Ennuiboard converts Gamepad and MIDI events into keyboard events in the browser. It is most useful for web applications with customizable hotkeys, in particular because both gamepad and MIDI input are global, unlike keyboard input which will only generate events when the browser window is activated.

Using Ennuiboard

Load the library (e.g. https://unpkg.com/ennuiboard@^1.0.0/ennuiboard.min.js), then use the Ennuiboard object. Ennuiboard.supported maps input types to a boolean indicating whether the browser supports that type of input. No inputs are enabled by default; you must use Ennuiboard.enable to enable one. For instance, Ennuiboard.enable("gamepad"). Ennuiboard.enable has an optional second argument, an object with additional options. In particular, if the auto option is set to true, then the next time the library is loaded on the same site, that type of input will automatically be configured. Ennuiboard.enable returns a Promise which resolves to true or false, indicating whether the type of input was successfully enabled. If an input type has been set to automatically load, you can use Ennuiboard.disable, e.g. Ennuiboard.disable("gamepad"), to disable automatic loading.

The supported devices are gamepad and midi.

You can use Ennuiboard.enabled to check whether an input type is already enabled, and Ennuiboard.enabling to check if it's in the process of enabling but has not yet been enabled (e.g., a prompt has shown to the user but the user has not yet responded).

You can use Ennuiboard.requiresPermissions, e.g. Ennuiboard.requiresPermissions.gamepad, to determine if a given input type requires explicit user permission, and so some kind of user interaction.

Once successfully enabled, a device will send normal keydown and keyup events, like the keyboard. Use the event.key field to determine which "key" was pressed.

Gamepads

Gamepads send keys in the form eb:gamepad:<gid>:<iid>, where <gid> is the ID of the gamepad, and <iid> is the ID of the particular input. The input ID's are in the form b<num> for buttons, and a<num>+ or a<num>- for positive or negative axis inputs.

The web Gamepad API requires polling. If enabled normally, the gamepad will be polled automatically on a 50ms interval. Alternatively, you may set the manualPoll option to true when enabling, then call Ennuiboard.gamepad.poll manually to poll gamepad input.

MIDI

MIDI inputs send keys in the form eb:midi:<mid>:<channel>:<note>, where <mid> is an ID for the MIDI input device, and <channel> and <note> are the MIDI channel and note.