#3324 [Web UI] Improve keyboard support of dropdown list
Closed: Fixed None Opened 11 years ago by pvoborni.

The drop-down list cannot be operated with a keyboard. The window get closed after changing the value by keyboard - no further value can be selected.

The focus area (surrounded by dotted lines) of the down arrow in the drop-down list is incorrect. Try clicking inside a drop-down list, then hit Tab. Right now the focus area appears on the right side of the arrow and very tiny. Ideally the focus area should be a box around the arrow. This is also a separate issue.


There wasn't any keyboard control for combobox -> almost RFE ticket. I'll send patch and create design page soon.
The actual behavior might be reviewed by UXD.

Master:

  • 32a7801 Combobox keyboard support

New behavior:
Combobox can be controlled just by using keyboard.

When value list is closed, user can:
- use UP and DOWN error to open list, it will focus the list and
select previous/next value
- when CB is non-editable, user can start typing, first character will open list, second will be entered into search input. Note: I wanted to copy the first char to the search box as well, but I did not figure out reliable method for converting keycode to char for non ASCII keyboard layouts
- ESCAPE, ENTER, TAB keys are handled to allow keyboard operations in a container

When value list is opened:
- CB tries to keep focus on either search input or a select
- when focus is lost, the value list is closed. So user can click anywhere on a page to close it - two comboboxes can't be opened on the same time
- hitting TAB key switches between search and select
- if CB is not searchable, hitting TAB will close the value list and select input textbox
- hitting ESCAPE on will close the value list
- hitting ENTER on search input will invoke search operation
- hitting ENTER on select will close the value list
- hitting UP/DOWN arrows will select previous/next values

Additional modifications:
- opening arrow and search button were made non-focusable. It fixes the 'wrong focus area' bug and simplifies keyboard usage. It doesn't affect mouse usage.

ipa-3-1:

  • a8723bb Combobox keyboard support

Metadata Update from @pvoborni:
- Issue assigned to pvoborni
- Issue set to the milestone: FreeIPA 3.2 - 2013/02

7 years ago

Login to comment on this ticket.

Metadata