Keyboard

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The Keyboard interface of 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 of KeyboardLayoutMap 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

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
Keyboard
68
79
No
No
55
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
getLayoutMap
69
79
No
No
56
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
lock
68
79
No
No
55
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
unlock
68
79
No
No
55
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Keyboard