Navigation Deep Dive
- What are the visual cues that help the user know which element of an application is receiving keyboard and mouse input (which one has focus)?
- How does the user change which element of an application has focus?
- How does the user change which element of an application has focus?
- What are the visual cues that help the user know what keystrokes will change the focus?
- What are the visual cues that help the user know what keystrokes will cause action in elements of the application that don't currently have focus?
- What is the order in which UI elements are traversed when using keyboard navigation?
- What are the default actions for standard key/mouse input (e.g. Hotkey,
Space
,Enter
,MouseClick
)?
Lexicon & Taxonomy
- Navigation refers to the user experience for moving focus between views in the application view-hierarchy.
- Focus - Refers to the state where a particular UI element (
View
), such as a button, input field, or any interactive component, is actively selected and ready to receive user input. When an element has focus, it typically responds to keyboard events and other interactions. - Focus Chain - The ordered sequence of UI elements that can receive focus, starting from the currently focused element and extending to its parent (SuperView) elements up to the root of the focus tree (
Application.Top
). This chain determines the path that focus traversal follows within the application. Only one focus chain in an application can have focus (top.HasFocus == true
), and there is one, and only one, View in a focus chain that is the most-focused; the one receiving keyboard input. - Cursor - A visual indicator to the user where keyboard input will have an impact. There is one Cursor per terminal session. See Cursor for a deep-dive.
- Focus Ordering - The order focusable Views are navigated. Focus Ordering is typically used in UI frameworks to enable screen readers and improve the Accessibility of an application. In v1,
TabIndex
/TabIndexes
enabled Focus Ordering. - Tab - Describes the
Tab
key found on all keyboards, a break in text that is wider than a space, or a UI element that is a stop-point for keyboard navigation. The use of the word "Tab" for this comes from the typewriter, and is reinforced by the existence of aTab
key on all keyboards. - TabStop - A
View
that is an ultimate stop-point for keyboard navigation. In this usage, ultimate means theView
has no focusable subviews. TheApplication.NextTabStopKey
andApplication.PrevTabStopKey
areKey.Tab
andKey.Tab.WithShift
respectively. These keys navigate only between peer-views. - TabGroup - A
View
that is a container for other focusable views. TheApplication.NextTabGroupKey
andApplication.PrevTabGroupKey
areKey.PageDown.WithCtrl
andKey.PageUp.WithCtrl
respectively. These keys enable the user to use the keyboard to navigate up and down the view-hierarchy. - Enter / Gain - Means a View that previously was not focused is now becoming focused. "The View is entering focus" is the same as "The View is gaining focus". These terms are legacy terms from v1.
- Leave / Lose - Means a View that previously was focused is now becoming un-focused. "The View is leaving focus" is the same as "The View is losing focus". These terms are legacy terms from v1.
Tenets for Terminal.Gui UI Navigation (Unless you know better ones...)
See the Keyboard Tenets as they apply as well.
Tenets higher in the list have precedence over tenets lower in the list.
One Focus Per App - It should not be possible to have two views be the "most focused" view in an application.
There's Always a Way With The Keyboard - The framework strives to ensure users' wanting to use the keyboard can't get into a situation where some element of the application is not accessible via the keyboard. For example, we have unit tests that ensure built-in Views will all have at least one navigation key that advances focus. Another example: As long as a View with a HotKey is visible and enabled, regardless of view-hierarchy, if the user presses that hotkey, the action defined by the hotkey will happen (and, by default the View that defines it will be focused).
Flexible Overrides - The framework makes it easy for navigation changes to be made from code and enables changing of behavior to be done in flexible ways. For example a view can be prevented from getting focus by setting
CanFocus
tofalse
or overridingOnHasFocusChanging
and returningtrue
to cancel.Decouple Concepts - In v1
CanFocus
is tightly coupled withHasFocus
,TabIndex
,TabIndexes
, andTabStop
and vice-versa. There was a bunch of "magic" logic that automatically attempted to keep these concepts aligned. This resulted in a poorly specified, hard-to-test, and fragile API. In v2 we strive to keep the related navigation concepts decoupled. For example,CanFocus
andTabStop
are decoupled. A view withCanFocus == true
can haveTabStop == NoStop
and still be focusable with the mouse.
Design
Keyboard Navigation
The majority of the Terminal.Gui Navigation system is dedicated to enabling the keyboard to be used to navigate Views.
