Newbie: Is capturing and changing keyboard input possible?

[arry]

I haven't actually started developing an extension yet: I'm in the
stage where I'm trying to decide if I should bother trying to make
one. I have something very specific in mind: I want to be able to make
an extension so that the keyboard format in Chrome is essentially
Dvorak, Colemak, or another alternate keyboard format. This means I
need to have it capture all user keyboard input, change it from Qwerty
to whatever, and resend it to whatever page is open.

I've read the API documentation, but I can't find any way to do this.
Do you know if this currently feasible with Chrome's API? Thanks in
advance for your answers!

[Ronald Schouten]

That's a good question. The content script that you would write and inject into every web page would not have access to the host page's JavaScript. All that is shared is the DOM. I'm not sure where events fit into this. I guess the questions is weather or not a content script can intercept an event and alter it before the host script makes use of it.

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[Brian Kennish]

On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 2:22 PM, arry <rbys...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've read the API documentation, but I can't find any way to do this.

The capturing part is easy -- see
http://groups.google.com/group/chromium-extensions/browse_thread/thread/479b6e0a43c45b60
for some code to get you started. The changing part will probably be
hard. IE makes the "keyCode" property writeable, which would be a
straightforward way to universally transform keyboard input, but I
don't think other browsers do.

[Dhruva Sagar]

Hi,

Have a look at my simple extension called Ninjawords Lookup https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jgffckppegfbkkajkliaailkldochkia

I am doing exactly what you desire to you. Hope it helps.

Thanks & Regards,
Dhruva Sagar.

[Brian Kennish]

On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Dhruva Sagar <dhruva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Have a look at my simple extension called ...

> I am doing exactly what you desire to you.

Where in your extension code are you transforming keyboard input
(e.g., the user types "a", you output "z")?

[arry]

Looking at shortcut.js and keycode.js, it seems that he's had to jump
through quite a few hoops to be able to intercept browser key events
for even a simple shortcut keycode, Control+Alt-Shift-N; maybe the
same sort of code will enable me to intercept key events without
modifier keys too. I'll take a closer look at it.

If anyone else has any other information, particularly on things
unique to Chrome, please let me know too.

On Jan 28, 9:57 am, Brian Kennish <bkenn...@chromium.org> wrote:

[Bill.Keller]

I'm interested to know what Chrome developers would suggest doing when
it comes to creating keyboard shortcuts in our extensions. There seems
to be no guidelines yet in the extension documentation.

Should we even be overwriting Chrome's default keyboard shortcuts, to
begin with?
If so, what's the best way to do it?

Should we be creating a shortcut set that would never interfere with
Chrome's defaults?

I've been able to get a keyboard shortcut working (http://
code.google.com/p/delicious-chrome-extension/source/browse/trunk/
addDelicious.js)
and it's in use on the following extension:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gclkcflnjahgejhappicbhcpllkpakej

But I've been struggling with what keyboard shortcut to use. In some
cases the shortcut provided overwrites Chrome's default (Alt+D), in
other cases it does not (Ctrl+D).

On Jan 28, 1:28 pm, arry <rbysam...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Looking atshortcut.js and keycode.js, it seems that he's had to jump

> through quite a few hoops to be able to intercept browser key events

> for even a simpleshortcutkeycode, Control+Alt-Shift-N; maybe the

[Naruki]

I would suggest pick something that makes the most sense and if it
conflicts with something, pick something least likely to matter.

Then make it user-configurable.

On Jan 31, 8:32 pm, "Bill.Keller" <sweater...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm interested to know what Chrome developers would suggest doing when
> it comes to creating keyboard shortcuts in our extensions. There seems
> to be no guidelines yet in the extension documentation.
>
> Should we even be overwriting Chrome's default keyboard shortcuts, to
> begin with?
> If so, what's the best way to do it?
>
> Should we be creating a shortcut set that would never interfere with
> Chrome's defaults?
>
> I've been able to get a keyboard shortcut working (http://
> code.google.com/p/delicious-chrome-extension/source/browse/trunk/
> addDelicious.js)

> and it's in use on the following extension:https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gclkcflnjahgejhappicbhcpl...