EditText

An EditText object represents an input text field on the screen.

Example:

< EditText
   android:id="@+id/editURLid"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:inputType = "text"
   android:text="http://www."
   android:editable = "true"
   android:cursorVisible = "true"
   android:singleLine = "true"
/>

You can declare a reference variable to the EditText in code.
You only need a reference variable if you need to refer to the EditText.

private EditText theURL;

You can get a reference to it by calling findViewById.
You usually do this in the onCreate method.

theURL = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editURLid);

You can call methods in code using the reference variable.
theURL.setText("http://www.");
String theText = theURL.getText().toString();
theURL.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);

To Show:
EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.myEdit);
InputMethodManager mgr = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
// only will trigger it if no physical keyboard is open
mgr.showSoftInput(editText, InputMethodManager.SHOW_IMPLICIT);

// import android.view.inputmethod.*;
// android.content.Context

To Hide:
InputMethodManager mgr = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
mgr.hideSoftInputFromWindow(editText.getWindowToken(), 0);

// use this to dismiss the keyboard after pressing Enter on the keyboard
// where editText is a variable referring to the EditText field
// do this in the onCreate method

editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.inputTextId);

editText.setOnKeyListener(new OnKeyListener()
{
   public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
   {
     if (event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN)
     {
       switch (keyCode)
       {
         case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER:
           // do something
           // now dismiss the keyboard
           InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
            imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(editText.getWindowToken(), 0);

           return true;
         default:
           break;
       }
     }
     return false;
   }
});