Terminal.Gui defines these keys for keyboard navigation:
Application.NextTabStopKey
(Key.Tab
) - Navigates to the next subview that is aTabStop
(see below). If there is no next, the first subview that is aTabStop
will gain focus.Application.PrevTabStopKey
(Key.Tab.WithShift
) - Opposite ofApplication.NextTabStopKey
.Key.CursorRight
- Operates identically toApplication.NextTabStopKey
.Key.CursorDown
- Operates identically toApplication.NextTabStopKey
.Key.CursorLeft
- Operates identically toApplication.PrevTabStopKey
.Key.CursorUp
- Operates identically toApplication.PrevTabStopKey
.Application.NextTabGroupKey
(Key.F6
) - Navigates to the next view in the view-hierarchy that is aTabGroup
(see below). If there is no next, the first view that is aTabGroup
will gain focus.Application.PrevTabGroupKey
(Key.F6.WithShift
) - Opposite ofApplication.NextTabGroupKey
.
F6
was chosen to match Windows
These keys are all registered as KeyBindingScope.Application
key bindings by Application
. Because application-scoped key bindings have the lowest priority, Views can override the behaviors of these keys (e.g. TextView
overrides Key.Tab
by default, enabling the user to enter \t
into text). The AllViews_AtLeastOneNavKey_Leaves
unit test ensures all built-in Views have at least one of the above keys that can advance.
HotKey
See also Keyboard where HotKey is covered more deeply...
In v2, HotKey
s can be used to navigate across the entire application view-hierarchy. They work independently of Focus
. This enables a user to navigate across a complex UI of nested subviews if needed (even in overlapped scenarios). An example use case is the AllViewsTester
scenario.
Additionally, in v2, multiple Views in an application (even within the same SuperView) can have the same HotKey. Each press of the HotKey will invoke the next HotKey across the View hierarchy (NOT IMPLEMENTED YET see https://github.com/gui-cs/Terminal.Gui/issues/3554).
Mouse Navigation
Mouse-based navigation is straightforward in comparison to keyboard: If a view is focusable and the user clicks on it, it gains focus. There are some nuances, though:
If a View is focusable, and it has focusable sub-views, what happens when a user clicks on the
Border
of the View? Which sub-view (if any) will also get focus?If a View is focusable, and it has focusable sub-views, what happens when a user clicks on the
ContentArea
of the View? Which sub-view (if any) will also get focus?
The answer to both questions is:
If the View was previously focused, the system keeps a record of the Subview that was previously most-focused and restores focus to that Subview (RestoreFocus()
).
If the View was not previously focused, AdvanceFocus()
is called.
For this to work properly, there must be logic that removes the focus-cache used by RestoreFocus()
if something changes that makes the previously-focusable view not focusable (e.g. if Visible has changed).
Application
At the application level, navigation is encapsulated within the ApplicationNavigation
helper class which is publicly exposed via the Application.Navigation
property.
Application.Navigation.GetFocused ()
Gets the most-focused View in the application. Will return null
if there is no view with focus (an extremely rare situation). This replaces View.MostFocused
in v1.
Application.Navigation.FocusedChanged
and Application.Navigation.FocusedChanging
Events raised when the most-focused View in the application is changing or has changed. FocusedChanged
is useful for apps that want to do something with the most-focused view (e.g. see AdornmentsEditor
). FocusChanging
is useful apps that want to override what view can be focused across an entire app.
Application.Navigation.AdvanceFocus (NavigationDirection direction, TabBehavior? behavior)
Causes the focus to advance (forward or backwards) to the next View in the application view-hierarchy, using behavior
as a filter.
The implementation is simple:
return Application.Current?.AdvanceFocus (direction, behavior);
This method is called from the Command
handlers bound to the application-scoped keybindings created during Application.Init
. It is public
as a convenience.
This method replaces about a dozen functions in v1 (scattered across Application
and Toplevel
).
View
At the View-level, navigation is encapsulated within View.Navigation.cs
.
What makes a View focusable?
First, only Views that are visible and enabled can gain focus. Both Visible
and Enabled
must be true
for a view to be focusable.
For visible and enabled Views, the CanFocus
property is then used to determine whether the View
is focusable. CanFocus
must be true
for a View to gain focus. However, even if CanFocus
is true
, other factors can prevent the view from gaining focus...
A visible, enabled, and CanFocus == true
view can be focused if the user uses the mouse to clicks on it or if code explicitly calls View.SetFocus()
. Of course, the view itself or some other code can cancel the focus (e.g. by overriding OnEnter
).
