TabSequence questions

[pbakker]

Hi,

I noticed it lang time ago, but then wasn't really interested in investigating. Now I did and found some odd behavior...

Not all elements on a form apprear in the window where you can administrate the tabsequence. If you click the tabsequnce field in the property area of the elements that does not show in the tabsequence windows, the tabsequence window opens, but does not add the missing element. If you then close the tabsequence window, the tabsequence is set to -1

Now, tabbing through my form, first all the elements get focus that are in the tabsequence I defined. But afer the last element in the tab seqence I defined, the focus does not retunr to the first element in my sequence.

It looks like nothing gains focus... If you keep hitting Tab, at one point, the element that didn't show in the Tab Sequence window does get focus.

All together, something strange seems to be going on...

Regarding TabPanels and Portals in combination with Tab Sequence: I noticed once that my Tab Sequence entered a Tabpanel and got stck in there. What are the Tab Sequnece rules implemented for TabPanels and portals?

Paul

[jcompagner]

i don't understand what element doesn't get into the tabsequence window..
Which element is not in it? Can you give me an example?

for tabpanels/portals: They have there own tabsequence..

[pbakker]

Just some of the buttons.... Cannot see any reason why they are skipped. For example I have 8 buttons, 5 are in the sequence, three are not...

Paul

[jcompagner]

buttons that don't have an action yet (and also aren't labels) are now shown in the tabseq.. (2.0RC5)

[pbakker]

Johan, tried RC6, and the Tab Sequence looks better. But I still see some strange behaivior:

I have a form with two tabpannels and 1 portal + a bunch of buttons/fields/checkobex etc.

When I click on a field, then click the Tab Sequence propert, I get the dialog where all the fields/uttons/checkboxes etc are avaiable to in or exclude fom the sequence. So far, so good.

But then, when I'm in View mode, set the focus to the first field in the tabsequence and start tabbing, all goed ine, untill I reach the last element in the TabSequence. After that I would expect the sequence to return to the first element in the tab sequence, but that doesn't happen.

On this particular form I have to click tab another 17 times, before the focus gets to the first item in the tabsequence......

Also, in design mode, if I click an element in the portal and click the tab sequence property, I get the Tab Sequence dialog, with all the element from the forn on which the portal is placed. The elements in the portal are not in the list of elements to in or exclude from the tab sequence.

Hope the description is a bit clear...

Paul

[jcompagner]

i will look into last not going to the first.

For a portal yes this is a limitation that will be there for a while
Setting a tabsequence on a portal is not supported. Because a tab on a portal is specified system behavior (most of the times you jump over the cells, but not really giving it focus/edit but just selection)

[jcompagner]

labels where by accident added to the tabsequence in browsemode
(i think you have 17 labels on the form )

fixed it for 2.0RC7

[pbakker]

Could very well be...

tnx Johan

[bobcart]

For a portal yes this is a limitation that will be there for a while. Setting a tabsequence on a portal is not supported. Because a tab on a portal is specified system behavior (most of the times you jump over the cells, but not really giving it focus/edit but just selection)

I know this is old, but ihas anything been done? Portals are such a nice way to select a record from a list while showing the details of that record on the same form. Being able to tab (and use arrow keys) within all records in a selected portal would be terrific.

[bobcart]

You can tab between records in selection portals if you make the portal fields uneditable. Remember to go in and out of designer to refresh it.

[david]

Can a text area field be tabbed into somehow? I understand why you can't tab out of a text area field but it would be nice to be able to tab into them.

[raymanj]

Can a text area field be tabbed into somehow? I understand why you can't tab out of a text area field but it would be nice to be able to tab into them.

I agree with David. If a user is on a form and no field (or element) has no focus, then user should be able to hit the TAB key (on keyboard) to begin tabbing through the sequence. Currently the user must use the mouse to click into a field and then use the tab key to move.

Also, why are tabs of tab panels not included ion the tab sequence? It would be nice to have this since Servoy supports true tab panels.

I have another thought about tabbing. I noticed that buttons, images and labels can be added to the tab sequence. One problem with this is, Servoy does not provide any visual feedback to the user when these types of elements gain focus. This is why pbakker, above post, did not notice that he was tabbing through 17 labels. In WinXP a dotted line is traced around the object and Mac OSX uses a blue halo.

It would be great if some type of visual feedback could be added for focus gain on objects. The basic look would be OS style. If the developer wanted to change it then they should have the following properties at their disposal.

Color
line width
pattern of line

Any comments?

[amcgilly]

For a portal yes this is a limitation that will be there for a while. Setting a tabsequence on a portal is not supported. Because a tab on a portal is specified system behavior (most of the times you jump over the cells, but not really giving it focus/edit but just selection)

I've just discovered that the tab sequence for editable fields in a multi-line portal goes from right to left instead of left to right! It doesn't matter how you arrange the fields, it always tabs right to left! That's crazy! I understand from Johan that tabsequence on portal columns is system-level behavior and out of Servoy's control, but does anyone know why it's doing that?

I know I should use a tabpanels with table or list views instead of portals, but these portals are part of a FIleMaker to Servoy conversion we are working on and there are a lot of portals so I was hoping not to have to change them all to tabpanels if I can avoid it. Meanwhile I am talking to the maker of the FM Pro Migrator conversion tool to try to get his tool to convert FM portals to related tabpanels instead of portals.

[david]

Meanwhile I am talking to the maker of the FM Pro Migrator conversion tool to try to get his tool to convert FM portals to related tabpanels instead of portals.

Nice feature

[jcompagner]

multi line portals are different,
Those are the same as ListViews (not TableViews)
So there servoy can do something about it, Why it does go from the right to left i dont know.
But it could be we need to tweak our calculation (i think we look at the X and Y position of the components to figure out how it should go)
Please make a case.