Node-webkit WinAPI
I wrote a node script that captures hotkeys on windows using the ffi, ref, and ref-struct modules. I've had some issues getting them to work in a packaged .exe since ffi and ref are native add-ons. For more information, see this github issue I opened awhile ago.
Anyways, here's the code:
var FFI = require('ffi'), ref = require('ref'), Struct = require('ref-struct');/* First, create the necessary data structures that'll be used by our windows api calls. */var pointStruct = Struct({ 'x': 'long', 'y': 'long'});var msgStruct = Struct({ 'hwnd': 'int32', 'message': 'int32', 'wParam': 'int32', 'lParam': 'int32', 'time': 'int32', 'pt': pointStruct});var msgStructPtr = ref.refType(msgStruct);/* Second, register the functions we'd like to use by providing their method signatures. */var user32 = new FFI.Library('user32', { 'RegisterHotKey': [ 'bool', ['int32', 'int', 'int32', 'int32'] ], 'GetMessageA': [ 'bool', [msgStructPtr, 'int32', 'int32', 'int32'] ] /* You may prefer to use PeekMessageA which has the same signature as GetMessageA, but is non-blocking. I haven't tested it, though.});/* Third, register your hotkeys. I wanted to control a media player, so these keys reflect that. */var ALT = 0x0001, CTRL = 0x0002, SHIFT = 0x0004;var MEDIA_NEXT = 0xB0, MEDIA_PREV = 0xB1, MEDIA_STOP = 0xB2, MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE = 0xB3, MEDIA_LAUNCH = 0xB5;var PERIOD = 0xBE, COMMA = 0xBC, EQUAL = 0xBB, DIVIDE = 0xBF, SQUOTE = 0xDE, PAGEUP = 0x21, PAGEDOWN = 0x22;registrations = [];registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, 0, MEDIA_NEXT));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, 0, MEDIA_PREV));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, 0, MEDIA_STOP));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, 0, MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, 0, MEDIA_LAUNCH));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, CTRL, PERIOD));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, CTRL, COMMA));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, CTRL, EQUAL));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, CTRL, DIVIDE));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, CTRL | ALT, PAGEUP));registrations.push(user32.RegisterHotKey(0, 1, CTRL | ALT, PAGEDOWN));// an array of booleans telling us which registrations failed/succeededconsole.log(registrations);/* Fourth, wait for new hotkey events from the message queue. */var myMsg = new msgStruct;while (user32.GetMessageA(myMsg.ref(), 0, 0, 0)) { var key = myMsg.lParam >> 16; switch (key) { case MEDIA_NEXT: console.log('media next'); break; case MEDIA_PREV: console.log('media prev'); break; case MEDIA_STOP: console.log('media stop'); break; case MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE: console.log('media play/pause'); break; case MEDIA_LAUNCH: console.log('media launch'); break; case PERIOD: console.log('next'); break; case COMMA: console.log('previous'); break; case EQUAL: console.log('play/pause'); break; case DIVIDE: console.log('info'); break; case PAGEUP: console.log('volume up'); break; case PAGEDOWN: console.log('volume down'); break; default: console.log('undefined hotkey', key, key.toString(16)); }}If you want this to work with node-webkit, make sure you build all the native add-ons with nw-gyp with the --target set to your version of node-webkit (0.5.1 in my case):
# Make sure you run this command in the following directories (where the binding.gyp files are):# node_modules/ffi/# node_modules/ffi/node_modules/ref/# node_modules/ref/$ nw-gyp clean configure --target=v0.5.1 buildReview the MSDN docs to understand the method signatures and structs used. Hope this helps!
An alternative to node-ffi is to use the iohook npm module: https://github.com/wilix-team/iohook
Node.js global keyboard and mouse listener.
This module can handle keyboard and mouse events via native hooks inside and outside your JavaScript/TypeScript application.
Some other alternatives can be found here. (However, the others are not as good in my opinion; for example, most are no longer being maintained.)