Web/API/Keyboard

This is an experimental technologyCheck the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The Keyboard interface of the 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

Specification	Status	Comment
Keyboard MapThe definition of 'Keyboard' in that specification.	Editor's Draft	Initial definition.
Keyboard LockThe definition of 'Keyboard' in that specification.	Editor's Draft	Adds lock() and unlock().

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
Keyboard Experimental'	Chrome Full support 68	Edge Full support 79	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera Full support 55	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
getLayoutMap Experimental'	Chrome Full support 69	Edge Full support 79	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera Full support 56	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
lock Experimental'	Chrome Full support 68	Edge Full support 79	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera Full support 55	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
unlock Experimental'	Chrome Full support 68	Edge Full support 79	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera Full support 55	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.'

Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.

Keyboard by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.