Can't tab into a TEXT_AREA ?

Classic Servoy
1

I have a form with a bunch of normal TEXT_FIELDs and one larger TEXT_AREA which is a sort of ‘comments’ box.

However, I can’t seem to get it to activate via the tab ordering. That is, if I click in the field in the tab order preceeding my TEXT_AREA field and hit tab, the cursor just disappears like no fields are active (and indeed if I type anything it goes nowhere.) If I hit tab again, it properly goes on to the next field in the tab order after my TEXT_AREA field.

My TEXT_AREA field is set to editable, and even if I turn on selectOnEnter it doesn’t highlight the text in the field when tabbing into it. If I manually click in the field, everything works as expected so I’m not sure what I could have set wrong.

Servoy Developer 3.5.3

2

Hi,

Servoy Developer
Version 3.5.3-build 516
Java version 1.5.0_13-121 (Mac OS X)

AFAIK tab sequences work for ‘text_area’ display type fields and I have this in place on several forms

Have you:

  1. Tried altering the type of that field to ‘text_field’ and then try to tab between fields ?
  2. Double checked your tab sequence to ensure that the ‘text_area’ field is included ?
  3. Create a temporary dummy form with fewer fields on it and tested tabbing into ‘text_area’ types there to see if behaviour is consistent?

Cheers
Harry

3

Hi,

One further thing to check:
Have you included any other elements in the tab sequence ?
The tab sequence can include buttons, images and labels too which could explain your disappearing cursor !

Cheers
Harry

4

I created a new form and put 3 fields on it, all with a displayType of TEXT_FIELD. Setup tab ordering; exit design mode and test by clicking in field 1 and tabbing through. Works fine.

Back into design mode, I change the displayType of the middle field to a TEXT_AREA. Exit design mode, test again - problem persists. Click in field 1, hit tab, cursor disappears. Hit tab again, cursor appears in field 3 as expected.

Servoy Dev under Windows, 3.5.3 Build 516.
Java version 1.6.0_03-b05

Maybe its a Java issue? It also seems like on portals, no matter if I turn off ‘resizeable’ and ‘reorderable’, I can still do both.

I will try on an entirely new solution tomorrow, but gotta get to bed for now.

5

Well, I made a new solution and repeated the test above with 3 fields, and get the same results… cursor disappears/field never activates when tabbed into.

I set an onFocusGained method for the field and it doesn’t seem to get called either (when it’s a TEXT_AREA - if I change nothing else but make it a TEXT_FIELD, it works all as expected.)

What the heck could be going on?

6

Hi,

Why not export that solution and post it here so that I can see if I can get the same behaviour ?

Cheers
Harry

7

Here is the simple solution.

I’m not sure how the database end works for you in this case, but I am personally using a MySQL server; I created a new table for this solution which simply has 3 text fields (length 255) called field_a, field_b, and field_c.

textareatest.servoy (3.99 KB)

8

I just imported your sample solution to the Servoy example database with Sybase as the back end. The tabs work perfectly on text fields and the textarea field. No changes were required.

Dean Westover
Choices Software, Inc.
Servoy Developer
Version 3.5.3-build 516
Java version 1.5.0_05-b05 (Windows XP)

9

Interesting. So, so far the differences between you and me are Java version (1.5 vs 1.6) and database backend (Sybase vs MySQL).

Would be interested to hear if anyone else can (or can’t) get this to run properly, and what backend and Java version they are using.

I might try installing Java 1.5 tonight and see what happens, as I would be baffled why the DB backend would matter.

10

OK. I un-installed JRE 1.6 and put on 1.5; I can tab into and through the TEXT_AREA now properly, although I can’t shift-tab OUT of it going backwards.

So I dunno if in the case or JRE 1.6 if it’s a Java issue or a Servoy issue but something definately doesn’t work (I’m going to just keep running 1.5). The shift-tab is an oddity but I can live with that for now.

11

I have precisely the same problem as ManChicken’s post with JRE 1.6 (Postgres backend) with Text Area fields.

I cannot find any resolution yet. Any solutions known under JRE 1.6? I would like to stay at 1.6 and not move back to 1.5.

Thanks,

Michael

12

i encountered this my self also last week, can somebody make a case with a sample and what exactly is not working correctly under what jvm?

so that we can test for example tab in and out (forward and reverse)

13

I’ve made a case already a few months ago.
Case id: 96891

14

This was just fixed. The tabbing into textarea should work ok under both Java 1.5 and Java 1.6.

15

This still isn’t working for me. I can’t into a text_area correctly. The cursor disappears. I’m on Java 6 update 7 on Windows XP, running Servoy 3.5.6.

16

this is not fixed in 3.5.6 but after that so 3.5.7 which will be released very soon

17

Please try on the newly released 3.5.7 and if it still doesn’t work file new case / reopen case in our support system.

Edit: Johan was faster …

18

So now I can tab into the text_area, but it selects all my text, then when I try to tab through to the next field, it replaces all my text with the tab character within the text_area.

I can see there may be differing opinions, but my preference would be to have the cursor tab through the fields, not stop on one field and replace all the highlighted text, causing me to lose my data. Maybe Alt-Tab or Ctrl-Tab could be used within a text_area field if you need to insert a tab character.

My users are data-entry centric, so keyboard navigation being predictable and fast is important.

Thanks for addressing these little things. They do make a difference.

19

This was fixed. Tabbing works again like it did before, that is if you are on a text area and you hit tab, you’ll be taken to the next field.

20

in 3.5.7 you can tab /shft tab into a textarea and use ctrl-tab / shft ctrl-tab to tab out again.

Only issue is see is users accidently using ctrl-tab in a normal textfield, which takes them to the next tabpanel in the form

Servoy Developer
Version 3.5.7-build 520
Java version 10.0-b19 (Windows XP)

Regards,