Originally posted by Jeremy Satterfield in his blog, jQuery plugins and on Snipplr. Currently maintained by Mottie.

Features (Demo)

• An on-screen virtual keyboard embedded within the browser window which will popup when a specified entry field is focused.

• The user can then type and preview their input before Accepting or Canceling.

• Add custom keyboard layouts easily.

• Add up to four standard key sets to each layout that use the shift and alt keys (default, shift, alt and alt-shift).

• Add any number of optional modifier keys (meta keys) to add more key sets.

• Each meta key set also includes the shift, alt and alt-shift keysets - New in version 1.8.9.

• Position the keyboard in any location around the element, or target another element on the page.

• Easily modify the key text to any language or symbol.

• Allow direct input or lock the preview window.

• Set a maximum length to the inputted content.

• Scroll through the other key sets using the mouse wheel while hovering over a key to bypass the need to use alt, shift or meta keys.

• Easily type in characters with diacritics. Here are some default combination examples - it is possible to add more.

  • ' + vowel ( vowel with acute accent, e.g. ' + e = é )
  • ` + vowel ( vowel with grave accent, e.g., ` + e = è )
  • " + vowel ( vowel with diaeresis, e.g., " + e = ë )
  • ^ + vowel ( vowel with circumflex accent, e.g., ^ + e = ê )
  • ~ + certain letters ( letter with tilde, e.g. ~ + n = ñ, ~ + o = õ )

• Enable, disable or add more diacritic functionality as desired.

• Use callbacks and event triggers that occur when the keyboard is open or closed and when the content has changed, been accepted or canceled.

• ARIA support (may not be fully implemented)

• As jQuery UI is a dependancy, this plugin's styling will automatically match the selected jQuery UI theme with the exception of the required CSS found in the keyboard.css file.

• Built in watermarking. It emulates HTML5's placeholder, if the browser doesn't support it.

• Typing extension allows you to simulate typing into the keyboard for demo purposes or to assist user input.

• Autocomplete extension will integrate this keyboard plugin with jQuery UI's autocomplete widget.

• Multiple region specific keyboard layouts included in a separate directory. This is a work in progress and slowly growing.

Documentation

Moved to the Wiki Pages: Home | FAQ | Setup | Usage | Options ( Layout, Language, Useability, Actions ) | Methods | Theme | Log

To Do

• Waiting for requests :)
• Add more regional keyboard layouts.
• Add an input mask extension. I think I'll try to make it compatible with this plugin.

Known Problems

• IE and Opera:
  • In a text area with multiple carriage returns, the caret positioning will be off when repositioning it with the mouse.
  • Using the right and left arrow keys to navigate through a text area with multiple carriage returns is problematic. The caret doesn't behave like in other browsers when moving from one line to the next. You can always reposition the caret using the mouse.
• Opera: When pressing the tab key while inside a textarea, all browsers but Opera add the tab to the virtual keyboard textarea.
• Safari: See the QWERTY Text Area demo with a locked input. While using the virtual keyboard to type, it enters the text in backwards! This is because textareas with a "readonly" attribute always returns zero for the caret postion.
• Typing Extension:
  • When pressing "Alt", the key set will change to the alt key set, but the focus will be moved to the browser menu. Pressing it quickly a second time will return the focus. This is build into the browser and it isn't possible (as far as I know) to automatically restore the window focus the first time alt is pressed.
  • Holding down the Alt key and trying to type is also not possible since the Windows OS is assuming you are trying to type a shortcut key to access the browser menu. You can still click the keys in the alt key set with the mouse.
  • Simulated typing on the keyboard breaks when the CapLock is on. Still looking for a cross-browser solution.

Dependencies

• Required
  • jQuery 1.4.3+
  • jQuery UI Positioning Utility (optional, if you position the keyboard yourself)
  • jQuery UI CSS (can be customized)
  • jQuery caret (included with source)
• Optional
  • jQuery mousewheel plugin - allows using mousewheel to scroll through other key sets
  • jQuery keyboard typing extension - simulate typing on the virtual keyboard
  • jQuery keyboard autocomplete extension - for use with jQuery UI autocomplete (also requires jQuery UI Positioning Utility)

Licensing

• Keyboard code: MIT License for all versions.
• Caret code by C. F., Wong (Cloudgen): MIT License
• Layouts files: Most are under WTFPL, unless the file itself specifies otherwise.

Change Log

Only the latest changes will be shown below, see the wiki log to view older versions.

Version 1.17.7s (6/10/2013)

• Add singleton option to the options.
  • See issue #83 for details.

Version 1.17.7 (5/13/2013)

• Fixed the autocomplete extension to not close the keyboard when clicking within the autocomplete window, including the scroll bar. Fixes issue #170.
• Fixed an issue in IE8 where a javascript error would occur in textarea when usePreview is false. Fixes issue #134.

Version 1.17.6 (5/10/2013)

• Fixed the check combo function to not cause an error when the keyboard is hidden. Fixes issue #168.

Version 1.17.5 (5/6/2013)

• Keyboard visible callback now triggered after the preview gets focus. Fixes issue #147.

Version 1.17.4 (4/14/2013)

• Fixed an issue with IE not giving the preview window focus.
  • Thanks to @semmelbroesel for the suggestion.
  • Fixes issue #160.

Version 1.17.3 (4/4/2013)

• The change callback function assigned in the options now contains proper keyboard parameters
  • Previously, the change callback function was bound to the change event so that it would be called at the same time as any externally bound event listeners.
  • Now the change callback is called slightly before the namespaced change event is triggered.
  • The change callback is not called after the keyboard closes, when the non-namespaced change event is triggered.
  • This fixes issue #157.
• Virtual keyboard keys should now ignore externally triggered events when the keyboard is hidden
  • Previously, externally triggered events on the hidden keys would cause a javascript error.
  • This fixes the problem brought up in issue #158.

Version 1.17.2 (3/29/2013)

• After the content is accepted or canceled, a non-namespaced change event will now be triggered. This fixes issue #146.
• Added French Bépo keyboard layout. Thanks to utilisezlinux! See pull request #152.
• Added Vietnamese layout with Telex combinations. Thanks to tbvinh! See pull request #136.
• Added initialFocus option:
  • When true (default), the preview input will be focused when the keyboard becomes visible.
  • If false, no focus will be set.
  • Thanks to anthonynoisestreet for the feature request in issue #150.

Version 1.17.1 (2/12/2013)

• Version bump to add plugin to jQuery plugin registry.

Version 1.17 (2/12/2013)

• Added portuguese layout and modified the layout demo to build the layout selector instead of adding an option element each time.
• Added an {empty} special key which inserts a blank unclickable key into the keyboard. Using {sp:1} will does not add a key, but a blank space between keys.
• Added a method to restore the caret position in IE in attempts to fix issue #131.
• Added a return false to prevent a click through on elements behind the keyboard when the autoAccept option is true.
• Modified the switchInput function to now target non-keyboard enabled elements - try this demo.
• Removed Opera textarea hack as it has been fixed in the latest versions. This demo should work properly now (keep hitting carriage returns).