Android - Creating a virtual keyboard base on the canvas

Question

I'm new to Android and i'm not sure about where to start for the creation of a virtual keyboard. I read things about foreground services, but this is still confuse in my mind. Is a foreground service the right way to create a virtual keyboard ? If yes, how could I attach a piece of UI to that service on which I could draw keys how I want to using a canvas ?

I'm not asking you to do the work for me, I just need to be pointed to the right direction. Thank you :)

Answer 1

Here is an example of a custom keyboard created with XML and IME input classes.

http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-a-custom-keyboard-on-android--cms-22615