Add an option to disable keyboard shortcuts/mappings

[RAFFI TEA]

I might be useful to disable the keyboard mapping for some user groups, i.e., users using midi controllers or vinyl.

Why? A couple of times I ruined my mix because I intended to use the search box. I was quite sure that I selected the search box. But in reality it wasn't focused for some reason. If you now press 'd' or 'l' the corresponding decks will stop although you expect a search.

Ideally, we should add an option to the preferences to disable/enable keyboard mapping.

Keyboard shortcuts such as "CTRL+<letter>" remain untouched from this wishlist bug.

[jus (jus)]

Another thing i could think of is to make a active search more obvious.
We could do this instantly with some css for the searchbox - like a contrast background while search is active (focussed)

A standard shortcut to activate search ( like CTRL+F ) would be nice though.

[Gerent (ci3nte)]

I think, it would be nice to enable the search per default, if the keyboard is not used to control mixxx.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

You can disable all shortcuts by creating an empty /home/<user>/.mixxx/Custom.kbd.cfg (with capital C).

[jus (jus)]

While it works to have an empty Custom.kbd.cfg file to "deactivate" keyboard shortcuts, we can`t expect from users to (A) know that and (B) create and copy said file to (C) a location that differs depending on the operating system.
Best would be to just have an option in the preferences that allows to deactivate them like said in #1. Even better if we`d had an proper keyboard editor ...(

[mutil (mutil)]

This is a patch which adds an option to enable/disable keyboard.
Needs testing and suggestions.

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

Serato has a clever solution to this problem. To use keyboard shortcuts you have to turn on caps lock. Otherwise the keyboard only works for typing in searches.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

Thanks multi!
I have started with a slightly different approach, a combobox in preferences with Shortcut = Default/Custom/Disabled. Its far away from being finished, but I think it could coexists with multi's because the focus a slightly different issue.

I have patched my branch lp:~daschuer/mixxx/daschuers_trunk with multi's patch.

I like the Idea to control Mixxx without mouse.

What about this:
Ctrl-F -> focus to search Box
Ctrl-S -> Enable Shortcuts
Ctrl-D -> Disable all Shortcuts without Modifier key: Ctrl

[jus (jus)]

"Ctrl-F -> focus to search Box" should be default anyway cause it is de facto standard. It is currently taken on Mac OS X to enable fullscreen but this could be changed to Shift+Ctrl+F like with many other apps. Also TAB should cycle focus between search box, treeview and library, see lp:871141 .

"Ctrl-S -> Enable Shortcuts" A shortcut to enable shortcuts ? And which shortcuts we would enable, the custom or default ones?
"Ctrl-D -> Disable all Shortcuts without Modifier key: Ctrl " how does this coexist with a custom mapping? What if someone takes the ALT key as modifier?
At the first look this seems to me quite complicated

Basically it is good being able to easily switch between default/custom mappings without fiddling with the file system but the "Default/Custom/Disabled" combobox somehow implies that we have an custom mapping per default. If a custom mapping is detected , then it makes sense.

The Serato Caps lock thing is clever indeed, wonder if we could easily notify (long time) user without them thinking shortcuts are broken.

[mutil (mutil)]

with the patch in lp:871141 it is now easy to focus on search box with just two tabs, whether the keyboard mapping is on or off.
I can't find an easy way to make Ctrl-F focus on search box, but I find the tab thing rather convenient for now.

I suggest the shortcut "Ctrl+`"), which seems unobtrusive and logical to me, for toggling the keyboard mappings on/off (this means switching between an empty keyboard config and whichever config mixxx loaded at start(Standard or Custom).
Caps Lock is a good idea, but I think qt doesn't assign Caps as a shortcut and there would also be some mess with the led-state etc.

[mutil (mutil)]

An updated patch, now saving a value to the config file, so to restore at startup.
Also added a shortcut for this action.

For the Ctrl+F shortcut see lp:871141

[RJ Skerry-Ryan (rryan)]

Thanks mutil -- added to trunk.

[Swiftb0y (swiftb0y)]

Mixxx now uses GitHub for bug tracking. This bug has been migrated to:
https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/issues/5697