keyactions per keyboard instance

[LiamFry]

Is there a way to have a keyaction list associated with a specific keyboard instance as opposed to "global?" What I mean is this ... When I have $("#input-in-ui").keyboard( { /*options ...*/ } ); everything within the "options" block is for that keyboard instance. However, $.extend( $.keyboard.keyaction, { ... } ); is "global" to all keyboard instances.

My application has one very custom input (a numpad with fractionals and units of weight), three boring numpad inputs (for quantities), and a full QWERTY (for entering custom text). As things are now, all five keyboards share the same $.keyboard.keyaction object. The consequence of this, in my situation, is that I need to implement a single and somewhat "fat" bksp handler that can accommodate every possible keyboard type. To pull this off, I need to resort to some custom variable witchery within the .keyboard() options block.

[Mottie]

Hi @LiamFry!

The keyaction is globally defined, and I think keeping it that way may be more memory efficient. This might change in the next major release, if I ever get around to it.

So, I think a another solution for you might be to create a custom bksp keyaction specific for the numpads, e.g. bksp-numpad, and then use that definition in your layout instead of the provided bksp.

Please let me know if that doesn't work out.

[LiamFry]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm already using a custom bksp keyaction. The problem is that I have three different "backspace needs" since I have three fundamentally different keyboards: "weight quantity" (highly customized with fractionals and weights), "count" (just numbers and a decimal), and a reduced, simplistic "alphanumeric" (mostly QWERTY) - each with similar but different-enough "backspace needs."

That said, I think I found a solution. When setting a keyaction in the static $.keyboard.keyaction list, any existing handler is replaced, e.g. if I use $.extend( $.keyboard.keyaction, { 'bksp': function ... } ); and bksp already exists, it is replaced with the new definition. So what I'm doing now is setting the keyboard's unique backspace handler in the per-keyboard beforeVisible() handler.