react-shortcuts alternatives and similar libraries
Based on the "Keyboard Events" category.
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README
React Shortcuts
Manage keyboard shortcuts from one place.
Intro
Managing keyboard shortcuts can sometimes get messy. Or always, if not implemented the right way.
Real problems:
- You can't easily tell which shortcut is bound to which component
- You have to write a lot of boilerplate code (
addEventListeners
,removeEventListeners
, ...) - Memory leaks are a real problem if components don’t remove their listeners properly
- Platform specific shortcuts is another headache
- It's more difficult to implement feature like user-defined shortcuts
- You can't easily get allthe application shortcuts and display it (e.g. in settings)
React shortcuts to the rescue!
With react-shortcuts
you can declaratively manage shortcuts for each one of your React components.
Important parts of React Shortcuts:
- Your
keymap
definition ShortcutManager
which handleskeymap
<Shortcut>
component for handling shortcuts
Try online demo
Quick tour
1. npm install react-shortcuts
2. Define application shortcuts
Create a new JS, Coffee, JSON or CSON file wherever you want (which probably is your project root). And define the shortcuts for your React component.
Keymap definition
{
"Namespace": {
"Action": "Shortcut",
"Action_2": ["Shortcut", "Shortcut"],
"Action_3": {
"osx": "Shortcut",
"windows": ["Shortcut", "Shortcut"],
"linux": "Shortcut",
"other": "Shortcut"
}
}
}
Namespace
should ideally be the component’sdisplayName
.Action
describes what will be happening. For exampleMODAL_CLOSE
.Keyboard shortcut
can be a string, array of strings or an object which specifies platform differences (Windows, OSX, Linux, other). The shortcut may be composed of single keys (a
,6
,…), combinations (command+shift+k
) or sequences (up up down down left right left right B A
).
Combokeys is used under the hood for handling the shortcuts. Read more about how you can specify keys.
Example keymap
definition:
export default {
TODO_ITEM: {
MOVE_LEFT: 'left',
MOVE_RIGHT: 'right',
MOVE_UP: ['up', 'w'],
DELETE: {
osx: ['command+backspace', 'k'],
windows: 'delete',
linux: 'delete',
},
},
}
Save this file as keymap.[js|coffee|json|cson]
and require it into your main
file.
import keymap from './keymap'
3. Rise of the ShortcutsManager
Define your keymap in whichever supported format but in the end it must be an
object. ShortcutsManager
can’t parse JSON and will certainly not be happy
about the situation.
import keymap from './keymap'
import { ShortcutManager } from 'react-shortcuts'
const shortcutManager = new ShortcutManager(keymap)
// Or like this
const shortcutManager = new ShortcutManager()
shortcutManager.setKeymap(keymap)
4. Include shortcutManager
into getChildContext of some parent component. So that <shortcuts>
can receive it.
class App extends React.Component {
getChildContext() {
return { shortcuts: shortcutManager }
}
}
App.childContextTypes = {
shortcuts: PropTypes.object.isRequired
}
5. Require the component
You need to require the component in the file you want to use shortcuts in.
For example <TodoItem>
.
import { Shortcuts } from `react-shortcuts`
class TodoItem extends React.Component {
_handleShortcuts = (action, event) => {
switch (action) {
case 'MOVE_LEFT':
console.log('moving left')
break
case 'MOVE_RIGHT':
console.log('moving right')
break
case 'MOVE_UP':
console.log('moving up')
break
case 'COPY':
console.log('copying stuff')
break
}
}
render() {
return (
<Shortcuts
name='TODO_ITEM'
handler={this._handleShortcuts}
>
<div>Make something amazing today</div>
</Shortcuts>
)
}
}
The
<Shortcuts>
component creates a<shortcuts>
element in HTML, binds listeners and adds tabIndex to the element so that it’s focusable._handleShortcuts
is invoked when some of the defined shortcuts fire.
Custom props for <Shortcuts>
component
handler
: func- callback function that will fire when a shortcut occurs
name
: string- The name of the namespace specified in keymap file
tabIndex
: number- Default is
-1
- Default is
className
: stringeventType
: string- Just for gourmets (keyup, keydown, keypress)
stopPropagation
: boolpreventDefault
: booltargetNodeSelector
: DOM Node Selector likebody
or.my-class
- Use this one with caution. It binds listeners to the provided string instead of the component.
global
: bool- Use this when you have some global app wide shortcuts like
CMD+Q
.
- Use this when you have some global app wide shortcuts like
isolate
: bool- Use this when a child component has React's key handler (onKeyUp, onKeyPress, onKeyDown). Otherwise, React Shortcuts stops propagation of that event due to nature of event delegation that React uses internally.
alwaysFireHandler
: bool- Use this when you want events keep firing on the focused input elements.
Thanks, Atom
This library is inspired by Atom Keymap.