This article is part of a group of simple, step-by-step tutorials covering common EBIF application development aspects such as two-way communication, creating dynamic content, entering text from remote control, etc.
 
These tutorials assume basic knowledge of EBIF technology and all sample applications were developed and tested using TVWorks XDK, Eclipse IDE and Tomcat Application Server.
 
Interactivity is a key feature for ETV applications. TVWorks allows the user to interact with an EBIF application using the navigable widgets. The textinput widget offers the possibility to enter alphanumeric characters. You can easily send numeric characters by pressing the digits on the remote control, but to send alpha-characters to the user interface, an additional programming effort is required.
 
In this tutorial we'll present a simple solution to this aspect: to use the "up/down" buttons of the remote control to select the character the "left" button to delete and the "right" button to advance to the next character.