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.

My understanding is that you can know whether one has been attached, but not whether it currently is attached. Look at `KeyboardCapabilities.KeyboardPresent` — WiredPrairie, Nov 21 '13 at 15:40
@WiredPrairie 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. — Stefania, Nov 26 '13 at 14:13
Unfortunately, I think that's just how it works. Surface always reports true if it's been attached at some point. — WiredPrairie, Nov 26 '13 at 14:36

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 14:49

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.

Tried this solution on the surface pro and unfortunately when the OnScreenKeyboard pops up it sets the flag to `true` — JKennedy, Aug 22 '19 at 13:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 16 '16 at 07:06

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.

For a surface pro with no keyboard attached this returns true, so this solution doesnt work in this case — JKennedy, Aug 22 '19 at 13:36

How to detect if the surface keyboard is attached?

2 Answers2

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