Test Drive

Once you’ve installed AVIM for Firefox, use this page to test the extension. No input method editing scripts have been embedded into this webpage, so it’s AVIM doing all the work.

HTML plain text controls

The following section demonstrates how AVIM can help you fill out a typical online form:

Single-line text field:

Try entering enough words for the textbox to scroll to the right. Notice that, as you continue to type and add accent marks, the textbox doesn’t jump back to the beginning.

Password field:

By default, AVIM ignores password fields. Otherwise, it would add stray accent marks without you knowing.

Multiline text area:

Try entering enough words for the textbox to scroll down. If you need help, click here to insert some lorem ipsum text. Notice that, as you continue to type and add accent marks, the textbox doesn’t jump back to the top.

Text area inside an inline frame:

Many Web applications embed textboxes within many levels of nested frames. Support for inline frames is crucial for sites like Gmail.

Index search field:

Index search fields are an obsolete, mostly forgotten part of HTML. AVIM supports them nonetheless.

Disabling IMEs using CSS:

Webpage authors can automatically disable system IMEs in a specific text field, using the ime-mode CSS property. AVIM respects this property.

HTML5 plain text controls

HTML5 defines a number of new input control types. Starting with Firefox 4, many in-page IME scripts will break because these controls are no longer treated as ordinary text boxes:

Search field:
URL field:: AVIM ignores URL fields when url or urlbar is listed in the Blacklist in AVIM’s preference pane.
E-mail address field:: AVIM ignores e-mail address fields when e-mail or email is listed in the Blacklist in AVIM’s preference pane. Both are listed there by default.

HTML rich text controls

Many advanced online applications allow you to submit formatted text. AVIM handles such applications without a hitch:

Midas:

Midas is the basis for Firefox support in most rich text editors.

Editable content:

Greetings in a few languages
Language	Greeting
Dutch	Hallo!
English	Hello!
Spanish	¡Hola!
Vietnamese	Chào!

The table above is not inside an editor of any kind, but you can still edit the table as if it were inside a Word document. Simply setting its contentEditable property allows you to edit it in place. contentEditable is the basis of Internet Explorer support in most rich text editors.

Advanced text controls

To show you how far AVIM will go to help you type in Vietnamese, here are a few exotic types of text input controls that other extensions only dream of supporting:

JavaScript prompt:
Ace editor:: Ace, formerly Bespin, is a feature-rich code editor built atop HTML5’s <canvas> element.
Microsoft Silverlight textbox:: Microsoft Silverlight is a plugin for graphically rich applets, similar to Adobe Flash Player. AVIM is the only IME extension that supports Silverlight’s standard text input controls. (Right-click on the textbox to verify that it’s built with Silverlight.) For now, only Telex and VNI are fully supported. VIQR support is experimental.