[Feature Request] Isolate Input from Presentation Clickers (Support for Use While FreeShow is Out of Focus)

[jquyatt]

Describe the feature
Allow FreeShow to detect and isolate input from a connected presentation clicker, enabling specific actions (e.g., advancing or reversing slides) to be triggered by the clicker even when FreeShow is minimized or not the active window. Other input devices (keyboards, mice, etc.) would not interfere with presentation actions.

Additional context
As a user running AV for live events, I often need to perform tasks across multiple applications while presenting. However, I still need to advance slides using a presenter clicker without having to constantly bring the FreeShow window into focus. This feature would provide me with more flexibility in multitasking, allowing smooth transitions in my workflow while ensuring clicker input still works as expected.

I have previously implemented a workaround for this issue with ProPresenter by using Karabiner Elements to isolate my presentation clicker's input and convert it to key presses F19 and F20, then using Hammerspoon to turn those key presses into API calls for next/previous slide. I feel that FreeShow could benefit from having a solution like this baked into the program itself, since it could isolate the key presses without having to translate them to other keys or use other programs to send API calls.

Proposed Solution

Since FreeShow is already built with Electron, this feature can be implemented using existing cross-platform Node.js modules to handle USB devices. Here’s a high-level approach:

• Use Electron with Node-HID, Electron-HID, or a similar library to detect and handle USB devices like presentation clickers across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Device Identification: Isolate the clicker by identifying it through its vendor and product ID.
• Input Handling While Out of Focus: Allow the clicker’s input to trigger specific actions (e.g., advancing/reversing slides) even when FreeShow is minimized or out of focus.
• Input Filtering: Ensure only the clicker is recognized for advancing slides while ignoring input from other devices (keyboards, mice, etc.).

[vassbo]

Would be doable, do you in that case have examples of common vendor/product ids, and the input data they send with the click of different buttons?

[jquyatt]

In my case, I'm using the DSAN PerfectCue Micro (SCM Products), Vendor ID 1155 (0x0483), Product ID 8320 (0x2080). (I was able to simply pull that info from Karabiner-Elements.) It has a two button remote that sends right arrow and left arrow key presses.

I would think that you could use whichever module you choose to identify all the HIDs available and then possibly include a command training feature that listens for clicks from the device that you choose to assign the commands.

[mwb9aa]

@vassbo

In the program EasyWorship, you have to "register" remote devices. Maybe that feature would work here (even though the USB dongle for the clicker is local). You could have a settings option for people to "register" a clicker and then attach a listener to the specific USB device that captures input from that device. Some older clickers may also use the pg up or pg down keys, so you may want to have a spot for the end user to select which keys (arrows or pg up/down) to use. It could go in the Settings->Connections Tab.

[jquyatt]

Some older clickers may also use the pg up or pg down keys, so you may want to have a spot for the end user to select which keys (arrows or pg up/down) to use. It could go in the Settings->Connections Tab.

This reminds me a lot of a feature in ForScore sheet music software, where you can train different commands with MIDI signals. That could enable some useful customizations if you wanted to remap any of the clicker buttons for other features in FreeShow

[Auxority]

You could modify my Powerpoint AutoHotKey V2 script to target FreeShow instead: https://github.com/Auxority/powerpoint-focus-ahkv2