For keyboard navigation, the TabStop
property is a filter for which views are focusable from the current most-focused. TabStop
has no impact on mouse navigation. TabStop
is of type TabBehavior
.
null
- This View is still being initialized; acts as a signal toset_CanFocus
to setTabStop
toTabBehavior.TabStop
as convince for the most common use-case. Equivalent toTabBehavior.NoStop
when determining if a view is focusable by the keyboard or not.TabBehavior.NoStop
- Prevents the user from using keyboard navigation to cause view (and by definition it's subviews) to gain focus. Note: The view can still be focused using code or the mouse.TabBehavior.TabStop
- Indicates a View is a focusable view with no focusable subviews.Application.Next/PrevTabStopKey
will advance ONLY through the peer-Views (SuperView.Subviews
).TabBehavior.GroupStop
- Indicates a View is a focusable container for other focusable views and enables keyboard navigation across these containers. This applies to both tiled and overlapped views. For example,FrameView
is a simple view designed to be a visible container of other views tiled scenarios. It hasTabStop
set toTabBehavior.GroupStop
(andArrangement
set toViewArrangement.Fixed
). Likewise,Window
is a simple view designed to be a visible container of other views in overlapped scenarios. It hasTabStop
set toTabBehavior.GroupStop
(andArrangement
set toViewArrangement.Movable | ViewArrangement.Resizable | ViewArrangement.Overlapped
).Application.Next/PrevGroupStopKey
will advance across allGroupStop
views in the application (unless blocked by aNoStop
SuperView).
How To Tell if a View has focus? And which view is the most-focused?
View.HasFocus
indicates whether the View
is focused or not. It is the definitive signal. If the view has no focusable Subviews then this property also indicates the view is the most-focused view in the application.
Setting this property to true
has the same effect as calling View.SetFocus ()
, which also means the focus may not change as a result.
If v.HasFocus == true
then
- All views up
v
's superview-hierarchy must be focusable. - All views up
v
's superview-hierarchy will also haveHasFocus == true
. - The deepest-subview of
v
that is focusable will also haveHasFocus == true
In other words, v.HasFocus == true
does not necessarily mean v
is the most-focused view, receiving input. If it has focusable sub-views, one of those (or a further subview) will be the most-focused (Application.Navigation.Focused
).
The private bool _hasFocus
field backs HasFocus
and is the ultimate source of truth whether a View has focus or not.
How does a user tell?
In short: ColorScheme.Focused
.
(More needed for HasFocus SuperViews. The current ColorScheme
design is such that this is awkward. See Issue #2381)
How to make a View become focused?
The primary public
method for developers to cause a view to get focus is View.SetFocus()
.
Unlike v1, in v2, this method can return false
if the focus change doesn't happen (e.g. because the view wasn't focusable, or the focus change was cancelled).
How to make a View become NOT focused?
The typical method to make a view lose focus is to have another View gain focus.
Determining the Most Focused SubView
In v1 View
had MostFocused
property that traversed up the view-hierarchy returning the last view found with HasFocus == true
. In v2, Application.Focused
provides the same functionality with less overhead.
How Does View.Add/Remove
Work?
In v1, calling super.Add (view)
where view.CanFocus == true
caused all views up the hierarchy (all SuperViews) to get CanFocus
set to true
as well.
Also, in v1, if view.CanFocus == true
, Add
would automatically set TabStop
.
In v2, developers need to explicitly set CanFocus
for any view in the view-hierarchy where focus is desired. This simplifies the implementation significantly and removes confusing behavior.
In v2, the automatic setting of TabStop
in Add
is retained because it is not overly complex to do so and is a nice convenience for developers to not have to set both Tabstop
and CanFocus
. Note we do NOT automatically change CanFocus
if TabStop
is changed.
Overriding HasFocus
changes - OnEnter/OnLeave
and Enter/Leave
These virtual methods and events are raised when a View's HasFocus
property is changing. In v1 they were poorly defined and weakly implemented. For example, OnEnter
was public virtual OnEnter
and it raised Enter
. This meant overrides needed to know that the base raised the event and remember to call base. Poor API design.
FocusChangingEventArgs.Handled
in v1 was documented as
/// <summary>
/// Indicates if the current focus event has already been processed and the driver should stop notifying any other
/// event subscriber. It's important to set this value to true specially when updating any View's layout from inside the
/// subscriber method.
/// </summary>
This is clearly copy/paste documentation from keyboard code and describes incorrect behavior. In practice this is not what the implementation does. Instead the system never even checks the return value of OnEnter
and OnLeave
.
Additionally, in v1 private void SetHasFocus (bool newHasFocus, View view, bool force = false)
is confused too complex.
In v2, SetHasFocus ()
is replaced by private bool EnterFocus (View view)
and private bool LeaveFocus (View view)
. These methods follow the standard virtual/event pattern:
- Check pre-conditions:
- For
EnterFocus
- If the view is not focusable (not visible, not enabled, orCanFocus == false
) returnstrue
indicating the change was cancelled. - For
EnterFocus
- IfCanFocus == true
but theSuperView.CanFocus == false
throws an invalid operation exception. - For
EnterFocus
- IfHasFocus
is alreadytrue
throws an invalid operation exception. - For
LeaveFocus
- IfHasFocus
is alreadyfalse
throws an invalid operation exception.
