iOS: How to detect the escape/control keys on a hardware bluetooth keyboard?

Question

I\'m trying to figure out how to detect that the Escape (and other key combinations like Ctrl and alt) have been pressed on a bluetooth keyboard attached to an iOS device.

Answer 1

AFAIK this is not possible using public API. I've done a bit of searching and the esc key is not recognized. The only thing that I didn't do is to try iSSH (it costs 9€ :-), but if you read the description on the AppStore it seems clear that ESC key on a hardware (bluetooth) keyboard doesn't work:

• Exhaustive key configuration support. Has arrow keys (by pop-up or by toolbar). ctrl, alt, esc, tab, shift, Fn keys (1-10), ` key, PgUp, PgDown and for those keys not listed provides multiple means to add them.

• Bluetooth keyboard support for arrow keys, function keys and a remapping of the ctrl key through option key mapping in either X11/VNC server or terminal. When enabled, an Option+key press maps to equivalent Ctrl+key press.

As you can see, in the second line the ESC key is not mentioned. Moreover, I've found this (old) post.

EDIT:

As your last updates, I've found a way to "hide" the _gsEvent inside the binary. I don't know if Apple static analyser can find it, however. The trick is simple...create the _gsEvent selector (and other private selectors) at runtime!

-(void)sendEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{

    SEL aSelector = NSSelectorFromString([self theSelector]);
    if ([event respondsToSelector:aSelector]) {

        NSLog(@"Event: %@", event.description);
    }

    [super sendEvent:event];
}

-(NSString *)theSelector
{
    // compose the keyword as you prefer
    NSString *sel = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@g%@%@ent", @"_", @"s", @"Ev"];
    return sel;
}

I've tried to search inside the binary and I don't find the _gsEvent keyword, obviously because it's created only at runtime.
Hope this helps.