Configurable keyboard shortcuts

[jameskerr]

All the keyboard shortcuts are listed in the DefaultContainer component. I could see how people would want to use their own keybindings.

Something like:

{
  "a": "createLeaf",
  "shift+a": "createInternal"
  "space": "activate",
  "meta+DownArrow": "activate"
}

[amarnath-cohesive]

Yes! I wish there was a way to do this. Also, I am trying to bind these functions to some buttons outside of the tree. I tried creating a ref and passing it to the Tree component, and the using the ref to do tree.createLeaf(). But it doesn't seem to be working.

[jameskerr]

Can you post the code that's not working?

If it's a ref, you may need to tree.current.createLeaf().

Also, if you're using the data prop. you'll need to have an onCreate prop on the tree in order for createLeaf() work.

[amarnath-cohesive]

I should have used tree.current.createLeaf(). Thanks for the response.

[hilmanauz]

hi @jameskerr, is there any way to disable the keyboard shortcuts from the Container props? I want to disable space shortcuts to toggle the parent folder

[jameskerr]

@hilmanauz You can always intercept the onKeyDown event in your RowRenderer and call e.stopPropagation(). That's a workaround for today.

[jameskerr]

@holloway I want to break up that giant onKeyDown event listener found in DefaultContainer. Each of those cases should be a named function with the TreeApi as the only argument. All of those could go in their own file called commands.ts.

The commands should be put in an object; the key is the name, the value is function.

Another object will map a keybinding string to the string name of the command function. A user could then configure this by passing their own object.

Then in the DefaultContainer#onKeyDown handler, we have some logic that turns that event into a keybinding string. We could follow VSCode's example for how to structure the string (Shift+ArrowDown) for example. Then we run whatever command is mapped to that keybinding string using the object above.

I'm wondering if we want to only make a few of the keybindings available for customization. For example, "ArrowDown" should probably not be configurable. But "Space" should be.

Something Like

<DefaultContainer
  onKeyDown={(e) => {
    const keybinding = toKeyBinding(e)
    tree.runCommandAt(keybinding)
  }}
/>

class TreeApi() {
  runCommandAt(key: string) {
    const commandName = this.keybindings[key]
    const command = this.commands[commandName]
    if (command) command(this)
  }
}

[amarnath-cohesive]

@hilmanauz , what worked for me was to host the library on my own github after removing the onKeyDown listener from the DefaultContainer file.

[hilmanauz]

it works for me @jameskerr, thanks for your advice. I forgot there's an onKeyDown prop in every element.

[holloway]

Hi @jameskerr see #76 ... keen for a review :smile:

[jameskerr]

Work on this is progressing. Today I just finished it in the use-nodes branch.

Keyboard shortcuts look like this:

import { ShortcutAttrs } from "./types";

export const defaultShortcuts: ShortcutAttrs[] = [
  /* Keyboard Navigation */
  { key: "ArrowDown", command: "focusNext" },
  { key: "ArrowUp", command: "focusPrev" },
  { key: "ArrowLeft", command: "focusParent", when: "isLeaf || isClosed" },
  { key: "ArrowLeft", command: "close", when: "isOpen" },
  { key: "ArrowRight", command: "open", when: "isClosed" },
  { key: "ArrowRight", command: "focusNext", when: "isOpen" },
  { key: "Home", command: "focusFirst" },
  { key: "End", command: "focusLast" },
  { key: "PageDown", command: "focusNextPage" },
  { key: "PageUp", command: "focusPrevPage" },

  /* Tabbing Around */
  { key: "Tab", command: "focusOutsideNext" },
  { key: "Shift+Tab", command: "focusOutsidePrev" },

  /* CRUD */
  { key: "Backspace", command: "destroy" },
  { key: "a", command: "createLeaf" },
  { key: "Shift+A", command: "createInternal" },
  { key: "Enter", command: "edit" },

  /* Selection */
  { key: "Shift+ArrowUp", command: "moveSelectionStart" },
  { key: "Shift+ArrowDown", command: "moveSelectionEnd" },
  { key: " ", command: "toggle", when: "isInternal" },
  { key: " ", command: "select", when: "isLeaf" },
  { key: "Meta+a", command: "selectAll" },
  { key: "Control+a", command: "selectAll" },
];

The commands look like so (just a few examples)

export function focusFirst(tree: Tree) {
  if (tree.firstNode) tree.focus(tree.firstNode.id);
}

export function focusLast(tree: Tree) {
  if (tree.lastNode) tree.focus(tree.lastNode.id);
}

export function focusNext(tree: Tree) {
  const next = tree.nextNode || tree.firstNode;
  if (next) tree.focus(next.id);
}

export function focusPrev(tree: Tree) {
  const prev = tree.prevNode || tree.lastNode;
  if (prev) tree.focus(prev.id);
}

The they get connected in the new <TreeView /> component.

export type TreeViewProps<T> = {
  /* Commands and Shortcuts */
  shortcuts: ShortcutAttrs[];
  commands: CommandObject<T>;
}

[jessicarush]

Thank you for all the work you're doing, I'm really looking forward to this feature.

Just one thought: since a mouse click will "select" when clicking a leaf node and both "toggle" and "select" when clicking a node that has children, it may make sense to have the spacebar key behave the same way in that it both selects and toggles an isInternal.

[sauron918]

People do really want to use their own keybindings :) Thanks!

[jameskerr]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I'm excited to ship more of these features, but I'm busy with other projects at the moment. Everything takes longer than first expected!