Any workaround for browser capturing Ctrl key?

[Mike Sollanych <ms...@dwavesys.com>]

Is there any better method than using the onscreen keyboard to allow the Ctrl key to be passed through to a Guacamole VNC session? I have some Emacs users and they are going to need every meta key they can pass through in order to be comfortable.

It does look like it's only certain browser shortcuts (Ctrl N new window, etc) that are captured by the browser and not passed through.

If anyone has found a good mechanism for handling this (including browser extensions / config changes) please let me knnow.



Mike Sollanych

Senior DevOps Systems Engineer

D-Wave Systems Inc.

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Re: Any workaround for browser capturing Ctrl key?

[Mike Jumper <mj...@apache.org>]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2019, 09:50 Mike Sollanych <ms...@dwavesys.com> wrote:

> OK, so it says
>
> > Most browsers now provide a means of bookmarking a web application as a
> shortcut on the desktop or home screen such that it behaves more like a
> native application, lacks the normal URL bar, etc. In these cases, the
> browser will often allow the application to take control of additional
> keyboard shortcuts which would normally be reserved for the browser. If you
> are running into this problem, or simply want to use Guacamole as if it
> were a native application, this is definitely worth a try.
>
> This reminds me of Mozilla Prism, a standalone single-site browser that
> you would launch with a given URL and it would limit navigation and have no
> menus etc. to get in the way, so as to treat a web app like a desktop
> application.
>
> However, a trip down the google rabbithole indicates this entire branch of
> technology seems dead, replaced instead perhaps by Electron; but Electron
> expects to access an application hosted locally, not something remote.
> Maybe an iFrame could be used to provide this functionality... but then
> this idea gets me into the business of building and deploying an
> application on multiple platforms for my users. You can imagine that if
> Guacamole was something I found promising to implement, it might be because
> I want to do the exact opposite of maintaining client apps! :-)
>

Chrome provides the ability to bookmark a website as an app via: Dot menu
-> More tools -> Create shortcut. Websites bookmarked in this way are then
able to take greater control of the keyboard.

I'm not sure what the desktop Firefox version of this would be, however
Mobile Firefox provides the option via: Dot menu -> Page -> Add Page
Shortcut.

- Mike

Re: Any workaround for browser capturing Ctrl key?

[Mike Sollanych <ms...@dwavesys.com>]

OK, so it says

> Most browsers now provide a means of bookmarking a web application as a shortcut on the desktop or home screen such that it behaves more like a native application, lacks the normal URL bar, etc. In these cases, the browser will often allow the application to take control of additional keyboard shortcuts which would normally be reserved for the browser. If you are running into this problem, or simply want to use Guacamole as if it were a native application, this is definitely worth a try.

This reminds me of Mozilla Prism, a standalone single-site browser that you would launch with a given URL and it would limit navigation and have no menus etc. to get in the way, so as to treat a web app like a desktop application.

However, a trip down the google rabbithole indicates this entire branch of technology seems dead, replaced instead perhaps by Electron; but Electron expects to access an application hosted locally, not something remote. Maybe an iFrame could be used to provide this functionality... but then this idea gets me into the business of building and deploying an application on multiple platforms for my users. You can imagine that if Guacamole was something I found promising to implement, it might be because I want to do the exact opposite of maintaining client apps! :-)

So, I'm proceeding in the direction of trying to see if perhaps there's a way to disable all browser shortcuts so that they get passed through into the app. I'll reply to this thread if I find anything that works.

MS


________________________________
From: Mike Jumper <mj...@apache.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 6:59 PM
To: user@guacamole.apache.org <us...@guacamole.apache.org>
Subject: Re: Any workaround for browser capturing Ctrl key?

On Wed, Nov 6, 2019, 16:34 Mike Sollanych <ms...@dwavesys.com>> wrote:
Is there any better method than using the onscreen keyboard to allow the Ctrl key to be passed through to a Guacamole VNC session? I have some Emacs users and they are going to need every meta key they can pass through in order to be comfortable.

It does look like it's only certain browser shortcuts (Ctrl N new window, etc) that are captured by the browser and not passed through.

See:

https://guacamole.apache.org/faq/#keyboard-shortcuts

- Mike

Re: Any workaround for browser capturing Ctrl key?

[Mike Jumper <mj...@apache.org>]

On Wed, Nov 6, 2019, 16:34 Mike Sollanych <ms...@dwavesys.com> wrote:

> Is there any better method than using the onscreen keyboard to allow the
> Ctrl key to be passed through to a Guacamole VNC session? I have some Emacs
> users and they are going to need every meta key they can pass through in
> order to be comfortable.
>
> It does look like it's only certain browser shortcuts (Ctrl N new window,
> etc) that are captured by the browser and not passed through.
>

See:

https://guacamole.apache.org/faq/#keyboard-shortcuts

- Mike