tesar-tech / CustomAccelerators

Library and XAML control for keyboard ⌨ shortcuts customization.

Custom Accelerators

Library and XAML control for keyboard ⌨ shortcuts customization.

Try it in Video Detail Player or in the sample app.

Usage

(See the sample project in this repo for details)

• Add the package to your UWP project:

  

  Install-Package CustomAccelerators

• Add reference in XAML:

  <Page
  ...
  xmlns:ca="using:CustomAccelerators">

• Use attached property to add custom accelerator

  <Button Content="Hello" ca:Extension.Identity="HelloCa"  />
   <!--this will also update the tooltip of the button-->

• Add definitions of accelerators somewhere (e.g. in OnNavigatedTo of the Page).

var acceleratorsList = new List<(string identity, string label, VirtualKey key, VirtualKeyModifiers modifiers)>()
{
    ("HelloCa","I am Hello Button",VirtualKey.H,VirtualKeyModifiers.Control|VirtualKeyModifiers.Shift),
    ("Another Accelerator","",VirtualKey.PageDown,VirtualKeyModifiers.None)
};

AcceleratorsManager.AddDefaultsAndLoadFromStorage(acceleratorsList);

• Add CustomAcceleratorsEditControl somewhere in your xaml.

<ca:CustomAcceleratorsEditControl />
<!--this control allows to edit keybord shortcuts-->

Notes

• You can also set accelerator without using attached properties:

   <Button Content="Hello" >
       <Button.KeyboardAccelerators>
           <ca:CustomAccelerator  Identity="HelloCa"/>
       </Button.KeyboardAccelerators>
   </Button>
   <!--this will NOT automaticaly update the tooltip of the button-->

• You can enable/disable the accelerator through the attached property:

   <Button ca:Extension.Identity="SimpleAccelerator" ca:Extension.IsEnabled="True"/>

• Attached property has one great feature - it changes tooltip of button (and appbarButton) when accelerator is changed (this behaviour is not supported with basic accelerators).

• Why is it neccessary to set accelerators somewhere in C# code?

  • Main reason is necessity to reach all accelerators in one place (for edit control). Accelerators from all pages, event those, that aren't loaded yet.

• Why set the accelerators in OnNavigatedTo method?

  • It's not requisite. You can set this also in OnLaunched of App.xaml.cs, but note there are some IO operations (loading settings) that may delay the startup.

• It saves the shortcuts persistently (using local settings).

• You can't edit the appearance of CustomAcceleratorsEditControl (yet).

• Dont't set Key, Modifiers or Label in xaml. Only within definitions.

• It doesn't check if there are more action with same shortcut. In such case, just one action will be invoked.

• There are cases when you want to use two accelerator that invoke same action. No problem.

  • It's primary made for this special CommandBar bug and its workarround.

• What about localization?

  • You can do it this way:

   var rl = ResourceLoader.GetForCurrentView();
   acceleratorsList = acceleratorsList.Select(x => { x.label = rl.GetString(x.identity);return x; }).ToList();

  • The ResourceExtractor is also prepared for this and will automatically modify the .resw with Identities and Labels.

• It's not perfect, I know 🙃 . If you have anything to say about it, don't be shy and open an issue.