How to detect if the surface keyboard is attached?

Question

I need to implement certain functions only when the keyboard is attached to the surface. Is there a way I can detect when the surface keyboard is attached or removed ?

I tried this code on Surface:

function getKeyboardCapabilities()
{   
   var keyboardCapabilities = new Windows.Devices.Input.KeyboardCapabilities();
   console.log(keyboardCapabilities.keyboardPresent);

}

The result was always '1' even when the keyboard was not connected.

Rifle

My understanding is that you can know whether one has been attached, but not whether it currently is attached. Look at KeyboardCapabilities.KeyboardPresent – Barrettbarrette

@Barrettbarrette I tried using KeyboardCapabilities.keyboardPresent on a computer with a physical keyboard and the result was '1' which is good. However the same code on a Surface always returned '1' even when the keyboard was not attached. – Rifle

Unfortunately, I think that's just how it works. Surface always reports true if it's been attached at some point. – Barrettbarrette

Have any magical solutions appeared in the last 4 years? – Dusty

Answer 1

I used this code to identify when a keyboard is connected to a Surface:

var keyboardWatcher = (function () {
    // private
    var keyboardState = false;

    var watcher = Windows.Devices.Enumeration.DeviceInformation.createWatcher();
    watcher.addEventListener("added", function (devUpdate) {
    // GUID_DEVINTERFACE_KEYBOARD
        if ((devUpdate.id.indexOf('{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd}') != -1) && (devUpdate.id.indexOf('MSHW0007') == -1)    ) {
            if (devUpdate.properties['System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled'] == true) {
                // keyboard is connected 
                keyboardState = true;
            }
        }
    });
    watcher.addEventListener("updated", function (devUpdate) {

        if (devUpdate.id.indexOf('{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd}') != -1) {
            if (devUpdate.properties['System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled']) {
                // keyboard is connected 
                keyboardState = true;
            }
            else {
                // keyboard disconnected
                keyboardState = false;
            }
        }
    });

    watcher.start();

    // public
    return {
        isAttached: function () {
            return keyboardState;
        }
    }

})(); 

Then call KeyboardWatcher.isAttached() whenever you need to check the status of the keyboard.

Rifle

Tried this solution on the surface pro and unfortunately when the OnScreenKeyboard pops up it sets the flag to true – Stamey

Answer 2

I could not find a good way to detect if a keyboard is attached so instead I detect if I am in tablet mode or desktop mode.

        bool bIsDesktop = false;

        var uiMode = UIViewSettings.GetForCurrentView().UserInteractionMode;
        if (uiMode == Windows.UI.ViewManagement.UserInteractionMode.Mouse)          // Typical of Desktop
            bIsDesktop = true;

Note the other possible value of uiMode is Windows.UI.ViewManagement.UserInteractionMode.Touch.

Orthopter

For a surface pro with no keyboard attached this returns true, so this solution doesnt work in this case – Stamey