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Handling Keyboard Events

By klejnieks on July 12, 2008

Im working on a project that required a Keyboard Manager to track shortcut keys within the Flex app, so i went ahead a wrote this quick little POC that I later incorporated into the project. I handle shortcut keys by adding and removing key listeners and mapping them to a dictionary of available keys. My final implementation handled [cmd + shift + key] for windows and [alt + key] for mac switched based on Capabilities.os. 

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical" creationComplete="onCreationComplete()">
 
	<mx:Script>
		<![CDATA[
			import com.lejnieks.poc.enum.KeyCodes;
 
			private var _keyCodes:Dictionary;
 
			private function onCreationComplete():void
			{
				_keyCodes = new Dictionary();
 
				addKeyCodes();
 
				addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler);
				addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, onKeyDown);
			}
 
			private function clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
			{
				stage.focus = this;
			}
 
			private function addKeyDownListeners():void
			{
				var hasKeyUpListener:Boolean = hasEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP);
				var hasKeyDownListener:Boolean = hasEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN);
 
				if(!hasKeyUpListener)
				{
					addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP,onKeyUp);
				}
 
				if(hasKeyDownListener)
				{
					removeEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, onKeyDown);
				}
			}
 
			private function onKeyUp( e:KeyboardEvent ):void
			{
				addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN,onKeyDown);
				output_cmd.text = output_key.text = output_shift.text = "";
			}
 
			private function onKeyDown(evt:KeyboardEvent):void
			{
				var os:String = Capabilities.os;
 
				if( os.indexOf("Windows") > -1 ) os = "Windows";
				else if (os.indexOf("Mac") > -1) os = "Mac";
 
				switch(os)
				{
					case "Windows":
						handleWindowsKeyDown( evt );
						break;
 
					case "Mac":
						handleMacKeyDown( evt );
						break;
 
					default:
						//You are not on a supported OS
						break;
				}
			}
 
			private function handleMacKeyDown( e:KeyboardEvent ):void
			{
				var keyTranslated:String = getKeyCodeTranslated( e.keyCode );
 
				if(e.altKey)
				{
					output_alt.text = "alt key is pressed";
					if( keyTranslated != null )
					{
						output_key.text = keyTranslated + " key is pressed";
						addKeyDownListeners();
					}
				}
			}
 
			private function handleWindowsKeyDown( e:KeyboardEvent ):void
			{
				var keyTranslated:String = getKeyCodeTranslated( e.keyCode );
 
				if(e.ctrlKey)
				{
					output_cmd.text = "cmd/ctrl key is pressed";
 
					if(e.shiftKey)
					{
						output_shift.text = "shift key is pressed";
 
						if( keyTranslated != null )
						{
							output_key.text = keyTranslated + " key is pressed";
							addKeyDownListeners();
						}
					}
				}
			}
 
			private function addKeyCodes():void
			{
				_keyCodes = KeyCodes.toDictionary();
			}
 
			private function getKeyCodeTranslated( keyCode:uint ):String
			{
				return _keyCodes[keyCode];
			}
		]]>
	</mx:Script>
 
	<mx:TextInput id="output_cmd" width="200" borderColor="#000000" borderStyle="solid" />
	<mx:TextInput id="output_shift" width="200" borderColor="#000000" borderStyle="solid" />
	<mx:Spacer height="20"/>
 
	<mx:TextInput id="output_alt" width="200" borderColor="#000000" borderStyle="solid" />
	<mx:Spacer height="20"/>
 
	<mx:TextInput id="output_key" width="200" borderColor="#000000" borderStyle="solid" />
 
</mx:Application>

and the Enum to Dictionary Class

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package com.lejnieks.poc.enum
{
	import flash.utils.Dictionary;
	import flash.utils.describeType;
 
 
	public class KeyCodes
	{
		public static const A:uint = 65;
		public static const B:uint = 66;
		public static const C:uint = 67;
		public static const D:uint = 68;
		public static const E:uint = 69;
		public static const F:uint = 70;
		public static const G:uint = 71;
		public static const H:uint = 72;
		public static const I:uint = 73;
		public static const J:uint = 74;
		public static const K:uint = 75;
		public static const L:uint = 76;
		public static const M:uint = 77;
		public static const N:uint = 78;
		public static const O:uint = 79;
		public static const P:uint = 80;
		public static const Q:uint = 81;
		public static const R:uint = 82;
		public static const S:uint = 83;
		public static const T:uint = 84;
		public static const U:uint = 85;
		public static const V:uint = 86;
		public static const W:uint = 87;
		public static const X:uint = 88;
		public static const Y:uint = 89;
		public static const Z:uint = 90;
 
		public static const ALT_E:uint = 180;
 
		public function KeyCodes() {}
 
		public static function toArray():Array
		{
			var keyCodes:Array = new Array();
			var classInfo:XML = describeType(KeyCodes);
			for each (var v:XML in classInfo..constant)
			{
				var name:String = String(v.@name);
			    var value:String = KeyCodes[name];
			    keyCodes.push(value);
			}
			keyCodes.sort();
			return keyCodes;
		}
 
		public static function toDictionary():Dictionary
		{
			var keyCodesDict:Dictionary = new Dictionary();
			var classInfo:XML = describeType(KeyCodes);
 
			for each (var v:XML in classInfo..constant)
			{
				var name:String = String(v.@name);
			    var value:String = KeyCodes[name];
			    keyCodesDict[value] = name;
			}
			return keyCodesDict;
		}
 
	}
}

Download the source files here

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One response to “Handling Keyboard Events”

  1. Websites tagged "keycodes" on Postsaver
    Websites tagged "keycodes" on Postsaver July 30, 2009 at 5:59 pm |

    [...] – Handling Keyboard Events saved by peacerules2009-07-25 – How to use Alt Key Codes saved by tothy04112009-07-13 – New Version [...]

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