KeywordShortener

Coding is about creativity, not keyboard acrobatics

Description

Define custom keywords and assign them specific commands. For example, type pipfreqs and press Space to replace it with python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Sample Video

Installation

1. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

python -m venv venv && venv\Scripts\activate

2. Install required dependencies:

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the script in the background:

pythonw keyword_shortener.pyw

To run the script in the terminal, use python instead of pythonw

Run on startup (Windows)

4. To run the script in the background on startup, you will have to install pynput and pyperclip to the global environment (100 Kb):

deactivate && pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Press Win + R and enter shell:startup
6. Add a shortcut for keyword_shortener.pyw there.
7. Either reboot your computer or run:

pythonw keyword_shortener.pyw

To stop the script, open up Task Manager with Ctrl + Shift + Esc -> Details.
Find the pythonw.exe process and end it.

Keyword Shortcuts Examples

Keyword	Corresponding value
pmr	python manage.py runserver
djproj	django-admin startproject
pmmkmg	python manage.py makemigrations
pmmg	python manage.py migrate
pyvenvact	python -m venv venv && venv\scripts\activate
pipfreqs	python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
dcupb	docker-compose up --build
gramcor	Does it sound grammatically correct?
mw	https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

Create Your Own Keywords

All keywords are stored in the config folder where you can specify your own keywords and values.
Make sure your value doesn't contain its key to avoid recursion. For example, the following json file would've ended up with an infinite loop of the strings "That's a coolThat's a coolThat's a cool", because the word "cool" is in both key and value:

{
    "cool": "That's a cool idea"
// --> "That's a coolThat's a coolThat's a cool..."
}

In this case, a Potential Recursion Error will pop up and the script will not run.

• If your keys are repeated in different files, a Duplicate Keyword info message will pop up and prompt you to choose one of the values.
• If your keys are repeated in the same file, the second value will have precedence. This is a feature of JSON.
• Also, it is not recommended to mix other keys in the values like this:

{
    "hi": "hello dear traveller",
    "hinana": "and i said hi to my grandma"
// --> hinana
// Possible output:
// --> "and i said hi to my granhello dear traveller"
}

Note

Be wary when creating keys that require the use of modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, etc.), such as the underscore _. The current implementation resets self.current_word when you press any modifier key.

Pressing Enter and executing multiple commands at once

To simulate pressing Enter when replacing a keyword, include \n in your value. For example, if you'd like to generate a random number in python shell, your json file might look like this:

{
    "pygenrand": "python\nimport random\nprint(random.random())\n"
}

So pynput treats every \n as a newline and presses Enter. It is useful when you want to press Enter right after the script typed your value.

Important

Keep in mind, that pynput types the keyword value without a pause. So if you have several commands and one of them takes some time to execute, it's not going to work.

If you want to run multiple commands in a sequence, it's better to write all your commands in one line with a && separator or using python's -c (command) flag, like this:

{
    "mkdjango": "python -m venv venv && venv\\Scripts\\activate && python -m pip install django && django-admin startproject myproj . && python manage.py startapp myapp && python manage.py runserver\n",
    "pygenrand": "python -c \"import random; print(random.random())\"\n"
}

• mkdjango key will successfully create and activate a virtual environment, install Django, start a new project, create a new app and run a server.
• pygenrand key will execute lines inside the -c flag (entering the shell), print a random number and automatically exit the shell.

Limitations

1. Keywords are keyboard layout insensitive meaning that pynput only registers button pressing, not the actual value of the keys you are pressing, so qwerty and йцукен will trigger the same keyword qwerty, because you need to press the same keys to type it:

{
    "yt": "youtube"
}

Here, if you type "не" ("yt" in Russian layout), the output will be "нщгегиу" instead of "youtube".

Custom Keyword Handler

If you want to tweak the output of a certain keyword, like press Left a few times or select a certain word after typing the value, set USE_CUSTOM_KEYWORD_HANDLER attribute to True (defaults to False).
In custom_keyword_handler.py you can define your own methods for any keyword.

For example, dbash keyword's value is docker exec -it bash and it is handled by move_cursor_left_and_insert_space method with num_taps=5 argument. This method presses Left 5 times and presses Space so that your mouse caret is ready to type the <container_name>:

How does it work?

1. When JSON files are loaded, three types of checks are performed: for recursive keywords, for duplicate keywords, and for long keywords (ones that contain more than VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT characters, defaults to 300). If either of these checks is triggered, a message box will pop up. It can create a config_fail attribute which will be used to prevent the script from running.
2. When the script starts, set self.current_word = ''.
3. When you press any key, time_since_last_press is calculated.
4. Check if any modifier key, like Ctrl, is pressed (but not released).

• If it is, no further code is executed. It is there to ensure that when you press Ctrl+A, for example, the 'A' is not appended to the current_word.

Note

Because of this, when defining your keywords, you can't use characters that require a pressed Shift, like an underscore _, but you can use hyphens - instead.

5. Check if the pressed key is self.STOP_KEY.

• If it is, stop the script completely (end the process).

6. Check if the pressed key belongs to the pynput.keyboard.Key class (whether it is a modifier key, like Shift).

• If this modifier key is Space, execute the main replace_keyword_with_value method. It tries to find self.current_word key in self.KEYWORD_BINDINGS dictionary. If there is such a key, press Backspace for every character in self.current_word + 1 (for the Space) and type the corresponding keyword value.
  • If self.USE_CUSTOM_KEYWORD_HANDLER = True, try to handle the keyword as defined in custom_keyword_handler.py.
• If this modifier key is Backspace, remove the last character from self.current_word.
• For any other modifier key, set self.current_word = ''

7. Check if the elapsed time between key presses time_since_last_press exceeds self.RESET_AFTER limit.

• If it does, set self.current_word = ''.

8. Check if the pressed key is a character key, like a, 1, or -.

• If it is, concatenate this character to self.current_word.

9. If any exception occurred during the key press, log this exception to keyword_logger.log file with the exception timestamp, pressed key and the exception message.

Legacy Version

Previously, KeywordShortener included hotkey activation and copying current window's content to the clipboard which proved to be inefficient and prone to occasional keyboard freezes when clipboard contained a lot of text. You can find legacy code in the legacy folder. Here is the legacy documentation.

Description (legacy)

Create custom keyword shortcuts and run them in the background. For example, type pipfreqs, press the hotkey Left Alt + ` (backtick) to replace it with python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Additionally, you can pass the -ne | --no-enter flag after the keyword, which will not press Enter after script execution.
For example, ? -ne hash or ? hash --no-enter will type What is hash and will not press Enter

Sample Video (legacy)

Create Your Own Keywords (legacy)

All regular keywords are stored in the config folder where you can specify your own keywords and their values.
They are separated into different json files only for convenience. The only thing you should do is either create a custom json file or modify the existing ones.

You can add your own hotkeys by modifying the TRIGGER_COMBINATIONS attribute of the KeywordShortener class.

Limitations (legacy)

To avoid unexpected keyboard behavior, the limit for the ARGUMENTS_LENGTH_LIMIT was set to 100 characters, i.e. if you accidentally activate a hotkey, it will not freeze the keyboard until the whole text is typed.