Doing key combos with jQuery / JavaScript

Question

I'm curious how i, with the following jQuery plugin code im writing at the bottom of this question, could implement key combos. How it's working so far is it allows a user to create key commands simply by doing a normal jQuery like syntax and provide an event for the key command, like so:

$(window).jkey('a',function(){
   alert('you pressed the a key!');
});

or

$(window).jkey('b c d',function(){
   alert('you pressed either the b, c, or d key!');
});

and lastly what i want is the ability to do, but can't figure out:

$(window).jkey('alt+n',function(){
   alert('you pressed alt+n!');
});

I know how to do this outside of the plugin (on keyup set a var false and on keydown set the var true and check if the var is true when you press the other key), but i don't know how to do this when you dont know what keys are going to be pressed and how many. How do I add this support? I want to be able to allow them to do things like alt+shift+a or a+s+d+f if they wanted. I just can't get my head around how to implement this. Any ideas?

I'm going to release this as an open source plugin and i'd love to give whoever gives me the right, working, answer some credit on the blog post and in the code it's self. Thanks in advance!

(function($) {
  $.fn.jkey = function(keyCombo,callback) {
    if(keyCombo.indexOf(' ') > -1){ //If multiple keys are selected
        var keySplit = keyCombo.split(' ');
    }
    else{ //Else just store this single key
        var keySplit = [keyCombo];
    }
    for(x in keySplit){ //For each key in the array...

        if(keySplit[x].indexOf('+') > -1){
            //Key selection by user is a key combo... what now?
        }
        else{
            //Otherwise, it's just a normal, single key command
        }

        switch(keySplit[x]){
            case 'a':
                keySplit[x] = 65;
                break;
            case 'b':
                keySplit[x] = 66;
                break;
            case 'c':
                keySplit[x] = 67;
                break;
            //And so on for all the rest of the keys
        }
    }
    return this.each(function() {
        $this = $(this);
        $this.keydown(function(e){
            if($.inArray(e.keyCode, keySplit) > -1){ //If the key the user pressed is matched with any key the developer set a key code with...
                if(typeof callback == 'function'){ //and they provided a callback function
                    callback(); //trigger call back and...
                    e.preventDefault(); //cancel the normal
                }
            }
        });
    });
  }
})(jQuery);

Answer 1

Use keypress instead of keyup/keydown because the latter two do not accurately protray the keycode (reference, see last paragraph). You can reference the altKey ctrlKey and shiftKey boolean properties of the event object in this case...

$(document).keypress(function(e) {
  var key = String.fromCharCode(e.which);
  var alt = e.altKey;
  var ctrl = e.ctrlKey
  var shift = e.shiftKey;
  alert("Key:" + key + "\nAlt:" + alt + "\nCtrl:" + ctrl + "\nShift:" + shift);
});

Also, you can use String.fromCharCode to translate the key code to an actual letter.

You can't trap multiple keys aside from combinations with Ctrl, Alt, and Shift. You simply can't do it in a single event. So throw the a+s+d+f idea out the window.

Note: Obviously there are certain key combinations that are used by the browser. For instance, Alt + F usually brings up the File menu in Windows. Ctrl + N usually launches a new window/tab. Do not attempt to override any of these combinations.

Here's a live demo for your testing pleasure.