom property on the window rather than hard-coding it. The C:\\Exports path below is a placeholder.
2. Replace the button's actionPerformed script with:

import system, datetime

table = event.source.parent.getComponent("Table")
now = datetime.datetime.now()
defaultName = now.strftime("%d%m%Y_%H%M%S") + "_stroj_avtomatsko"

name = system.gui.showTouchscreenKeyboard(defaultName)
if name:
    name = name.strip()
    for ch in '\\/:*?"<>|':          # strip characters Windows rejects
        name = name.replace(ch, "_")
    if not name.lower().endswith(".csv"):
        name = name + ".csv"

    exportDir = "C:\\Exports"        # placeholder - use a client tag/custom property
    path = exportDir + "\\" + name

    ok = True
    if system.file.fileExists(path):
        ok = system.gui.confirm("Overwrite " + path + "?", "File exists")

    if ok:
        csv = system.dataset.toCSV(table.data, 1, 0)
        # decimal comma: switch field delimiter first so columns do not split
        csv = csv.replace(",", ";").replace(".", ",")
        system.file.writeFile(path, csv)
        system.gui.messageBox("Saved: " + path)

3. For the Text Field variant, delete the showTouchscreenKeyboard line. Read the name from the field instead, for example event.source.parent.getComponent("FileName").text. Keep everything from the character stripping down unchanged.

Which script faults break the rewritten export?

system.file.writeFile runs in the client. The path is local to the panel PC, not to the Gateway. A network share must be reachable from the panel under the account that runs the client.

How do I confirm the export works on the panel?

1. Launch the client on the panel PC itself, not in the Designer on a workstation. Keyboard and touch behavior differ there.
2. Press the export button.
   • The Ignition keyboard (or the tapped Text Field) should show the timestamped default name.
   • No Windows Save dialog should appear.
3. Accept the default name.
   • A "Saved:" message should show the full path.
   • Open the Designer console or client diagnostics console and check that no script error was logged.
4. Press the button again with the same name. The overwrite confirmation must appear.
   • Answer No and check that the file's modified time did not change.
5. Press the button and cancel the keyboard. No file should be written.
6. Open the CSV in the spreadsheet application used downstream, with the locale set to decimal comma. Every row should have the same column count as the Table component. Numeric values should read with comma decimals, and the header row should be present.

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