I'm developing an Android app for an Archos 101 Android Tablet (Link: http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/index.html). The Tablet runs Android 2.2 and as you can see here http://blogote.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/android_101_tablet.jpg the Android buttons (Home, Menu, Back and Search) are software buttons, and not hardware buttons like on most other Android devices.
My question is: Is it possible to hide this software buttons in my application? IMHO, there need to be something like an adapted SDK for the tablet devices?!
Technically the Tablet seems to support this functionality, because some default (pre-installed) apps like the video player do this when showing a full screen video.
In my app I use
this.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
this.getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
to set the application to full screen, but of course this does not hide the softkeys.
I found the solution. After adding
<uses-permission android:name="archos.permission.FULLSCREEN.FULL" />
to the AndroidManifest.xml. The code:
this.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
this.getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
shows the app in full-screen mode AND hides the Android (software) buttons. Of course, it is recommendable to implement UI elements that enables the users to quit the app.