react-native-external-keyboard

v0.7.0

Published

a day ago

Toolkit for improving physical keyboard support in React Native

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artur_kalach

react-native ios android a11y react-native a11y keyboard keyboard focus physical keyboard WCAG

React Native External Keyboard

React Native library for enhanced external keyboard support.

⚡️ The New Architecture is supported
⚡️ Bridgeless

iOS | Android -- | -- |

Features

Keyboard focus management and autofocus capabilities.
Key press event handling.
Focus management for TextInput and Pressable components.
Customization of the Halo Effect and tintColor for iOS.
Keyboard focus order.
Focus Lock.

New Release: Focus Lock

| iOS | Android | | :-- | :-- | | | |

A new type of focus lock functionality has been introduced, featuring two new components: Focus.Frame and Focus.Trap. These components help manage and lock focus within specific areas of the screen.

On iOS, Focus.Trap uses the native accessibilityViewIsModal property to keep the focus within a defined area.
On Android, where no equivalent to accessibilityViewIsModal exists, custom logic has been implemented as a workaround. By default, Android uses a custom Activity or Modal to limit focus. While using a Modal is considered the best practice for focus locking on Android, some scenarios—such as issues with React Native's Modal or library-specific constraints—may require alternative implementations.

How It Works

The focus lock functionality should be used as a pair:

Focus.Frame: This component is used at the root level of a "screen" to detect focus leaks and ensure that focus remains contained.
Focus.Trap: This component wraps the content area where focus should be explicitly locked.

<Focus.Frame>
  ...
  <Focus.Trap>
    <Text accessibilityRole="header">Locked Area</Text>
    <Button
      title="Confirm"
      accessibilityLabel="Confirm action"
    />
  </Focus.Trap>
  ...
</Focus.Frame>

Installation

npm install react-native-external-keyboard

iOS:

cd ios && pod install && cd ..

Usage

withKeyboardFocus - For Pressable, Touchable, and more

The withKeyboardFocus HOC is a helper for integrating keyboard focus functionality. It significantly simplifies integration by wrapping the provided component in KeyboardFocusView and extending it with additional features, such as focus and blur events.

const KeybardedPressable = withKeyboardFocus(Pressable);
const KeybardedTouchable = withKeyboardFocus(TouchableOpacity);
const KeybardedButton = withKeyboardFocus(Button);

...

<TouchableOpacity
  ref={ref}
  onPress={...}
  onLongPress={...}
  onFocus={...}
  onBlur={...}
  style={styles.pressable}
  containerStyle={styles.pressableContainer}
  autoFocus
>
  <Text>TouchableOpacity</Text>
</TouchableOpacity>

After wrapping a Pressable or Touchable with withKeyboardFocus, you will be able to handle focus and blur events, control the tint color, apply focus and container focus styles, focus the component using a ref, or configure autoFocus.

Props | Description | Type -- | -- | -- onPress?: | Default onPress or keyboard-handled onPress | ((event: GestureResponderEvent) => void) \| null \| undefined onLongPress?: | Default onLongPress or keyboard-handled onLongPress (Tab+M for iOS). | ((event: GestureResponderEvent) => void) \| null \| undefined onPressIn:? | Default onPressIn or keyboard-handled onPressIn | ((event: GestureResponderEvent) => void) \| null \| undefined onPressOut:? | Default onPressOut or keyboard-handled onPressOut | ((event: GestureResponderEvent) => void) \| null \| undefined style?: | Styles the inner component | StyleProp<ViewStyle>; for Pressable: PressableProps['style'] withPressedStyle?: | Enables the pressed style handler for custom components; always true for the standard Pressable. | boolean \| undefined, false by default focusStyle?: | Style applied to the inner component when focused | FocusStyle containerStyle?: | Style for the container | StyleProp; containerFocusStyle?: | Style applied to the container when focused | FocusStyle onFocus?: | Handler called when the component is focused | () => void onBlur?: | Handler called when the component loses focus | () => void onFocusChange?: | Handler called when the component is focused or blurred | (isFocused: boolean, tag?: number) => void onKeyUpPress?: | Handler for the key-up event | (e: OnKeyPress) => void onKeyDownPress?: | Handler for the key-down event | (e: OnKeyPress) => void autoFocus?: | Indicates if the component should automatically gain focus | boolean | undefined focusable?: | Indicates if the component can be focused by keyboard | boolean | undefined tintColor?: | Color used for tinting the component | string tintType?: | Tint behavior type | 'default' \| 'hover' \| 'background' \| 'none' FocusHoverComponent?: | Component displayed on focus | \| ReactElement \| FunctionComponent \| (() => ReactElement); group?: | Indicates if the component is a focusable group | boolean haloEffect?: | Enables halo effect on focus (iOS only) | boolean ref?: | Provides a reference to the component, allowing programmatic focus control | { focus: () => void} viewRef?: | Provides a reference to the underlying view component | RefObject<View> onBubbledContextMenuPress | Handler for bubbled long-press events triggered by the context menu command (iOS only) | () => void; triggerCodes?: | onPress and onLongPress trigger codes | number[] \| undefined, spacebar and enter by default enableA11yFocus?: | Can be used to move the screen reader focus within the keyboard using ref.current.focus. | boolean \| undefined screenAutoA11yFocus?: | Enables screen reader auto-focus functionality. | boolean \| undefined screenAutoA11yFocusDelay?: | Android only: Delay for screen reader autofocus. On Android, focus can only be applied after the component has rendered, which may take 300–500 milliseconds. | number \| undefined, default: 300 exposeMethods?: | List of exposed view methods | string[] \| undefined, by default the following methods are exposed: 'blur', 'measure', 'measureInWindow', 'measureLayout', and 'setNativeProps'. orderId? | A unique ID used for link target identification. | string orderBackward? | ID of the target for backward navigation with "Tab + Shift". | string orderForward? | ID of the target for forward navigation with "Tab". | string orderLeft? | ID of the target for navigation to the left. | string orderRight? | ID of the target for navigation to the right. | string orderUp? | ID of the target for navigation upward. | string orderDown? | ID of the target for navigation downward. | string lockFocus? | An array of directions to lock focus. | Array of 'left' | 'right' | 'up' | 'down' | 'forward' | 'backward' | 'first' | 'last' ...rest | Remaining component props | Type of Component

