Keyboard

The keyboard is the most common input device on desktop platforms. You can acces the keyboard state by using KeyboardDispatcher.

KeyboardDispatcher

The KeyboardDispatcher is a class used to track keyboard key events.

public abstract class KeyboardDispatcher
{
    public event EventHandler<KeyCharEventArgs> KeyChar;
    public event EventHandler<KeyEventArgs> KeyDown;
    public event EventHandler<KeyEventArgs> KeyUp;

    public bool IsKeyDown(Keys key);
    public ButtonState ReadKeyState(Keys key);
}

Events

Events	Description
KeyChar	It occurs when a key is pressed and a character is generated. KeyChar event is useful for text input.
KeyDown and KeyUp	This events are available to track keyboard pressed keys but it is recommended to use IsKeyDown and ReadKeyState methods. IsKeyDown: Gets a value indicating whether the current state of a keyboard key is Pressing or Pressed. ReadKeyState: Gets the current state of a keyboard key.

Using KeyboardDispatcher

The KeyboardDispatcher can be found within the Display or Surface objects. The following sample code can be used to access the keyboard dispatcher from a Component or Service.

[BindService]
protected GraphicsPresenter graphicsPresenter;

protected override void Update(TimeSpan time)
{
    KeyboardDispatcher keyboardDispatcher = this.graphicsPresenter.FocusedDisplay?.KeyboardDispatcher;

    if (keyboardDispatcher?.ReadKeyState(Keys.A) == ButtonState.Pressing)
    {
        // Do something
    }
}