Keyboard shortcuts in webview applications

Hello,

we are migrating to NWjs v0.30.x . We have noticed difference from 0.27.x in keyboard events in combination with webview.

We have keyboard shortcuts in our application that were relying on keydown event, like

window.addEventListener("keydown", (evt) => {
    if (evt.ctrlKey) {
        switch (evt.key) {
            case "q": return nw.App.quit();
            case "n": return nw.Window.create(location.href);
            // etc...
        }
    }
});

But this has stopped to work, because the parent frame doesn’t receive the keydown event when webview is focused.

(IM)POSSIBLE WORKAROUNDS

• nw.Window.get().menu = new nw.Menu() ... - but we have undecorated window and thus this is unusable on Windows and Linux
  • We would require to be able to hide visual representation of the menu (maybe the Alt key to show it)
• nw.Shortcut - but it is system-wide and unregistereing them based on focus is somewhat unreliable
  • We would require to be able to register shortcut just for the application, not system-wide
• chrome.commands - the shortcut must start with a special key (like Ctrl, Alt, …), so shortcuts like F5 for reloading the webview are impossible
  • We would require to be able to register shortcut with any key combination, including a single key like Esc, F5, …

Any suggestions?

[cipriancraciun]

As others have mentioned this issue is critical for those implementing anything touching webview elements…

And unfortunately the proposed workaround of injecting JS into the webview and using messages is not quite “safe”, especially since webview elements are used to contain untrusted sources…

(Moreover given that for many releases this feature worked, and now it suddenly doesn’t isn’t very reassuring for the reliability and stability of the platform…)

---

Is there some documentation on how to use at least the chrome.commands feature in nw.js?

[ghost]

Can anyone just guide me (just in short): i have a concept which could be build using nw.js. I have worked longer time ago with electron.

I want to have a parent window, which embeds a webview just as a child, to view it like a movie. The webview should be safe, but it’s just like a gimmick. The parent - the master - the worker - that’s the parent, so every shortcut must be handled by the parent, not the webview.

What’s the way right now?