Custom pop-up chars selection in letters and numbers

[610019610]

Hello!

I found out Heliboard offers a lot of customization options for editing the symbols layer. I like to write a lot of notes heavily using uncommon Unicode symbols (arrows, bullets, box drawing lines, math operators etc...) and glyphs variants (italic, script, double-struck, circled, superscript or subscript etc...), so relying on a custom keyboard is a very handy (other solutions like copy-pasting around from an Unicode map or using markdown languages like LaTex are very unconfortable and slow on mobile).

Until I edit the symbols layer, even deeply, everything works well (I really enjoyed it), however I never figure out a way to customize pop-ups of the QWERTY layer and of the numbers row.
For example I would like to select chars like 𝒂, 𝛼, 𝕒, ⓐ and ª when long-pressing on "a", or find characters like 𝟙, ₁, and ① on "1"; I also would like to put glyphs like … or ∙ at dot key aside the spacebar.
I cannot do that. I can just expand the viable diacritics and change the priority of their order.

I even tried to make a custom layout (as some posts found in Google searches suggest), but it doesn't work (maybe in older versions did it? Is it now unsupported or bugged?). Also honestly I don't want to mess up the basic QWERTY layout. I just want a broader selection in pop-ups.
I figured out a walkaround, using the symbols layer for those chars as well, but that trick looks as slighty unconsistent and unconventional from my point of view.

Please help me or let developers known about those issues. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I tried to make a custom layout copying the basic QWERTY setup and adding further characters as pop-up choices. This solution works better, but there are some issues (and maybe some bugs):

• I cannot deactivate the numbers row anymore, or in the symbols layer the top row of symbols will disappears (replaced by the default numbers row);
• If I want to make a custom number row, I could add a row with number in the QWERTY layer, but there I would find two numbers rows then (due to the issue I mentioned previously); That makes the keyboard looks weird;
• I cannot differentiate the pop-ups for small letters and the ones for capital characters: I have to implement a mixed bag of choices for each letter, which really limit my freedom (due to the hard cap of 20 choices, and due to the keeping many slots for the diacritics I need... both small and capital versions too, eating a lot of spots considering the whole situation.

[fallsdevil]

This double number line bug in the symbols screen is a bit simple to solve, just add an empty space in json is [ {placeholder} ], at the beginning, in the basic text, I think you just add "enter" and "space " if I'm not mistaken, I did this and it worked, I use a custom number line, but I also stopped using the "symbols" and "more symbols" key because I could include all the symbols in the basic qwerty layout, so it only exists , and the numpad, but you can also use the "shift" button when it is activated to appear as new symbols, I did this with my number line, I can send an image/gif for you to see and you can be inspired to add secondary symbols in addition of the 20 allowed

[BlackyHawky]

I've shared all my layout here, which is very detailed. It will certainly inspire you to create your own.

[fallsdevil]

Yeah please share your .json. I found writing a json by myself as difficult (choosen synthax and structure by Heliboard is not the simplest one I saw), but if I can look at a good reference maybe I can deal better with it

here is just the numbers part, there are only 2 types, but I think if necessary you can add another option of "locked shift" (when holding shift) and the complete file .

    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "1", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "¹" },
      { "label": "½"},
      { "label": "⅓"},
      { "label": "¼"},
      { "label": "⅛"} ] }
      }, "shifted": {"label": "!", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "!!"},
         {"label": "¡"} ] } }
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "2", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "²" },
      { "label": "⅔"},
      { "label": "⅓"},
      { "label": "¼"},
      { "label": "⅛"} ] }
      }, "shifted": {"label": "@"}
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "3", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "³" },
      { "label": "⅜"},
      { "label": "¾"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "#", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "№"} ] } }
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "4", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "⁴" },
      {"label": "⅘"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "$$$1", "popup": {"relevant": [
     {"type": "placeholder"},
     {"label":"!autoColumnOrder!3"},
     {"label":"$$$"},
     {"label":"$$$2"},
     {"label":"$$$3"},
     {"label":"$$$4"},
     {"label":"$$$5"} ]} }
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "5", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "⁵" },
      { "label": "⅝"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "%", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "‰"},
         {"label": "℅"},
         {"label": "℆"} ] } }
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "6", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "⁶" } ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "^", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "↑"},
         {"label": "↓"},
         {"label": "←"},
         {"label": "→"} ] } }
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "7", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "⁷" },
      { "label": "⅞"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "&"}
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "8", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "⁸"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "*", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "≛"},
         {"label": "★"},
         {"label": "☆"},
         {"label": "†"} ] }}
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "9", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      { "label": "⁹"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": "(", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "<"},
         {"label": "{"},
         {"label": "["} ] }}
    },
    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
    {"label": "0", "popup": { "relevant": [
      {"type": "placeholder"},
      {"label":"!autoColumnOrder!2"},
      { "label": "⁰" },
      { "label": "°"},
      { "label": "ⁿ"},
      { "label": "∅"} ] }
     }, "shifted": {"label": ")", "popup": {"relevant": [
         {"type": "placeholder"},
         {"label": "]"},
         {"label": "}"},
         {"label": ">"} ] }}
    }
  ],

---

file:
qwertyç.json

[610019610]

I've shared all my layout here, which is very detailed. It will certainly inspire you to create your own.

Thanks a lot! I had no free time today. The days following the holidays usually are very loaded and busy at work and elsewhere. I will study them at first good chance.

[610019610]

here is just the numbers part, there are only 2 types, but I think if necessary you can add another option of "locked shift" (when holding shift) and the complete file .

    { "$": "shift_state_selector", "unshifted":
...

file: qwertyç.json

Thanks so much! This is really the best example I found about how to properly finely set the shift behaviour on each QWERTY key.
I was unlucky today however about having enough free time. I will make my tests in the next days.

Side note: I feel I have to search for a good json editor (or a good text editor). Dealing with that jungle of brackets and nesting without a proper formatting or features like code highlighting looks as painful.
I dealt with Json in the past but honestly their syntax were quite simpler:

  Class x:
     Var1: Value1
     Var2: Value2
  Class y:
     Var0: Value0 
 ... etc... 

just something like the example I made (brackets are omitted obviously).

[fallsdevil]

Oh yes, and I had never dealt with codes before and my first attempts I made with the text editor of "material files", the good thing is that I use text expander so when I open brackets it closes and moves the cursor to the middle of them, and I also use syncthing so I edit the same file in vs code because it shows where commas or other errors are missing... but recently I found an app similar to vs code, it doesn't show comma errors, but it makes it easier to use brackets and complete texts. Here is the link if you want to use it:

material files and code editor