Declined
Last Updated: 09 Jan 2020 15:34 by ADMIN
Leah
Created on: 02 Jan 2020 17:03
Category: Grid
Type: Feature Request
1
grid keyboard nav

I would like to request additional keyboard navigation functionality with the grid.  We are using the grid as a sort of spreadsheet, for teachers to enter grades.  Teachers want to move down the column in the grid by pressing the enter key after typing each grade, in order to move their focus to the field below.  After pressing enter, the field below should be focused and editable.  When pressing enter at the bottom of the column, focus should be brought to the top of the next column.  Using shift+enter would move the focus up a row, and if at the top of a column, would bring focus to the bottom of the column to the left.

This behavior differs from the current grid keyboard navigation, I believe, in that we need the navigation to be present and the fields within each cell to be editable at the same time.  The teacher will not want to switch between navigating and editing, they want to quickly enter their scores going down the column, like a spreadsheet.

We have tried to implement this ourselves and have been mostly successful, but the area where we are having issues beyond our control is when using virtual scrolling.  As the grid swaps out its rows for the next set of data, the user's focus is moved to a different cell where we do not wish to have the focus at that point.  We have attempted to immediately move the focus back to the cell it should be in, but the user can type faster than we are able to regain control of the focus and we wind up with grades in cells where they shouldn't be.  We have tried using the pageChange event, but that occurs after the page has already changed and the focus has already been moved somewhere we don't want it.  If you have any suggestions for dealing with this in the meantime that would be most helpful.

Thank you!

1 comment
ADMIN
T. Tsonev
Posted on: 09 Jan 2020 15:34

Hi Leah,

The scenario you describe is ideal scenario for a customization example. The Grid API should be able to support it as well as many other variations.

I've prepared a demo based the approach from the Controlling the Focus example. I've opted to use in-cell editing as rendering inputs in data cells is not optimal in many respects.

I'm closing this feature request, as we want to keep the stock behavior as close as possible to the WAI-ARIA recommendations.

Best Regards,
T. Tsonev
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