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Behaviour of disabled form fields [message #523952] Mon, 29 March 2010 21:03 Go to next message
Eclipse UserFriend
Disabled fields on forms never get the focus using the keyboard (only clicking into such a field assigns the focus to it). It would be nice to be able to use the tab key to also cycle through disabled form fields.

Generalized questions:
What behaviour should be supported for disabled form fields? What is the best default behaviour? How to integrate support for this in Scout SDK?
Re: Behaviour of disabled form fields [message #523996 is a reply to message #523952] Tue, 30 March 2010 04:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Eclipse UserFriend
In ui's this is (normally) done using the properties


    enabled
    editable
    focusable


setting these properties for every field is annoying and of little sense. Therefore eclipse scout generalizes these behaviours to the following two default cases:

1) scout field with enabled=true, attached gui (should) behave as follows:
field can be focus-traversed (with TAB key), focus can be set by mouse click, field content can be copy/pasted. Field content can be edited. Field appears as ready for input .

2) scout field with enabled=false, attached gui (should) behave as follows:
field can not be focus-traversed (with TAB key), focus can be set by mouse click, field content can be copy/pasted.
Field content cannot be edited. Field appears gray, resp. not ready for input.

Please note that this means for swing and swt implementations, that on JComponent / Widget level the setEnabled(false) is normally not used as it disables on-mouse-click focus as well as copy/paste of content on disabled fields.
Re: Behaviour of disabled form fields [message #529453 is a reply to message #523996] Sun, 25 April 2010 14:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Eclipse UserFriend
I actually agree on this behavior, Ivan. No tab-traversal of disabled fields.

In our project the user has to be able to use the application by keyboard only. Since we show a lot of information in read-only fields - and among these smartfields with menus. The standard behavior does not allow to use these menu's by keyboard alone. We have found a different solution for the project.

However: from a long term perspective I think Scout should be able to guarantee a pure keyboard usage also in these circumstances. There are similar issues, e.g. with context menu's on table pages (a menu with "no selection required" cannot be called by keyboard usage).
Re: Behaviour of disabled form fields [message #580402 is a reply to message #523996] Sun, 25 April 2010 14:45 Go to previous message
Eclipse UserFriend
I actually agree on this behavior, Ivan. No tab-traversal of disabled fields.

In our project the user has to be able to use the application by keyboard only. Since we show a lot of information in read-only fields - and among these smartfields with menus. The standard behavior does not allow to use these menu's by keyboard alone. We have found a different solution for the project.

However: from a long term perspective I think Scout should be able to guarantee a pure keyboard usage also in these circumstances. There are similar issues, e.g. with context menu's on table pages (a menu with "no selection required" cannot be called by keyboard usage).
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