ime-rs

This is a porting project for Microsoft Chinese (Simplified, China) IME sample from C++ to Rust.

Build

• You need to be on 64bit Windows. (Solely because I don't want to complicate the Visual Studio configuration and the build script)
• Install the latest Visual Studio, Rust, and PowerShell.
• Install cbindgen by cargo install cbindgen.
• Copy-paste cpp/SampleIME/Dictionary/SampleIMESimplifiedQuanPinUtf8.txt into cpp/x64/Debug.
• Run and choose the x64/Debug configuration, as any other configurations are not supported.

Deploy

regsvr32 cpp/x64/Debug/SampleIME.dll on an admin privilieged terminal.

Features

These features are all from the original sample and being ported.

• Pinyin input with conversion candidate dictionary: Enabled by Shift or the language bar button (英/中).
  • Supports wildcard (* and ?), for example, n*o shows 你好 and 您好.
• Wide character support: enabled by Shift+Spacebar. Note that spacebar keyup should happen first or it instead toggles pinyin mode.
  • Converts alphabets to ａｌｐｈａｂｅｔｓ.
  • Converts certain punctuations to their wide versions, e.g. <> to ＜＞.
• Alternative punctuation support: enabled by Control+..
  • Produces different characters from punctuation keys, e.g. $ for ￥.
  • Some keys just map to their wide versions, e.g. () for （）.
  • Quotes ('' and "") and brackets (<>) automatically change based on the previous input:
    1. ‘ appears first and then ’. Toggled whenever the key input happens.
    2. “ appears first and then ”. Toggled whenever the key input happens.
    3. Opening brackets increments a nested count and closing brackets decrements it. 《》 appears while the count is 0, otherwise 〈〉.
  • When enabled together with wide character mode, this one wins.

Removed features

Not all features are alive, because Windows API support has changed since the initial release of the sample.

• Multiple language bar buttons. Originally the sample wanted to add wide character mode and alternative punctuation mode buttons in addition to the pinyin button, but Windows 8+ allows only a single button.
• 24px icon in secure mode. The original demo used 24px icon if the IME was activated with TF_TMAE_SECUREMODE flag, but:
  1. It's not clear what "secure mode" means here.
     • A comment in the demo claimed it was about UAC, but the flag never turns on regardless of the privilege, at least on Windows 11 21H2.
  2. It needlessly complicates the code by passing isSecureMode only for that specific "feature".
  3. Even if the "secure mode" was a real thing, it doesn't make sense to use higher resolution based on that.
• Locale-based sort. Originally CompareString was used but it's currently replaced by Rust's non-locale-agnostic str::cmp. I have no example but this may affect the order in the candidate list. LCID/LANGID is deprecated per the comment inside winnt.h, so the implementation should be different if anyone wants to reintroduce this.
• Candidate list navigation from touch keyboard. The old navigation buttons described in the docs don't exist in Windows 10+ as the list is now fully integrated into the keyboard. Unfortunately this demo does not support the new integration.

Doesn't work by default

• "Compatible with Windows Store apps": This requires the DLL to be digitally signed per the docs, which this demo does not provide.

Below is the original README of this sample.

Input Method Editor (IME) sample

This sample shows how to create an Input Method Editor (IME) that works in Windows Store apps and Windows 8.1 desktop apps.

The sample IME has the following features:

• Uses the Text Services Framework (TSF)
• Runs in base trust
• Compatible with Windows Store apps
• Compatible with Systray and desktop
• Interacts with touch keyboard
• Integrates with Search contract
• Interacts with light-dismiss

The IME sample uses the following code to obtain the parent window:

pView->GetWnd(&parentWndHandle);

This implementation works only for Windows Store apps that use the built-in edit controls. This implementation won't work if the app uses the custom edit control from the subset of Text Service Framework (TSF) APIs available in the Windows Runtime. To ensure that the IME gets the proper parent window, so that the owned window is set correctly and works for desktop and Windows Store apps, replace the previous code with the following code:

if (FAILED(pView->GetWnd(&parentWndHandle)) || (parentWndHandle == nullptr)) { parentWndHandle = GetFocus(); }

To get a copy of Windows, go to Downloads and tools.

To get a copy of Visual Studio, go to Visual Studio Downloads.

Related topics

Guidelines and checklist for IME development

Related technologies

Text Services Framework

Operating system requirements

Client

Windows 8.1

Server

Windows Server 2012 R2

Build the sample

1. Start Visual Studio and select File > Open > Project/Solution.

2. Go to the directory named for the sample, and double-click the Microsoft Visual Studio Solution (.sln) file titled SampleIME.sln.

3. Press F7 (or F6 for Visual Studio 2013) or use Build > Build Solution to build the sample.

Run the sample

If you build the IME sample by using Visual Studio 2013, create an installation experience for the IME by using a third-party installer that supports Windows 8.1, like InstallShield from Flexera Software.

The following steps show how to use InstallShield to create a setup project for your IME DLL.

• Install Visual Studio 2013.
• Start Visual Studio 2013.
• On the File menu, point to New and select Project. The New Project dialog opens.
• In the left pane, navigate to Templates > Other Project Types > Setup and Deployment, click Enable InstallShield Limited Edition, and click OK. Follow the installation instructions.
• Restart Visual Studio 2013.
• Open the IME solution (.sln) file.
• Press F6 to build the solution.
• In Solution Explorer, right-click the solution, point to Add, and select New Project. The Add New Project dialog opens.
• In the left tree view control, navigate to Templates > Other Project Types > InstallShield Limited Edition.
• In the center window, click InstallShield Limited Edition Project.
• In the Name text box, type "SetupIME" and click OK.
• In the Project Assistant dialog, click Application Information.
• Fill in your company name and the other fields.
• Click Application Files.
• In the left pane, right-click the [INSTALLDIR] folder, and select New Folder. Name the folder "Plugins".
• Click Add Files. Navigate to SampleIME.dll, which is in the C++\Debug folder, and add it to the Plugins folder. Repeat this step for the IME dictionary, which is in the C++\SampleIME\Dictionary folder.
• Right-click the IME DLL and select Properties. The Properties dialog opens.
• In the Properties dialog, click the COM & .NET Settings tab.
• Under Registration Type, select Self-registration and click OK.
• Build the solution. The IME DLL is built, and InstallShield creates a setup.exe file that enables users to install your IME on Windows 8.1. The setup.exe file is located in the SetupIME\SetupIME\Express\DVD-5\DiskImages\DISK1 folder.