AngularJS - Multistep form with UI Router and Navigate using arrow keys

Question

How do I go to next or previous form step using arrow key. I'm using AngularJS UI Router. The code below working fine with prev and next button to navigate.

.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
    $stateProvider    
        // route to show our basic form (/form)
        .state('wsp', {
            url: '/wsp',
            templateUrl: 'wsp_step',
            controller: 'wspYearController'
        })

        .state('wsp.first_step', {
            url: '/first_step',
            templateUrl: 'wsp_step_first'
        })

        .state('wsp.second_step', {
            url: '/second_step',
            templateUrl: 'wsp_step_second'
        })


    $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/wsp/first_step');
})

To go to different step I am doing like this

<button type="button" ui-sref="wsp.first_step">Prev </button>
<button type="button" ui-sref="wsp.third_step">Next</button>

Answer 1

Here you are. A keydown event listener with self handling event unbinding and bind before/after $stateChange . ng-keydown will not help you here =(. Lets hope keyhandling will be improved in AngularJS. You should be fine by adding this into your wspYearController (if its used in all the routes you talking about).

/**
 * Key press binding
 */
$(document).keydown(function(e) {

    switch(e.which) {
        case 37: // left arrow
        case 39: // right arrow

            //clean listener before state change 
            //else it would be listen all the time :)
            $(document).unbind('keydown');

            //back and forward all the time to the right place.
            if ($state.current.name === 'wsp.first_step') {
                $state.go('wsp.second_step');
            } else {
                $state.go('wsp.first_step');
            }
            break;

        default: return; // exit this handler for other keys
    }

    // prevent the default action (scroll / move caret)
    e.preventDefault();
});

Here is a plunker which shows you a demonstration of it.