- For
- Call the
protected virtual bool OnEnter/OnLeave (View?)
method. If the return value istrue
stop and returntrue
, preventing the focus change. The base implementations of these simply returnfalse
. - Otherwise, raise the cancelable event (
Enter
/Leave
). Ifargs.Cancel == true
stop and returntrue
, preventing the focus change. - Check post-conditions: If
HasFocus
has not changed, throw an invalid operation exception. - Return
false
indicating the change was not cancelled (or invalid).
The Enter
and Leave
events use FocusChangingEventArgs
which provides both the old and new Views. FocusChangingEventArgs.Handled
changes to Cancel
to be more clear on intent.
These could also be named Gain/Lose
. They could also be combined into a single method/event: HasFocusChanging
.
QUESTION: Should we retain the same names as in v1 to simplify porting? Or, given the semantics of Handled
v. Cancel
are reversed would it be better to rename and/or combine?
Built-In Views Interactivity
Keyboard | Mouse | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of States |
Static | IsDefault | Hotkeys | Select Command |
Accept Command |
Hotkey Command |
CanFocus Click |
CanFocus DblCLick |
!CanFocus Click |
RightClick | GrabMouse | |
View | 1 | Yes | No | 1 | OnSelect | OnAccept | Focus | Focus | No | |||
Label | 1 | Yes | No | 1 | OnSelect | OnAccept | FocusNext | Focus | FocusNext | No | ||
Button | 1 | No | Yes | 1 | OnSelect | Focus OnAccept |
Focus OnAccept |
HotKey | Select | No | ||
Checkbox | 3 | No | No | 1 | OnSelect Advance |
OnAccept | OnAccept | Select | Select | No | ||
RadioGroup | > 1 | No | No | 2+ | Advance | Set SelectedItem OnAccept |
Focus Set SelectedItem |
SetFocus Set _cursor |
SetFocus Set _cursor |
No | ||
Slider | > 1 | No | No | 1 | SetFocusedOption | SetFocusedOption OnAccept |
Focus | SetFocus SetFocusedOption |
SetFocus SetFocusedOption |
Yes | ||
ListView | > 1 | No | No | 1 | MarkUnMarkRow | OpenSelectedItem OnAccept |
OnAccept | SetMark OnSelectedChanged |
OpenSelectedItem OnAccept |
No |
v1 Behavior
In v1, within a set of focusable subviews that are TabStops, and within a view hierarchy containing TabGroups, the default order in which views gain focus is the same as the order the related views were added to the SuperView. As superView.Add (view)
is called, each view is added to the end of the TabIndexes
list.
TabIndex
allows this order to be changed without changing the order in SubViews
. When view.TabIndex
is set, the TabIndexes
list is re-ordered such that view
is placed in the list after the peer-view with TabIndex-1
and before the peer-view with TabIndex+1
.
QUESTION: With this design, devs are required to ensure TabIndex
is unique. It also means that set_TabIndex
almost always will change the passed value. E.g. this code will almost always assert:
view.TabIndex = n;
Debug.Assert (view.TabIndex == n);
This is horrible API design.
Proposed New Design
In Win32
there is no concept of tab order beyond the Z-order (the equivalent to the order superview.Add was called).
In WinForms
the Control.TabIndex
property:
can consist of any valid integer greater than or equal to zero, lower numbers being earlier in the tab order. If more than one control on the same parent control has the same tab index, the z-order of the controls determines the order to cycle through the controls.
In WPF
the UserControl.Tabindex
property:
When no value is specified, the default value is MaxValue. The system then attempts a tab order based on the declaration order in the XAML or child collections.
Terminal.Gui v2 should adopt the WinForms
model.
Implementation Plan
A bunch of the above is the proposed design. Eventually Toplevel
will be deleted. Before that happens, the implementation will retain dual code paths:
- The old
Toplevel
andOverlappedTop
code. Only utilized whenIsOverlappedContainer == true
- The new code path that treats all Views the same but relies on the appropriate combination of
TabBehavior
andViewArrangement
settings as well asIRunnable
.
Rough Design Notes
Accesibilty Tenets
See https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/the-journey-to-accessible-apps-keyboard-accessible/
https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues/1646
Focus Chain & DOM ideas
The navigation/focus code in View.Navigation.cs
has been rewritten in v2 (in https://github.com/gui-cs/Terminal.Gui/pull/3627) to simplify and make more robust.
