Issue with keyboard.type in to Spotlight on MacOS (Catalina)

[jackroberts-gh]

Version
@nut-tree/nut-js": "^1.4.1"

Short overview

Following an example on trailmix under "type" (https://github.com/nut-tree/trailmix/tree/master/packages/keyboard-test) I try to open Spotlight and then type. However, it seems that when trying to do this with keyboard.type("string") it very rarely works, or it types part of the string, etc.

Issue occurs on

• Virtual machine
• Docker container
• Dev/Host system

Detailed error description

Following an example on trailmix under "type" (https://github.com/nut-tree/trailmix/tree/master/packages/keyboard-test) I try to open Spotlight and then type. However, it seems that when trying to do this with keyboard.type("string") it very rarely works, or it types part of the string, etc.

Using "keyboard.type(Key.S, Key.T.. etc)" seems to work no problem, so it seems to be an issue with passing in a String to the keyboard.type function.

Steps to reproduce error

(async () => {
    const { mouse, keyboard, Key, screen, right, down, left, up } = require("@nut-tree/nut-js");

    keyboard.config.autoDelayMs = 250;

    // this takes in a string and types it out using the Key. method rather than by string
    const hackFix = async (string) => {
         string.split("").forEach(async (char) => {
             const character = char.toUpperCase()
             await keyboard.type(Key[character])
        });
    }

    try {
        await keyboard.type(Key.LeftSuper, Key.Space); // bring up spotlight

        await keyboard.type("calculator"); // this doesn't work 
        await hackFix("CALCULATOR") // this works

        await keyboard.pressKey(Key.Enter);
        await keyboard.releaseKey(Key.Enter);
    } catch (e) {
        console.log(e)
    }

})();

Additional content
N/A

[jackroberts-gh]

I'm aware the hackFix async function doesn't actually await but it seems to make no difference for the purposes of this, whether I do it this way or do lots of separate "await keyboard.type(Key.C) etc" commands to type out calculator.

In my limited experience with this library, it isn't just typing in to Spotlight that causes this. It sees to type OK in to the terminal, but i'm currently able to type in to a virtual machine in the background using "keyboard.type(Key.C)" but "keyboard.type("C")" doesnt work.

[s1hofmann]

Hi @jzr1991,

both keyboard.type(Key.C) and keyboard.type("C") cause the same native keytap event.
Nonetheless you're right. When passing a string to type, input to Spotlight might get lost.

I'll take a closer look, thanks for reporting!

Best regards

Simon

[s1hofmann]

Closed by #361