Before I begin, I would like to state that I KNOW the Apple Guidelines state that two popovers “should not” be on screen at one time, and that my app will likely get rejected if it do this, but I wanted opinions as to how this might work. Here is my dilemma:
The iPad doesn’t have a numerical-only keyboard (it simply displays the normal keyboard). So I made a numerical keypad control in a popover (for elsewhere in the app) for ease of number entry.
I have a several fields in a popover that only allow numbers in them (by way of refusing any non-numerical keyboard input). Unfortunately, this means that now 90% of the keyboard is unresponsive when entering into these fields – and the numbers aren’t even in the front “page” of the keyboard!
However, if I make the fields in the popover popup the numerical keyboard, this user interface confusion is eliminated! But it goes against Apple Guidelines for Popovers! (aside: they call them guidelines, yet they enforce them like hard-and-fast rules, right? :/ )
I’m asking opinions on what I should do here: should I go with one option or the other, or is there a third method I could use?
The correct way to create a custom input layout that appears in place of the normal keyboard is described here: http://www.raywenderlich.com/1063/ipad-for-iphone-developers-101-custom-input-view-tutorial
Also, you can get the iPad to show the numbers on the “front page” of the keyboard by settings the text field’s keyboardType to
UIKeyboardTypeNumbersAndPunctuation.