The design is fundamentally the same as in v1: The logic for tracking and updating the focus chain is based on recursion up and down the View.Subviews
/View.SuperView
hierarchy. In this model, there is the need for tracking state during recursion, leading to APIs like the following:
// From v1/early v2: Note the `force` param.
private void SetHasFocus (bool newHasFocus, View view, bool force = false)
// From #3627: Note the `traversingUp` param
private bool EnterFocus ([CanBeNull] View leavingView, bool traversingUp = false)
The need for these "special-case trackers" is clear evidence of poor architecture. Both implementations work, and the #3627 version is far cleaner, but a better design could result in further simplification.
For example, moving to a model where Application
is responsible for tracking and updating the focus chain instead View
. We would introduce a formalization of the Focus Chain.
Focus Chain: A sequence or hierarchy of UI elements (Views) that determines the order in which keyboard focus is navigated within an application. This chain represents the potential paths that focus can take, ensuring that each element can be reached through keyboard navigation. Instead of using recursion, the Focus Chain can be implemented using lists or trees to maintain and update the focus state efficiently at the Application
level.
By using lists or trees, you can manage the focus state without the need for recursive traversal, making the navigation model more scalable and easier to maintain. This approach allows you to explicitly define the order and structure of focusable elements, providing greater control over the navigation flow.
Now, the interesting thing about this, is it really starts to look like a DOM!
Designing a DOM (Document Object Model) for UI library involves creating a structured representation of the UI elements and their relationships.
- Hierarchy and Structure- Root Node: The top-level node representing the entire application or window.
- View Nodes: Each UI element (View) is a node in the DOM. These nodes can have child nodes, representing nested or contained elements.
- Node Properties- Attributes: Each node can have attributes such as id, class, style, and custom properties specific to the View.
- State: Nodes can maintain state information, such as whether they are focused, visible, enabled, etc.
- Traversal Methods- Parent-Child Relationships: Nodes maintain references to their parent and children, allowing traversal up and down the hierarchy.
- Sibling Relationships: Nodes can also maintain references to their previous and next siblings for easier navigation.
- Event Handling- Event Listeners: Nodes can have event listeners attached to handle user interactions like clicks, key presses, and focus changes.
- Event Propagation: Events can propagate through the DOM, allowing for capturing and bubbling phases similar to web DOM events.
- Focus Management- Focus Chain: Maintain a list or tree of focusable nodes to manage keyboard navigation efficiently.
- Focus Methods: Methods to programmatically set and get focus, ensuring the correct element is focused based on user actions or application logic.
- Mouse Events - Mouse handling in Terminal.Gui involves capturing and responding to mouse events such as clicks, drags, and scrolls. In v2, mouse events are managed at the View level, but for a DOM-like structure, this should be centralized.
- Layout - The Pos/Dim system in Terminal.Gui is used for defining the layout of views. It allows for dynamic positioning and sizing based on various constraints. For a DOM-model we'd maintain the Pos/Dim system but ensure the layout calculations are managed by the DOM manager.
- Drawing - Drawing in Terminal.Gui involves rendering text, colors, and shapes. This is handled within the View class today. In a DOM model we'd centralize the drawing logic in the DOM manager to ensure consistent rendering.
This is all well and good, however we are NOT going to fully transition to a DOM in v2. But we may start with Focus/Navigation (item 3 above). Would could retain the existing external View
API for focus (e.g. View.SetFocus
, Focused
, CanFocus
, TabIndexes
, etc...) but refactor the implementation of those to leverage a FocusChain
(or FocusManager
) at the Application
level.
(Crap code generated by Copilot; but gets the idea across):
public class FocusChain {
private List<View> focusableViews = new List<View>();
private View currentFocusedView;
public void RegisterView(View view) {
if (view.CanFocus) {
focusableViews.Add(view);
focusableViews = focusableViews.OrderBy(v => v.TabIndex).ToList();
}
}
public void UnregisterView(View view) {
focusableViews.Remove(view);
}
public void SetFocus(View view) {
if (focusableViews.Contains(view)) {
currentFocusedView?.LeaveFocus();
currentFocusedView = view;
currentFocusedView.EnterFocus();
}
}
public View GetFocusedView() {
return currentFocusedView;
}
public void MoveFocusNext() {
if (focusableViews.Count == 0) return;
int currentIndex = focusableViews.IndexOf(currentFocusedView);
int nextIndex = (currentIndex + 1) % focusableViews.Count;
SetFocus(focusableViews[nextIndex]);
}
public void MoveFocusPrevious() {
if (focusableViews.Count == 0) return;
int currentIndex = focusableViews.IndexOf(currentFocusedView);
int previousIndex = (currentIndex - 1 + focusableViews.Count) % focusableViews.Count;
SetFocus(focusableViews[previousIndex]);
}
}
NOTES
v1 was all over the map for how the built-in Views dealt with common keyboard user-interactions such as pressing Space
, Enter
, or the Hotkey
. Same for mouse interactions such as Click
andDoubleClick
.
