Activate text buttons with hot-key

[dalekent]

I have a custom toolbar on a form. The buttons on this toolbar are text buttons that execute predefined actions (e.g. "Add New Record". How can I get this button pushed using a hot-key (e.g. Ctrl-A), instead of having the user click on it with the mouse? This functionality exists in the A5 program itself. For example, on the system toolbar, Alt-F produces the same effect as clicking on "File" (the "F" is underscored).
How can I get the same functionality for the text buttons on my custom toolbar?
I could find nothing about how to do this in any of the help files, and nothing in past messages on the board.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Activate text buttons with hot-key

Haven't done what you are attempting. Suggest you investigate the OnKey event for your form, after first verifying that the usual accelerator key approach (used for buttons) fails to work. -- t

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Activate text buttons with hot-key

It is possible to invoke a toolbar action with a "hot key" even if the toolbar action doesn't already have a hot key defined. The normal method is to use the OnKey event and specify the action you want.

However, it is possible to "push" a toolbar event (button) and have the toolbar code set the action. The method isn't obvious, and requires some xbasic. Any Alpha toolbar is just a modeless xdialog. Using the xdialog functions, you can force any event in the xdialog (toolbar). There are a number of steps to the process.

1. Get the toolbar name. The easiest method is to undock the toolar and get the name from the title. Typically, a form toolbar will be named "form View"

2. Open the toolbar in the toolbar editor

3. On the toolbar appearance tab, clicck the little checkbox at the bottom to display the xbasic tab

4. The xbasic tab show the xdialog code. What you are looking for is the event you want to invoke or "push". This is the text after a ! on a line. For example, if you open the "invoice" toolbar for AlphaSports, one line has this code.

"%B=System;T=Browse View (F8);I=$a5_browse;%!command:SYSTEM_BROWSEVIEW?topparent.restrict_browse=.f."

This line is a button command that opens the browse view form the form. The event code text is

!command:SYSTEM_BROWSEVIEW

5. Now you can build the correct OnKey code to "push" the Browse View "button" on the toolbar using

ui_dlg_event()

to force the event. Here is the code for the AlphaSports Invoice form OnKey event to open the browse view using F2

IF a_user.key.value = "{F2}"
a_user.key.handled = .T.
IF a_user.key.event = "down" THEN
if ui_modeless_dlg_exist("Form View")
ui_dlg_event("Form View","command:SYSTEM_BROWSEVIEW",.t.)
end if
END IF
END IF

This method requires some knowledge of xbasic and xdialog and the various commands. But it is a slick way to create your own hotkeys for a toolbar.

Jerry

[dalekent]

RE: Activate text buttons with hot-key

Tom & Jerry,
Thanks for your replies. I got the hot-key to work.
I have a custom toolbar on my form. One of the text buttons
on that toolbar says "Add Record". I am able to push that
button with the hot-key (Ctrl-A). However, I can't figure
out a way to have the "A" in "Add Record" be underscored,
so that the user knows that Ctrl-A is the hot-key for that
button.
I searched past messages and got the hint that, in order to
accomplish this underscoring, I need to put an "&" in front
of the "A" in the text box in the toolbar editor, and that
this will result in the "A" being underscored when
it is on the text button of my custom toolbar. However, this
does not do the job. So I must be putting the "&" in the
wrong place.
I have included a screenshot of my toolbar editor in order
to show where I put the "&". It is right in front of the
"A" in the "Add Record" entry in the Text line of the
Button Definition column.

BTW, I am using the Home Edition of A5V5.

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Activate text buttons with hot-key

Dale

Accelerator keys using & only works for menus, not toolbars. If you have a need for the accelerator display, use a menu instead of a toolbar. A rule of thumb (one we all break from time to time) is to use menus for text and toolbars for graphics.

Jerry