[!NOTE] You may discover that long press on spacebar does not trigger a long press event on iOS. This is because iOS use a Full Keyboard Access system that provides commands for interacting with the system. Rather than holding down the spacebar, you can use Tab+M (the default action for opening the context menu). You can change Commands in: Full Keyboard Access -> Commands

KeyboardExtendedView

KeyboardExtendedView is similar to withKeyboardFocus; it is also based on KeyboardExtendedBaseView and provides keyboard focus functionality. It can be useful for handling key presses or managing the focus of a group of components.

<KeyboardExtendedView>
  <Text>Parent component</Text>
  <KeyboardExtendedView>
    <Text>Child component 1</Text>
  </KeyboardExtendedView>
  <KeyboardExtendedView>
    <Text>Child component 2</Text>
  </KeyboardExtendedView>
</KeyboardExtendedView>

KeyboardExtendedInput

The TextInput component with keyboard focus support. This component allows the TextInput to be focused using the keyboard in various scenarios.

import { KeyboardExtendedInput } from 'react-native-external-keyboard';
...
  <KeyboardExtendedInput
    focusType="default"
    blurType="default"
    value={textInput}
    onChangeText={setTextInput}
  />

KeyboardExtendedBaseView: (alias for: ExternalKeyboardView)

import { KeyboardExtendedBaseView } from 'react-native-external-keyboard';
...
  <KeyboardExtendedBaseView
    onKeyDownPress={...}
    onKeyUpPress={...}
    focusable
  >
    <Text>Content</Text>
  </KeyboardExtendedBaseView>

KeyboardFocusGroup

The KeyboardFocusGroup is a View-based component developed based on the iOS API. It can be used for defining focus groups or setting the tintColor globally.

  <KeyboardFocusGroup
    tintColor="orange">
    <ScrollView
      contentContainerStyle={styles.contentContainer}
      style={styles.container}
    >
    ...
    </ScrollView>
  </KeyboardFocusGroup>
  <KeyboardFocusGroup
    focusStyle={{ backgroundColor: 'green' }}
    onFocusChange={(e) => console.log('green', e)}
    groupIdentifier="green"
    tintColor="green"
  >
      <Button>
  </KeyboardFocusGroup>
  <KeyboardFocusGroup
    focusStyle={{ backgroundColor: 'yellow' }}
    onFocusChange={(e) => console.log('yellow', e)}
    groupIdentifier="yellow"
    tintColor="yellow"
  >
      <Button>
  </KeyboardFocusGroup>

Keyboard

Keyboard module to support soft keyboard dismissal.

import { Keyboard } from 'react-native-external-keyboard';

...
  Keyboard.dismiss();
...

This is needed for hiding the soft keyboard using a hardware keyboard. Additionally, the soft keyboard can be hidden from the settings or by pressing Alt + K.

Focus order features

Link Focus Order

Linking components could be the most logical way to define focus order. By using properties such as orderId and orderBackward, orderForward, orderLeft, orderRight, orderUp, and orderDown, you can customize the focus order according to your needs.

<View>
  <Pressable
    onPress={onPress}
    orderId="0_0"
    orderForward="0_2"
  >
    <Text>1</Text>
  </Pressable>
  <Pressable
    onPress={onPress}
    orderId="0_2"
    orderBackward="0_1"
  >
    <Text>3</Text>
  </Pressable>
  <Pressable
    onPress={onPress}
    orderId="0_1"
    orderForward="0_2"
    orderBackward="0_0"
  >
    <Text>2</Text>
  </Pressable>
</View>

You can find more examples here: Focus Link Order, DPad Order

Indexes Focus Order

Linking is one of the best ways to set up focus order. However, there may be cases where you need to define the order of multiple elements, such as groups. As an alternative solution, you can use Indexes.