I fixed a bunch of this a while back in v2 for Accept
and Hotkey
as part of making Shortcut
and the new StatusBar
work. Shortcut
is a compbound View that needs to be able to host any view as CommandView
and translate user-actions of those subviews in a consistent way.
As I've been working on really making Bar
support a replacement for Menu
, ContextMenu
, and MenuBar
I've found that my work wasn't quite right and didn't go far enough.
This issue is to document and track what I've learned and lay out the design for addressing this correcxtly.
Related Issues:
- #2975
- #3493
- #2404
- #3631
- #3209
- #385
I started fixing this in
- #3749
However, I'm going to branch that work off to a new branch derived from v2_develop
to address this issue separately.
Here's a deep-dive into the existing built-in Views that indicate the inconsistencies.
Keyboard | Mouse | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of States |
Static | IsDefault | Hotkeys | Select Command Space |
Accept Command Enter |
Hotkey Command |
CanFocus Click |
CanFocus DblCLick |
!CanFocus Click |
RightClick | GrabMouse | |
View | 1 | Yes | No | 1 | OnAccept | Focus | Focus | No | ||||
Label | 1 | Yes | No | 1 | OnAccept | FocusNext | Focus | FocusNext | No | |||
Button | 1 | No | Yes | 1 | Focus OnAccept |
Focus OnAccept |
Focus OnAccept |
Focus OnAccept |
OnAccept | No | ||
Checkbox | 3 | No | No | 1 | AdvanceCheckState OnAccept |
AdvanceCheckState OnAccept |
AdvanceCheckState OnAccept |
AdvanceCheckState OnAccept |
AdvanceCheckState OnAccept |
No | ||
RadioGroup | > 1 | No | No | 2+ | Set SelectedItem OnAccept |
Set SelectedItem OnAccept |
Focus Set SelectedItem OnAccept |
SetFocus Set _cursor |
SetFocus Set _cursor |
No | ||
Slider | > 1 | No | No | 1 | SetFocusedOption OnOptionsChanged |
SetFocusedOption OnOptionsChanged OnAccept |
Focus | SetFocus SetFocusedOption |
SetFocus SetFocusedOption |
Yes | ||
ListView | > 1 | No | No | 1 | MarkUnMarkRow | OpenSelectedItem OnAccept |
OnAccept | SetMark OnSelectedChanged |
OpenSelectedItem OnAccept |
No |
Next, I'll post a table showing the proposed design.
This will involve adding View.OnSelect
virtual method and a Select
event to View
.
User Interaction Model
Here's what we're really talking about here: What is the correct user interaction model for common actions on Views within a container. See navigation.md
for the baseline. Here we're going beyond that to focus on:
- What happens when there are bunch of SubViews and the user presses
Enter
with the intention of "accepting the current state". - What happens when the user presses
Space
with the intention of changing the selection of the currently focused View. E.g. which list item is selected or the check state? - What happens when the user presses
HotKey
with the intention of causing some non-focused View to EITHER "accept the current state" (Button
), or "change a selection" (RadioGroup
).
Same for mouse interaction:
- What happens when I click on a non-focused View?
- What if that view has
CanFocus == false
?
This gets really interesting when there's a View like a Shortcut
that is a composite of several subviews.
New Model
Keyboard | Mouse | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of States |
Static | IsDefault | Hotkeys | Select Command Space |
Accept Command Enter |
Hotkey Command |
CanFocus Click |
CanFocus DblCLick |
!CanFocus Click |
RightClick | GrabMouse | |
View | 1 | Yes | No | 1 | OnAccept | Focus | SetFocus | No | ||||
Label | 1 | Yes | No | 1 | OnAccept | FocusNext | SetFocus | FocusNext | No | |||
Button | 1 | No | Yes | 1 | Focus OnAccept |
Focus OnAccept |
Focus OnAccept |
SetFocus OnAccept |
OnAccept | No | ||
Checkbox | 3 | No | No | 1 | AdvanceCheckState OnSelect |
OnAccept | AdvanceCheckState OnSelect |
AdvanceCheckState OnSelect |
AdvanceCheckState OnAccept |
No | ||
RadioGroup | > 1 | No | No | 2+ | If cursor not selected, select. Else, Advance selected item OnSelect |
Set SelectedItem OnSelect OnAccept |
Focus Set SelectedItem OnSelect |
Set Cursor Set SelectedItem OnSelect |
SetFocus SetCursor Set SelectedItem OnSelect OnAccept |
AdvanceSelectedItem OnSelect |
No | |
Slider | > 1 | No | No | 1 | SetFocusedOption OnOptionsChanged |
SetFocusedOption OnOptionsChanged OnAccept |
Focus | SetFocus SetFocusedOption |
SetFocus SetFocusedOption |
Yes | ||
ListView | > 1 | No | No | 1 | MarkUnMarkRow | OpenSelectedItem OnAccept |
OnAccept | SetMark OnSelectedChanged |
OpenSelectedItem OnAccept |
No |
View
- base class
!HasFocus
Enter
- n/a because no focusSpace
- n/a because no focusHotkey
-Command.Hotkey
which doesOnHotkey/Hotkey
Click
- IfCanFocus
, sets focus, then invokeCommand.Hotkey
. If!CanFocus
n/a.
