Find dialog loses focus

[Jeff Fried]

Not understanding why focus is lost in the following situation.

I want to click on a button on the Main Menu to open a form, then begin with a find dialog on the form.

I put the following actions in the OnPush event of the Main Menu Order Entry button:

Close current form (i.e., close the Main Menu)
Open Form to open the order entry form
I already have a button on the order entry form to find by company name, so the next action is to use the short cut key, Contol-Y, to bring up the find dialogue.
In this case, it is the following:

:orders:button4.activate()
sys_send_keys("{^Y}")

Regardless of the different ways there are to bring up the find dialogue, it always comes up out of focus. That is, I either need to press Enter or click in the find box to gain focus.

Control-Y or clicking on the find by customer button will always give focus to the find dialogue, but I can't get focus on it when coming in from the Main Menu.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Jeff

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Are you trying to run the script on your find company button, without pushing the button?

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Are you trying to run the script on your find company button, without pushing the button?

Yes, that's right. The idea is when the user leaves the Main Menu and arrives at the order entry screen with a find dialog, the user can start to type the name of the company to find rather than first having to click in the find dialog or press the enter key. I can't get the find dialog to achieve focus; rather, it's grayed out upon arrival.

Jeff

[MoGrace]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

You might try a ui_yield() after opening the form and before you activate the button to be sure the form is finished loading. Or put your button pushing script into a function...?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Do you get the same result with:

':orders:button4.activate()
'sys_send_keys("{^Y}")

:orders.activate()
:orders:button4.push()

???

And, when moving from one form to another the action to close the current (calling) form is the last action in my script not my first.

-- tom

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Tom and Robin,

I've tried each of the suggestions but nothing has succeeded. I do find that focus remains on the button that was pushed to bring up the find dialog. I could not find a way to activate the find dialog, i.e., I don't know how to refer to it by name. Do you know how to reference the find dialog object? If so, I think that activating this object would be the answer.

By the way, the sys_send_keys is not really necessary, nor the :orders.activate(). It seems that the :orders:button4.push() is the only thing needed to bring up the find dialog. It's at that point when I want to shift the focus from the button to the dialog.

Thanks.

Jeff

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

No doubt about it. By activating another object after invoking the find dialog leaves the focus on that other object. So if I only knew how to reference the find dialog, I think the problem will be solved. I may try a send keys to a find dialog that waits for input, but better just to know how to reference the find dialog since the user should add the keys, not the program.

Jeff

[MoGrace]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

I seem to recall having the same trouble with the find dialog - and since it is a dialog, you can code your own. Instead I put a shared variable in similar locations on my forms, color it orange and fill it with a default value that clues the user as to the input data expected that works on the index for the form. Then I have a button next to it that allows the user to change the indexed field and find his record using a different key. That way the script does the find and fetches the record and leaves no dialog box to bring into focus. An alternative is to call an xdialog first where the user inputs the find data and let that dialog call the form.

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

I seem to recall having the same trouble with the find dialog - and since it is a dialog, you can code your own. Instead I put a shared variable in similar locations on my forms, color it orange and fill it with a default value that clues the user as to the input data expected that works on the index for the form. Then I have a button next to it that allows the user to change the indexed field and find his record using a different key. That way the script does the find and fetches the record and leaves no dialog box to bring into focus. An alternative is to call an xdialog first where the user inputs the find data and let that dialog call the form.

I guess these might work, but it's a bit much to go through this to achieve what should be a simple result. I just don't understand why, when you click on a button on a form that results in a find dialog that retains focus, the same action under script control returns focus back to the button rather than keeping it on the find dialog. I've been scouring the xbasic reference to see what possible way there is to simulate the actions when clicking on the button, but nothing came up. I also could not find anything that suggests a name for the find dialog (so I can activate it at the end), or anything that would de-activate the previously pushed button.

Maybe it is not possible to achieve focus on the find dialog when invoked through code, and I wish I knew this for sure, for "what is a fact but the point at which we allow investigation to cease?". Here I am, continuing to investigate something that, in the end, just has a user clicking into the find dialog, not a big inconvenience. It would just be more professional and elegant to have it result in the same way that they would see if they were just clicking the button themselves. The quest goes on.

Jeff

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Jeff,

Why not have the button on the calling form prompt the user for the desired value, and then open the form under script control that moves focus to the desired record?

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Jeff,

Why not have the button on the calling form prompt the user for the desired value, and then open the form under script control that moves focus to the desired record?

Maybe in the end I will need to do something like this. My starting point was not knowing why I could not achieve focus with the built in find dialog. It's just one of those anomalies that I would like to solve if it is solvable. Maybe the answer to this will open up answers to similar situations. I'm looking more for the answer than the workaround.

Jeff

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Ok, let us know what you discover.

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Jeff,

Why not have the button on the calling form prompt the user for the desired value, and then open the form under script control that moves focus to the desired record?

I guess there's a point at which you need to fish or cut bait. I think I'll do what you suggest. I already tested it and it works.

The sequence is as follows, for anyone interested in the same:

1. Set the index you want to use (in this case, by customer name).
2. Prompt for text and store result in a variable.
3. If the variable is not blank, do a find by key using the variable.

The prompt for text keeps the focus while the built-in find dialogs do not. Go figure.

Thanks for your help.

Jeff

[Jeff Fried]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

Ok, let us know what you discover.

My final version of this is all set. I formatted the prompt for text to look more like the find dialog. One additional thing I did, though, is not to have this "special" button be usable other than as its use on first coming in to the order entry screen. So I removed it as a tab stop and hid it and disabled it, which works. I wasn't sure whether there would be a downside to using a button which has a find by key using "another form" while in the "current form" that is the same.

If anyone discovers or knows how I could have achieved focus using the built-in find dialogs, I am all ears. Thanks.

Jeff

[CALocklin]

Re: Find dialog loses focus

I'm missing something here. Why are you using Ctrl-Y to open the Find dialog? Isn't the Find opened with Ctrl-K?

I've been using sys_send_keys( "{^K}" ) ever since Alpha "fixed" the way the Find dialog works so that now it doesn't have focus when opened with a "standard" .find action.

(FWIW: I don't think they really intended to "fix" anything. I think it just happened and they've never been willing to take the time to fix it. I know it was reported as a bug a long time ago. It worked fine in some earlier versions of A5 and maybe they finally fixed it in v11 but I don't have v11 yet since none of my customers are using or current need v11.)