Keyboard navigation

Jan Andersson

June 10, 2016 at 12:19 am #2103

Hi!

A requirement of a couple of our customers is to be able to navigate the coach using keyboard only. This is how they are used to work and they strongly feel that having to use a mouse or similar would make them much less efficient. So I am browsing through the SPARK UI toolkit to see how the different CVs perform regarding this.

Started with a service data table. With the CVs I tried as columns (text input, select list, check box), it was possible to manipulate these with the keyboard only. But the “select row” radio button (table was configured as single select) was just possible to select a first time when no row was selected. Subsequently it was not possible to navigate by keyboard to the radio button on any other row, pressing tab just skipped over that cell. So the row selection could not be changed.

Generalizing the question, how far stretches the support for navigating and completing a coach using keyboard only?

Regards, Jan

Jan Andersson

June 13, 2016 at 2:24 am #2115

Did some more testing, this time with a Table CV. Findings:

1. If the table’s page sizer is viewed (the Show Page Sizer option is selected), tabbing to the table makes the cursor stuck in the page sizer input field. Don’t know how to get out of it using the keyboard only.
2. If the table is configured as single select, you can select a radio button at a start of a row (tab to it and press space bar), but after this has been done, tabbing through the table skips the column with the radio buttons. Consequently, you cannot select any other row using the keyboard only.
3. The observation in 2. also counts for when you have radio buttons in other columns of the table, in a way I don’t fully understand.
4. If you have a Switch CV in one column, tabbing through the table skips the cells of that column. So you can not set the switch using the keyboard.

Brian French

June 14, 2016 at 7:45 pm #2150

Hi Jan,

If there was a product feature request somewhere in that last thread then I suggest you route it through IBM as they will be taking over the roadmap since they are integrating the product into IBM BPM (will probably take about a year).  We are transitioning the decisions for product features to them. We will still do monthly releases, but we won’t have as much control over what makes it into a release.

Jan Andersson

June 15, 2016 at 12:10 am #2153

More testing:

You can change radio button selection for a single select table, by tabbing to the selected radio button and then using the up/down keys. So it is ok.

Tabbing through the CVs of a coach skips a Switch CV also when it is placed directly on the coach. So table does not have anything to do with it being skipped. The same goes for the Image CV. Neither of them have the Tab Index configuration option. Is this a general finding?

Since most CVs have tab indices and navigating them by the keyboard actually works in most cases, I would think that it should work generally for all CVs for which it makes sense. Both the Switch and the Image can be manipulated by the user clicking on them. It does not seem to be a reason why these CVs should not be accessible by the keyboard. It might be that I have not understood how to navigate them, but if not I would argue that the shortcomings are bugs rather than missing features. So no, the postings were not meant to be feature requests.

Brian French

June 18, 2016 at 5:59 pm #2198

Hi Jan,

We will ask the engineering team to take a look and see if they believe it is a bug as you are suggesting in your last post.

Thanks