platform() statement

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Summary

The platform() statement allows rules to match based on the device on which the Keyman keyboard is running.

Syntax

platform("platformConstraint") ... > ...
if(&platform = "platformConstraint") ... > ...

Parameters

platformConstraint

The platform constraint to test.

Description

The &platform variable system store checks the current platform a keyboard is running on. This test is slightly different to all other if() tests, because it is not performing an exact string match but rather matching each token against a set of valid tokens. To help clarify this in code, use the platform() syntax rather than the if(&platform ...) syntax.

Keyman keyboards can be targeted to run on a number of different platforms, and have slightly different behaviour on each of those platforms. The definition of a platform is somewhat rubbery, consisting of items such as operating system, application, browser, form factor and input type. Accordingly, the platform constraints are correspondingly loose.

A platform constraint is a list of one or more platform identifiers separated by spaces. There is no order defined for the list. The identifiers are case-insensitive.

The key requirement for testing a given platform constraint is that all factors must be met for the constraint to pass. If an unknown constraint is included, then the test fails (note: new behaviour since Keyman 10).

For example, touch android tablet native would match Keyman for Android on an Android tablet; android tablet would match Keyman for Android on an Android tablet or KeymanWeb in a browser on an Android tablet. blackberry would not match on any platform (as Blackberry is not a supported platform for Keyman).

Platform constraint definition

The platform constraints are broken down into several components. Each component is optional. Typically, each component should be used at most once in a platform definition. Each component will currently be alphanumeric only; future versions may allow for version testing.

The components are: User Interface, Operating System, Form Factor, Application, and Browser.

User Interface

The user interface value depends on the entry point. For a begin Unicode entry point, the user interface value will be as follows:

touch

A touch-screen keyboard, such as an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet.

hardware

Using a physical keyboard, e.g. Keyman for Windows, or a touch device but with an external keyboard attached (supported on Android), or clicking on the desktop-style On Screen Keyboard.

For the begin newcontext and begin postkeystroke entry points, the user interface value reflects the style of the on screen keyboard, whether or not it is visible:

touch

A touch-screen keyboard, such as an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet.

hardware

A desktop-style on screen keyboard.

Discussion

The choice between touch and hardware user interface is sometimes ambiguous. For example, when running rules from a newcontext or postkeystroke event on an Android device, the user interface will always be given as touch, even if the user is typing on a hardware keyboard (where the keystroke processing rules called from begin Unicode would have been given a hardware user interface platform value). This reflects the fact that the On Screen Keyboard (even if it is not visible) will be a touch-style keyboard, and allows the rules to set the appropriate touch layout layer based on the context.

Operating System

windows

Microsoft Windows, desktop or server editions

android

Any device running the Android operating system

ios

Any iPhone, iPad, iPod or other device running the iOS operating system

macosx, mac or macos

macOS (macos is the recommended term)

linux

Linux or other UNIX-style operating systems.

Form Factor

desktop

Desktop, laptop and server class devices

tablet

Touch-based tablet sized devices

phone

Mobile phones and similar small devices. This may include very small tablets, where the engine determines that a phone sized keyboard is more appropriate than a tablet sized keyboard.

Application

native

Keyman Desktop, Keyman for iPhone and iPad, Keyman for Android, Keyman for macOS, etc.

web

Keyman Engine for Web on any platform and any browser

Browser

Browser tests apply only to KeymanWeb. Be careful when targeting specific browsers, as language support in browsers tends to change rapidly. (Note: even though Keyman for Android and Keyman for iPhone and iPad use KeymanWeb internally, browser tests will not match in those apps.

ie

Keyman Engine for Web in Internet Explorer (deprecated)

chrome

Keyman Engine for Web in Chrome

firefox

Keyman Engine for Web in Firefox

safari

Keyman Engine for Web in Safari

opera

Keyman Engine for Web in Opera

edge

Keyman Engine for Web in Edge

Examples

Example: Using platform()

platform('ios native') + 'a' > 'α'
platform('android native') + 'a' > 'ά'

With these two rules, pressing the key "a" in Keyman for Android would result in "ά", whereas pressing the key "a" in Keyman for iPhone and iPad would result in "α". In KeymanWeb on those platforms, or on any other platform, the "a" key would just result in the default behaviour of "a", because neither rule would match.

Platforms

The platform() statement can be used in keyboards on all platforms.

Windows	macOS	Linux	Desktop web	Mobile web	iOS	Android
✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Version history

• Version 15.0.267: Clarifications on behaviour for platform() statement with begin newcontext and begin postkeystroke.

• Version 10.0: Behaviour for unrecognised tokens was changed to treat unrecognised tokens as a failure to match instead of succeeding as in earlier versions; this gives better backward and forward compatibility; noted that tokens are case-insensitive; noted that browser tests only apply in KeymanWeb; browser 'edge' was split out from 'ie'; an undocumented feature allowing targeting specific versions of Windows was removed; added synonyms for 'macosx'.

• Version 9.0: The platform() statement was introduced in Keyman 9.0.