This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.
The Keyboard
interface of the the Keyboard API provides functions that retrieve keyboard layout maps and toggle capturing of key presses from the physical keyboard.
A list of valid code values is found in the UI Events KeyboardEvent code Values spec.
Properties
None.
Methods
Keyboard.getLayoutMap()
- Returns a
Promise
that resolves with an instance ofKeyboardLayoutMap
which is a map-like object with functions for retrieving the strings associated with specific physical keys. Keyboard.lock()
- Returns a
Promise
after enabling the capture of keypresses for any or all of the keys on the physical keyboard. Keyboard.unlock()
- Unlocks all keys captured by the
lock()
method and returns synchronously.
Example
The following example demonstrates how to get the location- or layout-specific string associated with the key that corresponds to the 'W' key on an English QWERTY keyboard.
if (navigator.keyboard) { var keyboard = navigator.keyboard; keyboard.getLayoutMap() .then(keyboardLayoutMap => { var upKey = keyboardLayoutMap.get('KeyW'); window.alert('Press ' + upKey + ' to move up.'); }); } else { // Do something else. }
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
Keyboard Map The definition of 'Keyboard' in that specification. |
Editor's Draft | Initial definition. |
Keyboard Lock The definition of 'Keyboard' in that specification. |
Editor's Draft | Adds lock() and unlock() . |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Keyboard | Chrome Full support 68 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox No support No | IE No support No | Opera Full support 55 | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
getLayoutMap | Chrome Full support 69 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox No support No | IE No support No | Opera Full support 56 | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
lock | Chrome Full support 68 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox No support No | IE No support No | Opera Full support 55 | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
unlock | Chrome Full support 68 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox No support No | IE No support No | Opera Full support 55 | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.