Combobox UI Components AND TAB

[Francis]

Hi all!!

I browse a lot of forums since 2 hours to find a way to set the "famous" Tab index for the combobox...!!

I also search for a way to set the focus to a UI Combobox....!!

I do not understand why Macromedia never think to make those properties standardized as the ones of the textboxes!!??

Why make it simple when you can make it hard!!

Thank in advance to every ones!!

[Francis]

As I see...

No one here can answer to my question!!!!!????

[mercuryshell]

are you testing in a browser or on your desktop standalone player? because you cannot tab to components outside a browser, even after you set a custom tab order. publish your file with HTML and open it up in your browser. if you set the tab order correctly, it will work!

I learned this the hard way....and yes, did post it here about a month ago.

good luck & hth,

[mercuryshell]

http://www.actionscript.org/forums/s...threadid=15737

there's my original post.

[Francis]

Ok mercuryshell!

But as I written, how to set a Tab index for a combobox????? + ???

And how to set the focus to a combo box???? + ??E100,000

I was wondering to swap the MS.Net Web controls to the Flash ones.... But I think that I'll keep the .Net ones!!

[mercuryshell]

ah, I see, you want to Tab within the list as well.

in my interfaces I've been tabbing to my comboboxes, and then once the cursor is there, the arrow up/down keys will take the user up and down the list, in lieu of a mouse action. that's the combobox built-in behavior.

I don't know why you would need to use the tab key within a list instead of the arrow key to navigate, but maybe you could try setting up a custom tab order and then assigning it to the index numbers of the list items using the following method:
myComboBox.setSelectedIndex(index)

or you could crack open the code for the combobox and try to replace the scripts for the arrow keys to the Tab, but that would be pretty tricky.

sorry couldn't be more help, good luck!

p.s. if you set up a custom tab order, your combobox will be focused when it's tabbed to. but it ONLY WORKS IN A BROWSER.

[Francis]

No...

That's not what I want... Hihihihi

I was badly explained may be?! Yep!

I have many comboboxes on my page...

As the text fields, I would like to set the Tab index... But I read all the Flash help witouht find any properties of something like the text fields Textfield.Tabindex = ?? for the Combobox! There is no Combobox.TabIndex property??!!

Also for setting the focus to a combobox is there someting like the textfield: Selection.Setfocus(Combobox???)

Thanks!

[mercuryshell]

you need to write to the INSTANCE NAME of the symbol - textfield, radiobutton, combobox or whatever - when setting the Tab Order, so you make a frame script like this:

// begin Tab Order
useCase_txt.tabEnabled;
useCase_txt.tabIndex = 0;
caseStatus_mc.tabIndex = 1;
radioNon_rb.tabIndex = 2;
adCheck_combo.tabIndex = 3;
retCode_txt.tabIndex = 4;
radioConf_rb.tabIndex = 5;
clDisplay_lb.tabIndex = 6;
// end

(and remember, tab orders using anything other than text fields must be run thru a browser in order to work. yes, that means it won't work in Test Movie OR in the Standalone, at least in Windows OS, in my experience so far. think I had it working on my Mac.)

so when the user Tabs to the componenet, it is in focus. I don't know how to do a "set focus" to a component, I tried it, too. that doesn't mean there's not a way, tho. ;-)

hth, good luck, I'm out.

[Francis]

Thanks Mercuryshell...!

That's a little bit amazing that Macromedia do not put that on theire help file!?

When I work with the Flash stuff, it's soo hard (hard by the complexity) that it get me back in the past in the DOS programming where you had to code all your objects yourself like listbox or combobox...

That's not a technology who can replace the html objects yet.

By the way, this forum for exemple use html fields and objects, because it's far easyer to use...