KeyboardKit 8.8 is out
KeyboardKit 8.8 is a massive update that adds a lot of features, improves autocomplete & emojis, renames services, replaces settings with context persistency, adds all new settings screens, etc.
Since this version sets the tone for the upcoming 9.0 update, and the foundation it lays will evolve in 8.9, your feedback is most welcome.
💥 Breaking changes
This version has a small but breaking change. Due to how settings are now handled by KeyboardKit, the KeyboardSettings.store no longer accept optional values.
This means that you can only replace this store with another valid store, which removes the risk of accidentally ending up with a nil store.
🚨 Important information
KeyboardKit 8.8 introduces many new deprecations, since the structure is being changed and types are being renamed to make the upcoming 9.0 cleaner.
Many service types are renamed to use the new service name. Types like KeyboardLayoutProvider is now called KeyboardLayoutService, to add more consistency to the SDK.
Two exceptions are the KeyboardActionHandler, which is a better name, and KeyboardStyleProvider, which will most probably be removed in 9.0 and replaced with SwiftUI view modifiers.
KeyboardKit 9.0 is planned to be released soon after the public release of iOS 18. It will remove all deprecations and bump the deployment target to iOS 15.
💡 Renamings and Deprecations
This version continues to deprecate types for a clean 9.0 release. This means that there are now many deprecations (which may be confusing), but it’s all in service for a wonderful 9.0 version.
This version deprecates the recently added settings types by adding persistency to the various context types instead. This avoids having to keep the contexts in sync with the settings.
This also means that from now on, you will not have to manually persist things like the keyboard context locale, since the context will persist it automatically.
✨ Features and Adjustments
KeyboardKit 8.8 adds a lot of new functionality and changes many things (with proper deprecations to avoid breaking changes). For instance:
⌨️ Essentials
KeyboardKit 8.8 renames the SystemKeyboard view and related views to KeyboardView, which plays better with the standard SwiftUI conventions.
The KeyboardView will now by default show a numeric input toolbar on large iPad devices. You can use the input toolbar view modifier to customize this behavior.
The KeyboardContext (and all other contexts) now provide auto-persisted state properties that are automatically written to KeyboardSettings.store.
The KeyboardContext also has new capabilities, like being able to override the returnKeyType, specify explicitly added addedLocales, many new locale functions etc.
📱 App
This version adds a new KeyboardApp struct that can specify all KeyboardKit-related information for your app, as well as a KeyboardAppView that makes it a lot easier to set up the main app.
These two new additions make it trivial to set up App Group syncing, KeyboardKit Pro, dictation, etc.
KeyboardKit Pro adds a KeyboardApp.SettingsScreen and a KeyboardApp.LocaleScreen, which make it a lot easier than before to add keyboard settings to the main app target, as well as to the keyboard.
The KeyboardApp.HomeScreen can be configured to display a keyboard section, which contains links to the settings and locale screen. All screens can be customized and localized.
Just make sure to set up an App Group-synced store for settings to automatically sync between the keyboard and the main app. The KeyboardSettings type has new tools for this.
💡 Autocomplete
The Autocomplete.Suggestion type has a new type property that replaces the separate boolean type properties, which menas that the type is better handled in the library.
The Autocomplete.Suggestion type also has a new source property to indicate from where it comes.
THe Autocomplete.LocalService now applies a source to its suggestions and is less aggressive with autocorrect than before. Both Pro services can now perform next character prediction.
😀 Emojis
This version adds support for Emoji 15.1, and also adds memory optimized emoji keyboard styles that make the EmojiKeyboard consume a LOT less memory, by rendering lower resolution items.
This version also tweaks the emoji keyboard configuration for all device types, to make it look a lot closer to the native one on all device types, including larger 13” iPads.
The EmojiKeyboard will also now display a dismiss button on iPad devices, and automatically add an extra row of emojis if an input toolbar is used.
The Keyboard.Services type also has a new frequentEmojiProvider. This lets us remove the static provider instance in Emoji to help prepare for strict concurrency support in Swift 6.
👆 Feedback
KeyboardKit 8.8 adds a new FeedbackService that replaces the shared feedback engines in previous verisons. This also helps us prepare for strict concurrency support.
The .minimal haptic feedback configuration has been replaced by .disabled, which now triggers the long press on space haptic feedback (this is the default behavior when disabling haptics in iOS).
The KeyboardActionHandler can also trigger audio and haptic feedback in more ways than before
🌐 Localization
The KeyboardLocale.ContextMenu will now use the keyboard context’s new addedLocales property if it’s set, instead of locales. This lets the user determine which locales to use.
Conclusion
KeyboardKit 8.8 is a massive version that prepares the SDK for the upcoming 9.0. Make sure to test the release candidate and get in touch if you have feedback or run into problems.
For more information, see the release notes for KeyboardKit & KeyboardKit Pro.
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