Keyman Developer command line tools guide

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Keyman Developer has a set of command line tools for creating keyboards and models.

Windows installation

These tools are included with a default installation of Keyman Developer, and are also available as a zip download from keyman.com/developer/download.

Linux and macOS installation

In Keyman Developer 16.0, these executables are Windows Portable Executables. You will need to configure a WINE environment to run the executables. Prefix all commands with wine (Linux) or wine64 (macOS).

To build models, you'll also need node.js.

# To build keyboards and packages:
mkdir kmcomp
cd kmcomp
curl -L https://keyman-staging.com/go/download/kmcomp -o kmcomp.zip
unzip kmcomp.zip
# Optionally, add kmcomp to your PATH
# To build models:
npm install --global @keymanapp/lexical-model-compiler

The five minute quick start

We'll first use KMConvert to create a keyboard project, with the minimal metadata required to compile and install. In your /keyboards - folder do:

kmconvert template -id sample -name "Sample" -languages en-au

(We can add further parameters to prepopulate our keyboard metadata, e.g. -author. See the KMConvert reference for full details.)

This will have created a new folder called sample/.

cd sample

Now, we'll build our keyboard project with KMComp.

kmcomp sample.kpj

And... that's it! We'll now have a compiled keyboard and package in the build/ subfolder. Admittedly, the new keyboard doesn't do very much. But that's up to you to fill in.

On Windows, we can install this keyboard using kmshell:

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Keyman\Keyman Desktop\kmshell" -i build\sample.kmp -s

On Linux, we'd use the following km-package-install command:

km-package-install -f build/sample.kmp

Now, use your favourite editor to edit the source/sample.kmn file, and when you wish, compile and reinstall with the commands above. For example, I use Visual Studio Code to work with the whole sample/ folder:

code .

About the source files

When you create and build a project, you'll end up with the following structure. Some files may be not be present, depending on the targets you specify.

sample
│   HISTORY.md
│   LICENSE.md
│   README.md
│   sample.keyboard_info
│   sample.kpj
│   sample.kpj.user
│
├───build
│       sample.kmp
│       sample.kmx
│       sample.kvk
│       sample.js
│
└───source
        readme.htm
        sample.keyman-touch-layout
        sample.kmn
        sample.kps
        sample.kvks
        welcome.htm

Now that probably seems like a whole lot of files! But each file has a purpose.

Root folder

sample.kpj

The main project file. This contains references to all the components: keyboards, models, and packages.

sample.kpj.user

A user preference file. You can safely delete it at any time (you'll lose some remembered settings from Keyman Developer, but nothing consequential) and it should not be shared in a git repository.

Some of these files are metadata files: information about your keyboard project that will help you and others maintain your keyboard project in the future.

For example, you may wish to make your keyboard project into a git repository and push it an online public git host such as GitHub or GitLab.

README.md

Provides an introduction to the keyboard project when others stumble across it. This file is in Markdown format.

LICENSE.md

Explains the rights that you give to others (by default, it will be the MIT license -- which is what we require for Keyman Cloud -- but you can change that to any license you wish). This file is in Markdown format.

HISTORY.md

A place to record changes you make to the project over time. This file is in Markdown format.

sample.keyboard_info

If you wish to upload to Keyman Cloud, you'll need to provide at least some minimal metadata for searching for your keyboard. This file is in JSON format.

Source folder

The files in the source folder are more fully described in the Keyman Developer user guide.

source/sample.kmn

Your keyboard source. It will compile to a .kmx (desktop targets) or a .js (web / touch targets).

source/sample.kps

The package source, which is used to create a compressed .kmp archive of the files needed for distribution.

source/readme.htm

Introductory web page for end users of your keyboard, shown before they install it, so they know what it is used for.

source/welcome.htm

A web page which describes how to use your keyboard, ideally with examples.

source/sample.keyman-touch-layout

This touch layout file description is in JSON format and most easily visually edited with the Keyman Developer touch layout editor. This file is optional; remove the reference from the keyboard source if you don't wish to use it.

source/sample.kvks:

The on screen keyboard template for desktop platforms. It is in XML format and most easily visually edited with the Keyman Developer on screen keyboard editor. This file is optional; remove the reference from the keyboard source if you don't wish to use it.

Build folder

Most of the files in the build folder are installable files.

build/sample.kmp

The installable package file -- installable in all Keyman end user products

build/sample.js

The keyboard compiled to Javascript for use with KeymanWeb

build/sample.kvk

The compiled on screen keyboard. This intermediate file should not be distributed; it is included in the compiled package.

build/sample.kmx

The compiled keyboard. This intermediate file should not be distributed; it is included in the compiled package.

Reference and Examples

KMComp

KMComp is the command line compiler. You can use it to compile all Keyman files.

kmcomp project.kpj

Compile all components of a keyboard or model project named project.kpj KMComp will respect the path settings within the project file. This is the recommended way to build, as it will build keyboards, models and packages all in one step.

kmcomp keyboard.kmn

Compile a keyboard file to a .kmx (desktop targets) and/or .js (web/touch targets). If an output file is not specified, writes to the same folder as the keyboard.

kmcomp package.kps

Compile a package file to a .kmp (all targets). All included keyboards must already be compiled.

• KMComp reference

KMConvert

KMConvert generates keyboards and models from templates, and converts keyboard layouts between different formats.

The New Project dialog in Keyman Developer provides a graphical version of the functionality in KMConvert.

• KMConvert reference