Detecting a keypress in python while in the background

Question

I am trying to find a way to detect a keypress and then run a method depending on what key it is.

I can already do this with Tkinter. But what I can't do is detect the keypress while the window is in the background. I will be running this program in the background while I play a game. I need it to be able to detect inputs while I'm in the game.

Is there any way I can do this with Tkinter or something else? Preferably I would like to not have to download anything external as I would like to distribute this to some other people.

Answer 1

pyHook seems like it would work well for this (mentioned by furas)

from pyHook import HookManager
from win32gui import PumpMessages, PostQuitMessage

class Keystroke_Watcher(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.hm = HookManager()
        self.hm.KeyDown = self.on_keyboard_event
        self.hm.HookKeyboard()


    def on_keyboard_event(self, event):
        try:
            if event.KeyID  == keycode_youre_looking_for:
                self.your_method()
        finally:
            return True

    def your_method(self):
        pass

    def shutdown(self):
        PostQuitMessage(0)
        self.hm.UnhookKeyboard()


watcher = Keystroke_Watcher()
PumpMessages()