Keyboard Utilities

Overview

Keyboard interactions are essential for creating user-friendly, efficient, and accessible web applications. Servoy provides two distinct utilities to manage keyboard inputs effectively:

• Shortcuts: With the plugins.window.createShortcut API, developers can define global or context-specific keyboard shortcuts to execute predefined actions. This allows users to perform tasks quickly, such as creating records, navigating forms, or triggering frequently used operations.

• Keystroke Handling: Using the svyKeyListener service, developers can capture and respond to specific key events within designated components. This utility offers advanced features like dynamic listener registration, delayed execution, and input transformation for enhanced functionality.

Benefits of Keyboard Utilities:

• Improved Workflow Efficiency: Users can perform repetitive tasks more quickly through intuitive shortcuts and keystroke handling.

• Enhanced Interactivity: Developers can design responsive applications that react to user input in real time.

• Accessibility Support: Keyboard interactions ensure seamless navigation and functionality for users relying on assistive technologies.

• Customizable Behavior: Both utilities allow for flexible configuration, enabling tailored keyboard-driven features across different application contexts.

These utilities allow developers to implement efficient navigation, quick actions, and advanced interactivity for users.

Shortcuts

Shortcut demo

Shortcuts allow users to quickly trigger specific actions using predefined key combinations. Using the plugins.window.createShortcut API, developers can:

• Define Global Shortcuts: These work across the application, independent of the current form or context.

• Set Context-Specific Shortcuts: Limit shortcuts to specific forms or components for better control and focus.

• Prevent Default Browser Behavior: Configure shortcuts to consume events and prevent clashes with existing browser or OS shortcuts.

Typical use cases include:

• Creating new records.

• Navigating between forms or tabs.

• Triggering frequently used operations, such as saving data or opening dialogs.

By enabling shortcuts, developers can significantly improve the speed and accessibility of application workflows.

Example: Keyboard Shortcut to Create a New Record

The plugins.window.createShortcut API enables the creation of global or form-specific shortcuts, providing quick access to frequently used operations.

function onShow(firstShow, event) {
    // Create a global keyboard shortcut for "Shift+N" to create a new record.
    plugins.window.createShortcut(
        'shift N', 
        createNewRecord, 
        null, // No specific context; global shortcut
        null, // No arguments
        true  // Consume the event to prevent default browser behavior
    );
}

/**
 * Callback function triggered by the shortcut.
 */
function createNewRecord(event) {
    foundset.newRecord();
    plugins.webnotificationsToastr.success(
       "New record created!", 
       "Success", 
       { positionClass: "toast-top-right", timeOut: 3000 }
    );
}

Explanation:

• Shortcut Creation: * The plugins.window.createShortcut method is used to define the Shift+N shortcut. * This shortcut is global (contextFilter: null) and works across the application.

• Consume Event: * The consumeEvent: true parameter ensures that the browser does not execute any default behavior associated with the Shift+N combination.

• Callback Function: * The createNewRecord function is executed when the shortcut is pressed. * Actions Performed: * foundset.newRecord(): Creates a new record in the current foundset. * plugins.webnotificationsToastr.success: Displays a success notification in the top-right corner of the screen with the message "New record created!" and a timeout of 3 seconds.

Keystroke Handling

Keystroke Handling demo

Keystroke handling provides fine-grained control over keyboard input within specific components. The svyKeyListener service allows developers to listen for and respond to key events in designated input fields or components. Key features include:

• Dynamic Listeners: Attach or remove listeners dynamically during runtime based on application needs.

• Customizable Delay: Debounce events using the delay parameter to ensure efficient handling of rapid key presses.

• Input Transformation: Use regular expressions to modify input values in real time, ensuring clean and consistent data.

• Event-Based Actions: Trigger server-side methods or logic based on user input.

This level of control is especially useful for:

• Implementing real-time search functionality.

• Validating and formatting input fields.

• Enhancing forms with interactive keyboard-driven behavior.

To be able to use Keystroke Handling, the Key Listener package must be added from Services section of Servoy Package Manager. It can be accessed by code using plugins.webnotificationsNative.

Example: Using Key Listener for Real-Time Search

The svyKeyListener service allows developers to monitor specific keystrokes in components with the keylistener attribute. This service provides advanced features like delay handling and input modification using regular expressions.

This example demonstrates how to use a key listener to implement a real-time search feature in an input box with the keylistener attribute value country_search. The listener filters the records in the foundset based on the user's input.

On the component(s) you want to register the listener, you need to add a keylistener attribute. Let's assume we add the keylistener attribute with the value country_search to be used as a callback key:

keylistener attribute

Then, for instance in the onShow method of the form, you need to associate that callback key (country_search) to a function (onSearchKeyPress):

/**
 * Add Key Listener on form show.
 */
function onShow(firstShow, event) {
    // Add a key listener to monitor keystrokes in the input box with "keylistener" attribute value "country_search".
    plugins.keyListener.addKeyListener('country_search', onSearchKeyPress);
}

/**
 * Key listener callback function.
 */
function onSearchKeyPress(value, event, keyCode, altKey, ctrlKey, shiftKey, capsLock) {
    if (value){
	if(foundset.find()){  // Enter find mode
	shipcountry = '#'+value+'%'; // Assign a search criteria
	foundset.search(); // Execute the query and load the records
	}
    }
}

/**
 * Remove Key Listener on form hide.
 */
function onHide(event) {
    if (plugins.keyListener.removeKeyListener('country_search')) {
        application.output("Key listener for 'country_search' removed.");
    }
}

Explanation:

• Adding the Key Listener: * The plugins.keyListener.addKeyListener method is called in the onShow function. * It associates the keylistener attribute value country_search with the callback function onSearchKeyPress. * This listener is triggered whenever the user types in the input field.

• Keylistener Attribute: * The country_search key must match the keylistener attribute value set on the input field in the form's designer.

• Callback Function (onSearchKeyPress): * This function is executed when a keystroke is detected in the input box. * Behavior: * If the input (value) is not empty, the method: * Enters find mode using foundset.find(). * Assigns a search criterion to the shipcountry field, allowing partial matches (# for case-insensitive search, % as a wildcard). * Executes the search using foundset.search(), filtering the foundset records based on the input value.

• Removing the Key Listener: * The plugins.keyListener.removeKeyListener method is called in the onHide function. * This ensures that the listener is unregistered when the form is hidden, releasing resources and preventing unwanted behavior. * A confirmation message is logged when the listener is successfully removed.