HasFocus
Enter
-Command.Accept
which doesOnAccept/Accept
Space
-Command.Select
which doesOnSelect/Select
Hotkey
-Command.Hotkey
which doesOnHotkey/Hotkey
Click
-Command.Hotkey
.
Label
- Purpose is to be a "label" for another View.
Said "label" can contain a Hotkey that will be forward to that other View.
(Side note, with the Border
adornment, and the decoupling of Title
and Text
, Label
is not needed if the developer is OK with the Title appearing ABOVE the View... just enable Border.Thickness.Top
. It is my goal that Border
will support the Title
being placed in Border.Thick.ess.Left
at some point; which will eliminate the need for Label
in many cases.)
!HasFocus
99% of the time Label
will be !HasFocus
.
Enter
- n/a because no focusSpace
- n/a because no focusHotkey
-Command.Hotkey
- Invoke theHotkey
Command on the next enabled & visible View (note, today AdvanceFocus is called which is not quite rigtht`Click
- IfCanFocus
, sets focus. If!CanFocus
Invoke theHotkey
Command on the next enabled & visible View (note, today AdvanceFocus is called which is not quite right).
HasFocus
The below is debatable. An alternative is a Label
with CanFocus
effectively is a "meld" of the next view and Enter
, Space
, HotKey
, and Click
all just get forwarded to the next View.
Enter
-Command.Accept
which doesOnAccept/Accept
Space
-Command.Select
which doesOnSelect/Select
Hotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-Click
- IfCanFocus
, sets focus. If!CanFocus
Invoke theHotkey
Command on the next enabled & visible View (note, today AdvanceFocus is called which is not quite right).
Button
- A View where the user expects some action to happen when pressed.
Note: Button
has IsDefault
which does two things:
- change how a
Button
appears (adds an indicator indicating it's the default`). Window
'sCommand.Accept
handler searches the subviews for the firstButton
withIsDefault
and invokesCommand.Accept
on that button. If no suchButton
is found, or none doHandled=true
, theWindow.OnAccept
is invoked.
The practical impact of the above is devs have a choice for how to tell if the user "accepts" a superview:
a) Set IsDefault
on one button, and subscribe to Accept
on that button.
b) Subscribe to Accept
on the superview.
The Dialogs
Scenario is illustrative:
For the app
(Window):
showDialogButton.Accepting += (s, e) =>
{
Dialog dlg = CreateDemoDialog (
widthEdit,
heightEdit,
titleEdit,
numButtonsEdit,
glyphsNotWords,
alignmentGroup,
buttonPressedLabel
);
Application.Run (dlg);
dlg.Dispose ();
};
Changing this to
app.Accepting += (s, e) =>
{
Dialog dlg = CreateDemoDialog (
widthEdit,
heightEdit,
titleEdit,
numButtonsEdit,
glyphsNotWords,
alignmentGroup,
buttonPressedLabel
);
Application.Run (dlg);
dlg.Dispose ();
};
... should do exactly the same thing. However, there's a bug in v2_develop
where the Command.Accept
handler for Window
ignores the return value of defaultBtn.InvokeCommand (Command.Accept)
. Fixing this bug makes this work as I would expect.
However, for Dialog
the Dialogs
scenario illustrates why a dev might actually want multiple buttons and to have one be Default
:
button.Accepting += (s, e) =>
{
clicked = buttonId;
Application.RequestStop ();
};
...
dialog.Closed += (s, e) => { buttonPressedLabel.Text = $"{clicked}"; };
With this, the Accept
handler sets clicked
so the dev can tell what button the user clicked to end the Dialog.
Removing the code in Window
's Command.Accept
handler that special-cases IsDefault
changes nothing. Any subview that Handles = true
Accept
will, BY DEFINITION be the "default" Enter
handler.
If Enter
is pressed and no Subview handles Accept
with Handled = true
, the Superview (e..g Dialog
or Window
) will get Command.Accept
. Thus developers need to do nothing to make it so Enter
"accepts".
ANOTHER BUG in v2_develop: This code in View.Mouse
is incorect as it ignores if an MouseClick
handler sets Handled = true
.
