Swift – Capture keydown from NSViewController

Xcode 8.2.1 • Swift 3.0.2

import Cocoa

class ViewController: NSViewController {

    @IBOutlet var textField: NSTextField!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .flagsChanged) {
            self.flagsChanged(with: $0)
            return $0
        }
        NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .keyDown) {
            self.keyDown(with: $0)
            return $0
        }
    }
    override func keyDown(with event: NSEvent) {
        switch event.modifierFlags.intersection(.deviceIndependentFlagsMask) {
        case [.command] where event.characters == "l",
             [.command, .shift] where event.characters == "l":
            print("command-l or command-shift-l")
        default:
            break
        }
        textField.stringValue = "key = " + (event.charactersIgnoringModifiers
            ?? "")
        textField.stringValue += "\ncharacter = " + (event.characters ?? "")
    }
    override func flagsChanged(with event: NSEvent) {
        switch event.modifierFlags.intersection(.deviceIndependentFlagsMask) {
        case [.shift]:
            print("shift key is pressed")
        case [.control]:
            print("control key is pressed")
        case [.option] :
            print("option key is pressed")
        case [.command]:
            print("Command key is pressed")
        case [.control, .shift]:
            print("control-shift keys are pressed")
        case [.option, .shift]:
            print("option-shift keys are pressed")
        case [.command, .shift]:
            print("command-shift keys are pressed")
        case [.control, .option]:
            print("control-option keys are pressed")
        case [.control, .command]:
            print("control-command keys are pressed")
        case [.option, .command]:
            print("option-command keys are pressed")
        case [.shift, .control, .option]:
            print("shift-control-option keys are pressed")
        case [.shift, .control, .command]:
            print("shift-control-command keys are pressed")
        case [.control, .option, .command]:
            print("control-option-command keys are pressed")
        case [.shift, .command, .option]:
            print("shift-command-option keys are pressed")
        case [.shift, .control, .option, .command]:
            print("shift-control-option-command keys are pressed")
        default:
            print("no modifier keys are pressed")
        }
    }
}

---

To get rid of the purr sound when pressing the character keys you need to subclass your view, override the method performKeyEquivalent and return true.

import Cocoa

class View: NSView {
    override func performKeyEquivalent(with event: NSEvent) -> Bool {
        return true
    }
}

Sample Project