How to disable keyboard input in macOs?

Question

I want to make an app that will force the user to take a break for a specific time. I can't find a way to do that. Until now, i was about to use CGEvent to recive a notification when a key is pressed, but work only for mouse input.

 let eventMask = CGEventType.keyDown.rawValue //| (1 << CGEventType.keyUp.rawValue)
    guard let eventTap = CGEvent.tapCreate(tap: .cgSessionEventTap,
                                           place: .headInsertEventTap,
                                           options: .defaultTap,
                                           eventsOfInterest: CGEventMask(eventMask),
                                           callback: myCGEventCallback,
                                           userInfo: nil) else {
                                            print("failed to create event tap")
                                            exit(1)
    }




    let runLoopSource = CFMachPortCreateRunLoopSource(kCFAllocatorDefault, eventTap, 0)
    CFRunLoopAddSource(CFRunLoopGetCurrent(), runLoopSource, .commonModes)
    CGEvent.tapEnable(tap: eventTap, enable: true)
    CFRunLoopRun()

Does not matter what event mask is set, callback is trigger only from mouse action.

So my question is split in two:

Why above code does not trigger on keydown
Is any other way to achieve that task?

Thanks.

Is the current runloop the main runloop? In Objective-C I have to convert each event type to a mask using `CGEventMaskBit`. — Willeke, Jan 30 '17 at 17:30
Yes is the main runloop. If I use CGEventMaskBit, the eventTap is null. — C-Viorel, Jan 30 '17 at 18:57
The main runloop is already running. How do you use `CGEventMaskBit`? — Willeke, Feb 02 '17 at 16:31

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

1

You can do this using CGEventTap but it requires that the application is given accessibility permissions in "System Preferences - Security & Privacy - Privacy - Accessibility".

See this answer for a complete example.

If you need help converting this to Swift, let me know.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

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answered Feb 15 '17 at 11:35

lemonmojo

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How to disable keyboard input in macOs?

1 Answers1