// If mouse is still in bounds, generate a click
if (!WantContinuousButtonPressed && Viewport.Contains (mouseEvent.Position))
{
return OnMouseClick (new (MouseEvent));
}
return mouseEvent.Handled = true;
This is more correct:
// If mouse is still in bounds, generate a click
if (!WantContinuousButtonPressed && Viewport.Contains (mouseEvent.Position))
{
var meea = new MouseEventEventArgs (mouseEvent);
// We can ignore the return value of OnMouseClick; if the click is handled
// meea.Handled and meea.MouseEvent.Handled will be true
OnMouseClick (meea);
}
AND, Dialogs
should set e.Handled = true
in the Accept
handler.
Finally, Button
's (or any View that wants to be an explicit-"IsDefault" view) HotKey
handler needs to do this:
AddCommand (
Command.HotKey,
() =>
{
bool cachedIsDefault = IsDefault; // Supports "Swap Default" in Buttons scenario
bool? handled = OnAccept ();
if (handled == true)
{
return true;
}
SetFocus ();
// TODO: If `IsDefault` were a property on `View` *any* View could work this way. That's theoretical as
// TODO: no use-case has been identified for any View other than Button to act like this.
// If Accept was not handled...
if (cachedIsDefault && SuperView is { })
{
return SuperView.InvokeCommand (Command.Accept);
}
return false;
});
With these changes, both mouse and keyboard "default accept" handling work without View
, Window
or anyone else knowing about Button.IsDefault
.
CheckBox
- An interesting use case because it has potentially 3 states...
Here's what it SHOULD do:
!HasFocus
Enter
- n/a because no focusSpace
- n/a because no focusHotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-> does NOT set focus, but advances stateClick
- IfCanFocus
, sets focus AND advances stateDouble Click
- Advances state and then raisesAccept
(this is what Office does; it's pretty nice. Windows does nothing).
HasFocus
Enter
-Command.Accept
-> RaisesAccept
Space
-Command.Select
-> Advances stateHotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-> Advances stateClick
- Advances stateDouble Click
- Advances state and then raisesAccept
(this is what Office does; it's pretty nice. Windows does nothing).
An interesting tid-bit about the above is for Checkbox
the right thing to do is for Hotkey to NOT set focus. Why? If the user is in a TextField and wants to change a setting via a CheckBox, they should be able to use the hotkey and NOT have to then re-focus back on the TextView. The TextView
in Text Input Controls
Scenario is a good example of this.
RadioGroup
- Has > 1 state AND multiple hotkeys
In v2_develop it's all kinds of confused. Here's what it SHOULD do:
!HasFocus
Enter
- n/a because no focusSpace
- n/a because no focusTitle.Hotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-> Set focus. Do NOT advance state.RadioItem.Hotkey
-Command.Select
-> DO NOT set Focus. Advance State to RadioItem with hotkey.Click
-Command.Hotkey
-> IfCanFocus
, sets focus and advances state to clicked RadioItem.Double Click
- Advances state to clicked RadioItem and then raisesAccept
(this is what Office does; it's pretty nice. Windows does nothing).
HasFocus
Enter
-Command.Accept
-> Advances state to selected RadioItem and RaisesAccept
Space
-Command.Select
-> Advances stateTitle.Hotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-> Advance stateRadioItem.Hotkey
-Command.Select
-> Advance State to RadioItem with hotkey.Click
- advances state to clicked RadioItem.Double Click
- Advances state to clicked RadioItem and then raisesAccept
(this is what Office does; it's pretty nice. Windows does nothing).
Like Checkbox
the right thing to do is for Hotkey to NOT set focus. Why? If the user is in a TextField and wants to change a setting via a RadioGroup, they should be able to use the hotkey and NOT have to then re-focus back on the TextView. The TextView
in Text Input Controls
Scenario is a good example of this.
Slider
- Should operate just like RadioGroup
- BUGBUG: Slider should support Hotkey w/in Legends
NumericUpDown
ListView
!HasFocus
Enter
- n/a because no focusSpace
- n/a because no focusTitle.Hotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-> Set focus. Do NOT advance state.Click
-Command.Select
-> IfCanFocus
, sets focus and advances state to clicked ListItem.Double Click
- Sets focus and advances state to clicked ListItem and then raisesAccept
.
HasFocus
Enter
-Command.Accept
-> RaisesAccept
Space
-Command.Select
-> Advances stateTitle.Hotkey
-Command.Hotkey
-> does nothingRadioItem.Hotkey
-Command.Select
-> Advance State to RadioItem with hotkey.Click
-Command.Select
-> IfCanFocus
, sets focus and advances state to clicked ListItem.Double Click
- Sets focus and advances state to clicked ListItem and then raisesAccept
.
What about ListView.MultiSelect
and ListViews.AllowsMarking
?