Keyboard Extra

Nice keyboard inputs in Elm.

It is quite tedious to find out the currently pressed down keys with just the Keyboard module, so this package aims to make it easier.

You can use Keyboard.Extra in two ways:

1. The "Msg and Update" way, which has some setting up to do but has a bunch of ways to help you get the information you need.
2. The "Plain Subscriptions" way, where you get subscriptions for keys' down and up events, and handle the rest on your own.

Full examples you can run and play with on Ellie

• Main example shows most of the basic usage
• Arrows Direction example shows how the North, NorthEast, etc. directions work
• Tracking Key Changes example uses updateWithKeyChange to show when a key is pressed down and when it is released
• Plain Subscriptions example is for the more experienced Elm users, who wish to get more "down to the metal" with just subscribing to keyboard events

All of the examples are also in the example directory in the repository.

Msg and Update

If you use the "Msg and Update" way, you will get the most help, such as:

• All keyboard keys are named values of the Key type, such as ArrowUp, CharA and Enter
• You can find out whether e.g. Shift is pressed down when any kind of a Msg happens in your program
• Arrow keys and WASD can be used as { x : Int, y : Int } or as a union type (e.g. South, NorthEast)
• You can also get a full list of keys that are pressed down

When using Keyboard.Extra like this, it follows The Elm Architecture. Its model is a list of keys, and it has an update function and some subscriptions. Below are the necessary parts to wire things up. Once that is done, you can get useful information using the helper functions such as arrows and arrowsDirection.

Include the list of keys in your program's model

import Keyboard.Extra exposing (Key)

type alias Model =
    { pressedKeys : List Key
    -- ...
    }

init : ( Model, Cmd Msg )
init =
    ( { pressedKeys = []
      -- ...
      }
    , Cmd.none
    )

Add the message type in your messages

type Msg
    = KeyMsg Keyboard.Extra.Msg
    -- ...

Include the subscriptions for the events to come through (remember to add them in your main too)

subscriptions : Model -> Sub Msg
subscriptions model =
    Sub.batch
        [ Sub.map KeyMsg Keyboard.Extra.subscriptions
        -- ...
        ]

And finally, you can use update to have the list of keys be up to date

update : Msg -> Model -> ( Model, Cmd Msg )
update msg model =
    case msg of
        KeyMsg keyMsg ->
            ( { model | pressedKeys = Keyboard.Extra.update keyMsg model.pressedKeys }
            , Cmd.none
            )
        -- ...

Now you can get all the information anywhere where you have access to the model, for example like so:

calculateSpeed : Model -> Float
calculateSpeed model =
    let
        arrows =
            Keyboard.Extra.arrows model.pressedKeys
    in
        model.currentSpeed + arrows.x


isShooting : Model -> Bool
isShooting model =
    List.member Space model.pressedKeys

Have fun! :)

PS. The Tracking Key Changes example example shows how to use updateWithKeyChange to find out exactly which key was pressed down / released on that update cycle.

Plain Subscriptions

With the "plain subscriptions" way, you get the bare minimum:

• All keyboard keys are named values of the Key type, such as ArrowUp, CharA and Enter

Setting up is very straight-forward:

type Msg
    = KeyDown Key
    | KeyUp Key
    -- ...


subscriptions : Model -> Sub Msg
subscriptions model =
    Sub.batch
        [ Keyboard.Extra.downs KeyDown
        , Keyboard.Extra.ups KeyUp
        -- ...
        ]

There's an example for this, too: Plain Subscriptions