Using Stores

Stores provide a facility to match a character against an array of characters. This means they can be used to reduce multiple rules down into a single rule. They can also be used to give mnemonic names to strings.

The most common use of stores is to reduce the number of rules required in a keyboard by matching multiple characters rather than a single character in a rule.

Creating stores

Stores are created with the store() statement:

store(storeName) storeContents

Where storeName is an identifier you give to the store, and storeContents is the store's contents, expressed as a string or a sequence of Unicode character constants.

All stores must be given unique identifiers, and are visible throughout the keyboard file. A store() statement can be placed anywhere in a keyboard source file, and its visibility is unaffected: it can even be placed after references to the store in other statements.

Apart from characters, two other elements are allowed in stores: deadkeys and virtual keys.

Stores have a maximum length of 4095 characters (note that non-character elements such as virtual keys and deadkeys take more than one character in the store).

Examples

store(vowels) 'aeiouAEIOU'
store(vowels_lower) 'ae' U+0069 U+006F U+0075
store(φωνήεντα) 'αειου'
store(vowel_keys) [K_A] [K_E] [K_I] [K_O] [K_U]

Using stores in rules

Stores are most often used with the any() and index() statements. The any() statement is used in the context or key section of the rule, and will match any character in the specified store, remembering its index.

any(storeName) + ... > ...
... + any(storeName) > ...

The index() statement is used to look up a character in a store at the index where a specified any() statement matched a character. The any() statement used to obtain the index is referenced by its character position in the context (and key) part of the rule. In the first example line, the any() statement is the first element (character or statement) in the rule, so the offset is 1. In the second example line, if the three dots represent one single character or statement, the any() is the second element of the rule so the offset is 2. Since the context part of a rule can contain several characters or statements, the offset for the any() could be greater than two.

index(storeName, offset)

Note that an index() statement may reference an any() statement which uses a different store: the only requirement is that the stores used by each have the same length.

Examples

In the following example, the index() statement translates the lower case vowels to upper case vowels:

store(lowercase) "aeiou"
store(uppercase) "AEIOU"

+ any(lowercase) > index(uppercase, 1)    c translate vowels to upper case

A more useful example shows how a vowel followed by a circumflex can be translated automatically into the combined character:

store(vowel) 'aeiouAEIOU'
store(vowel_circum) 'âêîôûÂÊÎÔÛ'
any(vowel) + '^' > index(vowel_circum, 1)

If we wanted to type the circumflex before the vowel, the code would be: (note the offset in the index statement is 2, not 1)

store(vowel) 'aeiouAEIOU'
store(vowel_circum) 'âêîôûÂÊÎÔÛ'
'^' +  any(vowel) > index(vowel_circum, 2)

Another example of using any() and index() is given in the keyboard design tutorial.

Outputting stores

The outs() statement can be used to output the contents of a store. This can be used in another store, or in the context or output of a rule.

outs(storeName)

Stores that contain only a single character are usually used to define named constants.

Examples

The following examples show the outs() statement and an example of named constants:

store(vowels_lower) 'aeiou'
store(vowels_upper) 'AEIOU'
store(vowels) outs(vowels_lower) outs(vowels_upper)

store(vowel_a) 'a'
store(vowel_alpha) 'α'
+ outs(vowel_a) > outs(vowel_alpha)
+ $vowel_a > $vowel_alpha

The IPAMenu.kmn sample keyboard included with Keyman Developer gives an example of the use of stores and outs() to create a menu-based keyboard for entry of characters from the International Phonetic Alphabet.

System stores

System stores are stores with a name beginning with &, which have a special purpose, usually defining properties or behaviour of the keyboard.

Keyman 5.0 introduced the concept of system stores that replace the header statements used in earlier versions of Keyman. In Keyman 9.0 and later, system stores are also used to reflect and update system state. System stores are prefixed with an ampersand (&).

Example

This shows the &name store in use:

store(&name) "My First Keyboard"

IMX definition stores

Stores can be used to define an IMX interface function to be used with call(). These stores should not then be used for any other purpose.

Example

store(DLLFunction) "myimx.dll:KeyEvent"
+ any(key) > call(DLLFunction)

Variable stores

In Keyman 8.0 and later versions, variable stores are supported. These allow a keyboard to have a store which is updated dynamically while the keyboard is active, in order to track state. The store value can be persisted for use in future sessions, or can be updated just for the current session.

For Keyman 9.0, support was also added for variable system stores. Some variable system stores are read-only and some are read-write. These allow the keyboard developer to test or adjust the system configuration, including swapping touch layout layers and testing the platform the keyboard is running under.

Variable stores are sometimes called option stores, and the feature has been known in the past as "keyboard options".

store(opt_composed) '0'
store(vowel) 'aeiouAEIOU'
store(vowel_circum) 'âêîôûÂÊÎÔÛ'
 
+ [CTRL ALT K_1] > set(opt_composed='1')
+ [CTRL ALT K_0] > set(opt_composed='0')
if(opt_composed = '0') any(vowel) + '^' > index(vowel, 2) U+0302
if(opt_composed = '1') any(vowel) + '^' > index(vowel_circum, 2)

More information about variable stores is available in the variable stores guide.

Store statements

The following statements are used with stores:

any() statement

Matches on an array of characters

call() statement

Calls an Input Method Extension

if() statement

Tests the content of a variable store

index() statement

Outputs from an array of characters

outs() statement

Outputs an array of characters

reset() statement

Resets the content of a variable store to the default

save() statement

Persists the content of a variable store

set() statement

Updates the content of a variable store

store() statement

Defines an array of characters

Version history

• Introduced in Keyman 3.0
• Keyman 5.0 added system stores
• Keyman 6.0 added support for deadkeys and virtual keys in stores
• Keyman 7.0 extended maximum store length to 4095 characters
• Keyman 8.0 introduced variable stores
• Keyman 9.0 introduced variable system stores