Key action reference

This section describes the Key action object. This type of action is used for sending keystrokes to the foreground application.

Key class

class dragonfly.actions.action_key.Key(spec=None, static=False)

Keystroke emulation action.

This class emulates keyboard activity by sending keystrokes to the foreground application. It does this using Dragonfly’s keyboard interface, which uses the sendinput() function of the Win32 API.

Constructor arguments:

• spec – keystroke specification.
• static – flag indicating whether the specification contains dynamic elements.

Key specification format

The spec argument passed to the Key constructor specifies which keystroke events will be emulated. It has one of the following formats:

[modifiers -] keyname [/ innerpause] [: repeat] [/ outerpause]

[modifiers -] keyname [: direction] [/ outerpause]

modifiers

Modifiers for this keystroke. These keys are held down while pressing the main keystroke. Can be zero or more of the following:

• a – alt key
• c – control key
• s – shift key
• w – Windows key

keyname

Name of the keystroke. Valid names are listed in Key names.

innerpause

The time to pause between repetitions of this keystroke.

repeat

The number of times this keystroke should be repeated. Default: 1.

outerpause

The time to pause after this keystroke.

Key names

• Lowercase alphabet: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
• Uppercase alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
• Digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Navigation keys: left, right, up, down, pgup, pgdown, home, end
• Editing keys: space, enter, backspace, del, insert
• Symbols: ampersand, apostrophe, asterisk, at, backslash, backtick, bar, caret, colon, comma, dollar, dot, dquote, equal, escape, exclamation, hash, hyphen, minus, percent, plus, question, slash, squote, tilde, underscore
• Function keys: f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8, f9, f10, f11, f12, f13, f14, f15, f16, f17, f18, f19, f20, f21, f22, f23, f24
• Modifiers: alt, ctrl, shift
• Brackets: langle, lbrace, lbracket, lparen, rangle, rbrace, rbracket, rparen
• Special keys: apps, win
• Numberpad keys: np0, np1, np2, np3, np4, np5, np6, np7, np8, np9, npadd, npdec, npdiv, npmul, npsep, npsub