tinykeys

A tiny (~400 B) & modern library for keybindings. See Demo

Install

npm install --save tinykeys

Or for a CDN version, you can use it on unpkg.com

Usage

import tinykeys from "tinykeys" // Or `window.tinykeys` using the CDN version

tinykeys(window, {
  "Shift+D": () => {
    alert("The 'Shift' and 'd' keys were pressed at the same time")
  },
  "y e e t": () => {
    alert("The keys 'y', 'e', 'e', and 't' were pressed in order")
  },
  "$mod+KeyD": event => {
    event.preventDefault()
    alert("Either 'Control+d' or 'Meta+d' were pressed")
  },
})

React Hooks Example

If you're using tinykeys within a component, you should also make use of the returned unsubscribe() function.

import { useEffect } from "react"
import tinykeys from "tinykeys"

function useKeyboardShortcuts() {
  useEffect(() => {
    let unsubscribe = tinykeys(window, {
      // ...
    })
    return () => {
      unsubscribe()
    }
  })
}

Commonly used key's and code's

Keybindings will be matched against KeyboardEvent.key andKeyboardEvent.code which may have some names you don't expect.

| Windows | macOS | key | code | | ------------- | --------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------ | | N/A | Command / ⌘ | Meta | MetaLeft / MetaRight | | Alt | Option / ⌥ | Alt | AltLeft / AltRight | | Control | Control / ^ | Control | ControlLeft / ControlRight | | Shift | Shift | Shift | ShiftLeft / ShiftRight | | Space | Space | N/A | Space | | Enter | Return | Enter | Enter | | Esc | Esc | Escape | Escape | | 1, 2, etc | 1, 2, etc | 1, 2, etc | Digit1, Digit2, etc | | a, b, etc | a, b, etc | a, b, etc | KeyA, KeyB, etc | | - | - | - | Minus | | = | = | = | Equal | | + | + | + | Equal* |

Something missing? Check out the key logger on the demo website

* Some keys will have the same code as others because they appear on the same key on the keyboard. Keep in mind how this is affected by international keyboards which may have different layouts.

Keybinding Syntax

Keybindings are made up of a sequence of presses.

A press can be as simple as a single key which matches against KeyboardEvent.code and KeyboardEvent.key (case-insensitive).

// Matches `event.key`:
"d"
// Matches: `event.code`:
"KeyD"

Presses can optionally be prefixed with modifiers which match against any valid value to KeyboardEvent.getModifierState().

"Control+d"
"Meta+d"
"Shift+D"
"Alt+KeyD"
"Meta+Shift+D"

There is also a special $mod modifier that makes it easy to support cross platform keybindings:

• Mac: $mod = Meta (⌘)
• Windows/Linux: $mod = Control

"$mod+D" // Meta/Control+D
"$mod+Shift+D" // Meta/Control+Shift+D

Keybinding Sequences

Keybindings can also consist of several key presses in a row:

"g i" // i.e. "Go to Inbox"
"g a" // i.e. "Go to Archive"
"ArrowUp ArrowUp ArrowDown ArrowDown ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowLeft ArrowRight B A"

Each press can optionally be prefixed with modifier keys:

"$mod+K $mod+1" // i.e. "Toggle Level 1"
"$mod+K $mod+2" // i.e. "Toggle Level 2"
"$mod+K $mod+3" // i.e. "Toggle Level 3"

Each press in the sequence must be pressed within 1000ms of the last.