ButtonSpecAny Focus Issue

[kenmullins2]

I have a problem with a ButtonSpec added to a text box. It is acting as a search key replacing a &Find button from a previous version. Less screen real estate, more visually appealing The problem is ButtonSpec doesn't get focus!! I have read the reasons why and that to “give focus is a niche issue at best”. However from a data input point of view many high level users rely on key entry (aka tab, space bar, enter etc) to navigate the form data entry controls and button click events. If the ButtonSpec doesn't get focus then an operator can't Tab>Tab>Enter to activate the process they can only click.

Image of Pre & Post textBox FindButton pair

TextBox FindButton Pair.PNG (3.46 KiB) Viewed 421 times

From a high volume data input perspective this is not good. Any ideas?

[vulkanino]

You may not need the focus on the lens. It would be good to immediately (almost) react to user input, without waiting for other key presses or mouse clicks.

I have implemented a search text control. It listens for the TextChanged event and when it fires it starts a timer to wait a (customizable) time in milliseconds. When the timer expires, it fires an event to say the caller: "hey, search the text". If the user keeps writing, the timer resets, so there's a nice delay between writing and searching.

It behaves like the vista/7 search box. When you type, it shows the cross/close icon. I can sell you this nice control if you want

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[kenmullins2]

Thanks but no thanks. The button loads a search screen, its not a typeahead type control.

[colonel32]

What I usually do is catch the Return key in the text box's keypress event, mark it as handled, and fire off the buttonspec's click handler.

[Phil Wright]

The ButtonSpec cannot receieve focus because it is not a real control. It does not have a window handle it is just an area of the control that is manually drawn as needed. This reduces the number of resources used but also means it cannot have the focus.