JavaScript keyboard event to string

Note: This is a fork of key-event-to-string package by Florian Hartmann.

This library converts a KeyboardEvent object for a keydown event into a human-readable format. The idea is to use this for UI components that let the user choose keyboard shortcuts.

In other words: This library provides the inverse functionality of common keyboard shortcut binding libraries like keymaster or Mousetrap.

Installation

pnpm install @rmkane/key-event-to-string

Usage

To utilize the KeyboardEventProcessor, an instance must be instantiated with configuration options. This processor provides a processKeyboardEvent method that converts a KeyboardEvent into a KeyboardEventDetails instance. The resulting KeyboardEventDetails object offers several methods to retrieve key information as a string, an array, or detailed diagnostics.

const processor = new KeyboardEventProcessor(options)

document.body.addEventListener('keydown', e => {
  const details = processor.processKeyboardEvent(e)

  // Formatted keys as a string or an array
  console.log(details.getKeysAsString()) // "Ctrl + A"
  console.log(details.getKeysAsArray()) // ["Ctrl", "A"]

  // Diagnostic details
  console.log(details.getKeyEventDetails())
  // {
  //   "hasKey": true,
  //   "hasModifier": true,
  //   "map": {
  //     "data": {
  //       "key": "a",
  //       "code": "KeyA"
  //     },
  //     "modifiers": {
  //       "altKey": false,
  //       "ctrlKey": true,
  //       "metaKey": false,
  //       "shiftKey": false
  //     }
  //   }
  // }
})

Import

CommonJS

const KeyEventToString = require('key-event-to-string')
const { KeyboardEventProcessor } = KeyEventToString

Module

import KeyEventToString from 'key-event-to-string'
const { KeyboardEventProcessor } = KeyEventToString

Browser

const { KeyboardEventProcessor } = window.KeyEventToString

Options

options is optional and can be an object with the following properties:

| key | value | default | | :------------------ | :------------------------------------------- | :------ | | keyAliases | Modifier, arrow, and mobile keys | | | codeAliases | Physical keys that have Shift-modifiers | | | platform | Platform options | | | platform.isMac | Use macOS Meta keys | false | | platform.isMobile | Use shorthand keys for mobile keyboards | false | | joinWith | The string that's displayed between all keys | " + " |

For example this could be used to get the Mac style keyboard shortcut strings:

const options = {
  keyAliases: {
    Meta: '⌘',
    Control: '⌃',
    Alt: '⌥',
    Shift: '⇧',
  },
  joinWith: '+',
}

The default settings are compatible with the format that common keyboard shortcut libraries, like keymaster or Mousetrap, accept.

Detailed information

The result of processor.processKeyboardEvent(e) can be used to get more details about the event. This can be useful for validating keyboard shortcuts, e.g. for requiring a modifier and a normal key.

It returns an object with this information:

• hasModifier: True iff atleast one of cmd, ctrl, alt or shift was pressed
• hasKey: True iff a key other than a modifier is pressed
• map: An object containing information which modifier is active and what other key is pressed

Recomended VS Code settings

Here are the recommended settings for this repository:

// .vscode/settings.json
{
  "css.customData": [".vscode/css_custom_data.json"],
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.fixAll.eslint": "always"
  },
  "editor.rulers": [80]
}

Disclaimer

This library is meant to parse only keydown events. The keypress/keyup events have small differences, e.g. keydown is needed to capture Command on a Mac. So keydown is advisible for this anyways.