<KeyboardOrderFocusGroup>
  <View>
    <Pressable
      onPress={onPress}
      orderIndex={0}
    >
      <Text>First</Text>
    </Pressable>
    <Pressable
      onPress={onPress}
      orderIndex={2}
    >
      <Text>Third</Text>
    </Pressable>
    <Pressable
      onPress={onPress}
      orderIndex={1}
    >
      <Text>Second</Text>
    </Pressable>
  </View>
</KeyboardOrderFocusGroup>

Indexing requres orderGroup param for proper order set, you can use KeyboardOrderFocusGroup or provide orderGroup to the component.

 <Pressable
      orderGroup="main"
      onPress={onPress}
      orderIndex={2}
    >
      <Text>Back</Text>
  </Pressable>

You can find more examples here: Focus Order via indexes

Focus Lock

Finally, you can lock focus to specific directions.

 <Pressable
  lockFocus={['down', 'right']}
>
  <Text>Lock Example</Text>
</Pressable>

[!NOTE] first and last are specific to iOS. When focus is blocked for forward and backward on iOS, it checks for the last and first elements to focus.

Migration 0.3.x to 0.4.0

Module (A11yModule, KeyboardExtendedModule)

Functions in the A11yModule (KeyboardExtendedModule) have been deprecated. They appeared appropriate at the time, but with the new architecture and to improve usability, they have been replaced with ref actions.

import { KeyboardExtendedModule } from 'react-native-external-keyboard';

KeyboardExtendedModule.setKeyboardFocus(ref); //or A11yModule.setKeyboardFocus(ref);

Updated:

import { KeyboardExtendedPressable, type KeyboardFocus } from 'react-native-external-keyboard';
...

const ref = useRef<KeyboardFocus>(null);

...

const onPressForFocus = () => {
  ref.current.focus()
}

<TouchableOpacity
  ref={ref}
>
  <Text>TouchableOpacity</Text>
</TouchableOpacity>

The specific method for iOS, setPreferredKeyboardFocus, has not been added so far because we now have the new feature autoFocus, which does not fit well with the new API and its approach. It is better to use autoFocus for focusing views on both Android and iOS.

If you truly need this method, please create a new issue, and we will consider how to return it.

Pressable

Unfortunately, the previous version of Pressable had many issues. For iOS, we cloned the entire Pressable component from React Native's source code, while for Android, we simply wrapped the component.

This led to two main problems:

Difficulty in updating Pressable for iOS.
Challenges in controlling styles.

For these reasons, we replaced Pressable with withKeyboardFocus(Pressable), as it was the only viable path forward to introduce new features.

Component aliases

It is believed that good naming can simplify usage and development. Based on this principle and for compatibility with 0.2.x, aliases were added. You can still use the old naming convention, and it will be maintained in future releases.

The map of aliases is provided below: A11yModule -> KeyboardExtendedModule Pressable -> KeyboardExtendedPressable KeyboardFocusView -> KeyboardExtendedView ExternalKeyboardView -> KeyboardExtendedBaseView

API

ToDo

export type OnKeyPress = NativeSyntheticEvent<{
  keyCode: number;
  unicode: number;
  unicodeChar: string;
  isLongPress: boolean;
  isAltPressed: boolean;
  isShiftPressed: boolean;
  isCtrlPressed: boolean;
  isCapsLockOn: boolean;
  hasNoModifiers: boolean;
}>;

Roadmap

[ ] Refactor and Performance optimization
[ ] Update focusGroupIdentifier and implement KeyboardNavigationCluster functionality
[ ] Update onPress and onLongPress for withKeyboardFocus
[x] Add functionality to control keyboard focus order.
[ ] Verify and update focusable and disabled states for iOS and Android.
[ ] Update Readme.md.
[ ] Create the documentation.

Contributing

Any type of contribution is highly appreciated. Feel free to create PRs, raise issues, or share ideas.

Acknowledgements

It has been a long journey since the first release of the react-native-external-keyboard package. Many features have been added, and a lot of issues have been fixed.

With that, I would like to thank the contributors, those who created issues, and the followers, because achieving these results wouldn't have been possible without you.

Thanks to the initial authors: Andrii Koval, Michail Chavkin, Dzmitry Khamitsevich.

Thanks to the contributors: João Mosmann, Stéphane.

Thanks to those who created issues: Stéphane, proohit, Rananjaya Bandara, SteveHoneckPGE, Wes

I really appreciate your help; it has truly helped me move forward!

License

MIT

Made with create-react-native-library