Adding empty rows to layout about simple-keyboard

[hodgef]

@omartoutounji Thanks for this info. I think you could achieve this with CSS.

Let's say you have this default layout:

[
  'c a z y x w v u',
  'd t',
  'e s'
  (etc..)
]

Then in CSS you'd target all the rows that are not the first nor the last one.

Perhaps like this

.simple-keyboard .hg-row:not(:first-child):not(:last-child) {
  justify-content: space-between;
}

.simple-keyboard .hg-row:not(:first-child):not(:last-child) .hg-button {
  flex-grow: unset;
  min-width: 50px;
}

Here's a sandbox:
https://codesandbox.io/s/2zx3my9qj0

Screenshot:

Regards,
Francisco Hodge

[omartoutounji]

Hello @hodgef,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

We are trying to create iType, a website that allows you to type using your eye gaze which is tracked by your webcam. Fingers? Who needs them!

We tried 'eye-gazing' (as in typing by staring at a letter one-by-one for some time) on a QWERTY and it wasn't a pleasant experience as the letters are so close to each other. So to achieve a better user experience, we completely re-designed the QWERTY look to make it easier to type with your eyes.

We are now trying to implement that design using simple-keyboard, however empty spaces are replaced with empty buttons which we don't want.

Allow me to elaborate by attaching screenshots.

Below is the design we are trying to implement.

Below is our implementation so far with simple-keyboard

As you can see, those empty buttons look bad and the empty rows are clickable which we don't want!

[hodgef]

Hello @omartoutounji,

Any character between spaces (even a space between spaces), is considered a button by design.

You could create an empty button like this {//} (built-in) or just create a custom empty button (like {empty}), then give it a desired style in CSS (though buttonTheme).

I'm not completely visualizing the use-case here though, a screenshot of what you're trying to achieve would really help. If padding between rows or buttons is needed, I generally would recommend using CSS.

Hope that helps. If it doesn't please provide a screenshot of what you're trying to achieve and we'll go from there.

Regards,
Francisco Hodge