KeyboardKit 7.7
KeyboardKit 7.7 is out! This release provides a much better fast-typing experience by introducing a release outside tolerance, tweaks the emoji keyboards and has many other nice features and fixes.
Fast typing
This version aims to reduce the amount of lost keystrokes by adding a release outside tolerance, to let buttons trigger a release even if the release is outside of the button bounds. This addresses how it’s easy to slide with a finger while typing fast and end up with the finger outside the button.
Space drag
This version also adds a vertical threshold when moving the input cursor with the space key, since dragging the finger too much up and down can result in unexpected movement. If you drag too far up, the input cursor will stop moving until you bring your finger back within the threshold.
Emoji keyboards
This release tweaks the emoji keyboards to look closer to their native counterparts. There are still a lot of improvements to be made, but this will at least make them look a lot better.
URL opening
To avoid having to use UIApplication.shared to open a URL, which isn’t allowed from keyboard extensions, there is a new KeyboardUrlOpener.shared that can be used to open URLs.
Keyboard actions
KeyboardAction has new systemSettings and url action types, that by default open the URL they specify. It also has a new standardAction that will be used in the next minor version, to add more action handler capabilities. You will now be able to trigger actions without defining a gesture.
Themes
KeyboardTheme has new author, collectionName and foregroundColor properties, and is dropping the styleName as a breaking change. This version also fixes some style inconsistencies that caused some style to behave strange, since they didn’t provide fixed identifiers.
Other than this, KeyboardThemeLivePreview will now onlyu render a light mode preview as the default behavior, although you can still ask it to render both.
Licenses
License has new localizedCalloutActionProviders, localizedInputSetProviders and localizedKeyboardLayoutProviders properties that make it easier to access the providers that your KeyboardKit Pro license unlocks.
Conclusion
KeyboardKit 7.7 is a massive update that adds many new features and fixes many things and minor annoyances. Have a look at the release notes for a full list of what’s new in this release.
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