ioskeyboardkeyboard-shortcutsuiresponderuikeycommand

Detecting continuous key presses with UIKeyCommand


Is it possible to get continuous key presses?

I'm using keyCommands: to intercept the arrows keys being pressed on an external keyboard, but I only get 1 call per press. I would love to get either multiple calls every X milliseconds as long as the key is held down, or calls when the key is pressed and when it’s released.

Here's my code:

- (NSArray *)keyCommands
{
    UIKeyCommand *upArrow = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:UIKeyInputUpArrow
                                                modifierFlags:0
                                                       action:@selector(upArrow:)];
    UIKeyCommand *downArrow = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:UIKeyInputDownArrow
                                                  modifierFlags:0
                                                         action:@selector(downArrow:)];
    UIKeyCommand *leftArrow = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:UIKeyInputLeftArrow
                                                  modifierFlags:0
                                                         action:@selector(leftArrow:)];
    UIKeyCommand *rightArrow = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:UIKeyInputRightArrow
                                                   modifierFlags:0
                                                          action:@selector(rightArrow:)];
    UIKeyCommand *leftArrowCmd = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:UIKeyInputLeftArrow
                                                     modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierCommand
                                                            action:@selector(leftArrowCmd:)];
    UIKeyCommand *rightArrowCmd = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:UIKeyInputRightArrow
                                                      modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierCommand
                                                             action:@selector(rightArrowCmd:)];
    UIKeyCommand *lCmd = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:@"l"
                                             modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierCommand
                                                    action:@selector(lCmd:)];
    UIKeyCommand *rCmd = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:@"r"
                                             modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierCommand
                                                    action:@selector(rCmd:)];
    UIKeyCommand *mCmd = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:@"m"
                                             modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierCommand
                                                    action:@selector(mCmd:)];
    return @[upArrow, downArrow, leftArrow, rightArrow, leftArrowCmd, rightArrowCmd, lCmd, rCmd, mCmd];
}

Solution

  • Seems that this is indeed not possible in iOS 7.