External Keyboard arrow keys and modifier keys don't send

[PeterC]

I'm using the Logitech Keyboard Case / ZAGGmate for iPad2. It works great in iOS... I'm able to use the arrow keys and use the keyboard like I would on my Mac, i.e. using cmd-a to select all, cmd-c to copy, cmd-v to paste, etc. However, when I'm in Remoter, the arrow keys and modifiers do not work and I have to press the arrow buttons or press the modifier buttons at the bottom of the screen, which really slows down productivity and disrupts the user experience.

From the "Features" page at rafsoftware.com:

Better external keyboard support: Allows for full screen display while typing. Support for Arrow Keys!

So I would expect that the arrow keys would function properly but it doesn't seem to be supported as of version 2.4

Another "quirk" is that when zoomed in, the bottom of the VNC server's screen doesn't come higher than the bottom-most button bar. This can be bothersome when I have the button bar with the modifier keys because the button bar blocks the bottom of the screen and it's hard to click behind it However, when in the other zoom presets (1:1, Fit Width, or Fit Height) the bottom of the screen can come above the button bar but if you've pinched to zoom after that, the bottom of the VNC server screen will no longer come back up above the button bar. It certainly is an improvement over the previous version that wouldn't come above the bottom of the screen when zoomed in so I'm glad to see this update in the interface.

Thanks for the great and affordable software, Raf! I'm glad to have found Remoter and look forward to its success!

[raf]

Thanks for the feedback, PeterC.

I'm getting ready to submit 2.4.1 to Apple as soon as I collect as many issues with 2.4 as possible.

Regarding the external keyboard support:
-Unfortunately Apple doesn't allow developers access to the keyboard directly, and this limits access to arrow-keys, and all modifier keys. Remoter tries as best as possible to detect the arrow keys using some tricks, but support for command/control/alt is next to impossible to integrate. (Other apps "support" cmd+a, cmd-c, cmd-v, because they're just getting what the OS gives them. That is, the OS does all this locally: selection of text, copying, pasting. This doesn't work for Remoter, as the app needs to know what's going on so it can send the correct information to the remote system, and the OS doesn't provide this information).
-As soon as apple opens access to all this information to developers, it's going to be in Remoter; have no doubt about that.

The arrow keys SHOULD work, but if something has changed in the OS, maybe the tricks in the code to detect them is not working anymore. I'm going to open a ticket for this, and I'll be sure to check it out for 2.4.1.

I'm also opening another ticket for the other item you reported: the scrollview being behind the special keys toolbar. Does this happen with external keyboard only?

Thanks!,

Raf.

[PeterC]

I'm also opening another ticket for the other item you reported: the scrollview being behind the special keys toolbar. Does this happen with external keyboard only?

Thanks!,

Raf.

No, this also happens when the keyboard is off. The onscreen keyboard (with transparency pops up and the special keys toolbar. In the preset zooms, the bottom of the screen can be placed above the special keys toolbar, but as soon as you zoom in or out with a pinch, you can no longer raise the bottom of the screen above that bottom row of mouse modes and buttons.

Thank you for looking into these issues and for your prompt reply!
Peter

[raf]

OK, I looked into it and turns out the arrow keys are working fine. What you need to do is in Remoter Config, make sure the setting "External KB" is set to either "Yes" or "Auto". The "No" setting prevents the arrow key detection code from running.

Hope this helps!,

Raf.

PS: I'm going to look into the other problem now..