Hotkey behavior

[tlyon]

Odd.

On forms that have buttons with scripts attached, clicking the button isn;'t the same as using the button's hotkey. I find this to be most evident when the button script shifts focus to another form. When clicking it, focus shifts properly. I'm using two popup forms in this case. Bug or feature?

Tom Lyon

[forskare]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Tom,

This may seem like a goofy question but, what's the purpose of the hotkey?

kenn

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Tom,

Although I don't usually use button hotkeys (too many key combinations), I ran a test on one form that uses buttons to open dialog forms and the hotkey works exactly the same as pressing the button. Maybe you could post a sample button script. One thing I have seen is if you open one form as a dialog from a main form, and then open a second form from that dialog, "parentform" will refer back to the original main form, not the first dialog opened. This can lead to some surprising results.

Jerry

[tlyon]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Here is the button script:

PARENT.commit()
	:Callsset:addrecord.Push()
	:Callsset:Linenumber.value = right(station, 1)
	:Callsset:Username.value = :Signup_Set:Username1.value
	:Callsset:Name.value = trim(:Signup_Set:First_Name.value) + " " + trim(:Signup_Set:Last_Name.value)
	:Callsset:Home_Phone.value = :Signup_Set:Home_Phone.value
	if iif(Table.field_get("signup->virtual").value_get(),"T","F") = "T" then
		:Callsset:Callnature.value = "* VIRTUAL SERVER ACCOUNT *" + :Callsset:Callnature.value
	end if
	if iif(Table.field_get("signup->sleep").value_get(),"T","F") = "T" then
		:Callsset:Callnature.value = "*** USER SLEPT *** " + :Callsset:Callnature.value
	end if
	if iif(Table.field_get("signup->cancel").value_get(),"T","F") = "T" then
		:Callsset:Callnature.value = "*** USER CANCELLED *** " + :Callsset:Callnature.value
	end if
action = "call transfer"
parameter = username
script_play("audit")
:Callsset:Callnature.Activate()
end

...and here is the 'audit' script called from the button:

''XBasic
tbl = table.open("audit", FILE_RW_SHARED)
tbl.enter_begin()
	tbl.station = station
	tbl.techname = techname
	tbl.time = time()
	tbl.date = date()
	tbl.action = action
	tbl.parameter = parameter
tbl.enter_end(.T.)
tbl.close()
end

[tlyon]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Basically, a hotkey, also called an accelerator key, is a shortcut key that can be assigned to any button by prepending the button text with an ampersand. This causes A5 to trap, say, CTRL-Y and simulate a button press via the keyboard when the key combination is invoked.

Does that kind of explain it?

Tom Lyon

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Just another thought. What is the hotkey combination? If this combination is a reserved combination like CTRL-E, this could cause problems. The usersguide gives a list of available combinations.

Jerry

[forskare]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Yup,

For some reason, I confused it with the 'Hotspot" and was trying to figure out why you needed both to do the same thing. Oh, Duh! Must be 2 nights in a row of short sleep. My only excuse!

Thanks Tom,

kenn

[tlyon]

RE: Hotkey behavior

In this case, it is CTRL-A. I have no menus and the A5 window is hidden, so it should be a good hotkey choice. If not, I'm showing my rookie side, again :)

Tom Lyon

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Tom,

A little more experimentation and I was able to get a similar result as you. The problem seems to be that as long as you hold down the key combination the hotkey continues to fire. If you happen to have the same hotkey on the form being opened, it will also fire almost immediately. This could obviously cause some odd behavior. Even if you trap the hotkey with the OnKey event, you get the same result.
In my test case, CTRL-A pushed a button to run a script and open a form as a dialog. On the dialog, I had a button with the same hotkey combination that closed the dialog form. Holding down CTRL-A would eventually crash the computer as I could get multiple dialogs open and the script running multiple times.

Jerry

[russ Boehle]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Maybe to prevent the hotkey from repeating, which is normal behaviour for a key kpet pressed, you could add code so the action won't repeat until a keyup occurs, (while keydown or waitfor keyup or whatever) then allow it to reset the action. I haven't really thought this through but have played around a little with using single key hotkeys and modal forms and found the results to be inconsistent, or odd. I am hoping this works better in V5 and know that there will be a key trapping genie in v5 that I hope will address this.

Russ

[tlyon]

RE: Hotkey behavior

Good point, Jerry. I'd forgotten that keys tend to repeat. OnKey with a key buffer flush *might* work, but you know, it looks like a single click with the mouse is so much easier to deal with at this point :)

Tom Lyon