DispatchKeyEvent stops firing after Xamarin Forms Entry control IsFocused - xamarin.forms

Question

I am building a Xamarin Forms mobile app that runs in Android on a Zebra scanner. I flip 2 different StackLayouts to IsVisble true/false to display different stuff in the UI. (StackLayout1 and StackLayout2)
The customer wants the user to be able to use the app entirely from the hardware keyboard on the scanner. So I have used the device Settings so that it never displays the virtual keyboard (I don’t think that matters for the issue I am having.)
I am overriding DispatchKeyEvent in a PageRenderer in the Android project and everything is working great … except.
The problem case:
StackLayout1 is displayed
the user taps an Entry control, putting the focus there
the user taps a button in the UI
the app displays StackLayout2
at this point the DispatchKeyEvent never fires no matter what key I press on the device keyboard
If an Entry box does NOT get the focus (step #2 above) the DispatchKeyEvent always fires in StackLayout2 and the StackLayouts display as expected.
If I programatically put the focus in an Entry box in StackLayout2 at step #3 above the DispatchKeyEvent fires fine.
That is not an OK solution. I have tried to progamatically put the focus on StackLayout2, and that code seems to do what is expected but DispatchKeyEvent does not fire.
Maybe I need to do something in the Android-project PageRenderer so that it is aware of StackLayout2 when it is made IsVisible = true.
Update 2: I found that I did NOT need custom StackLayouts. The solution which I posted below does not include any of this stuff I am describing in Update 1 (sorry, if that's confusing).
Update 1:
I added a ViewRenderer for both StackLayouts, and the code is hitting the OnElementChanged event when StackLayout2's IsVisible property flips to true, just great. Although the problem case is the same: DispatchKeyEvent does not fire once StackLayout2 is displayed, if an EntryBox had the focus in StackLayout1
Here is the OnElementChanged part of the new StackLayout ViewRenders
async void OnElementPropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
switch (e.PropertyName)
{
case "IsVisible":
if (Element.IsVisible)
{
if (sender is StackLayout)
{
this.FocusableViewAvailable(this); // if I comment these 2 lines out I get the same bad result
this.Focusable = true; // if I comment these 2 lines out I get the same bad result
this.FocusableInTouchMode = true;
var dd = this.RequestFocus(); // this is always false
var ee = this.IsFocused; // this is always false
}
}
break;
}
}
Also, as I am pointing out in the comments ^ there, IsFocused is always false.
Ideas?

Answer 1

My hunch, "Maybe I need to do something in the Android project PageRenderer" was correct. In the DispatchKeyEvent I had to make the MainPage have the focus when the keypress was handled.
Here is what the DispatchKeyEvent looks like now (notice the comments):
public override bool DispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent ke)
{
// MainPage.ReceiveKeyPress(e); is the method that this method returns to
bool KeyPressWasHandled = false;
KeyPressWasHandled = (Element as MainPage).ReceiveKeyPress(ke);
if (KeyPressWasHandled)
{
// this next block seems to be needed so that this class
// continues to receive the keypress event after an Entry box has had the focus
this.Focusable = true;
this.FocusableInTouchMode = true;
this.RequestFocus();
return true; // returning true tells the parent class that the keypress has been handled
} else
{
try
{
return base.DispatchKeyEvent(ke);
}
Now the "problem case" in my initial post is no longer a problem.
NOTE: I found that I did NOT need the custom ViewRenderers that I had made for the StackLayouts.