Keyboard Navigation with Tab Control

Question

We have a tab control in a form and it has several pages.
On one of the tabs we show data from a multi row block, the first 3 columns are on the tab canvas, then we have a stacked canvas that scrolls left/right that shows the rest of the data. We fix the first three columns as they give context to the rest of the rwo that is scrolled within the tacked region.
Now the problem:
When focus is on one of the columns displayed on the tab page we can press CTRL-TAB and the tab switches to the next tab page.
If focus is on one of the fields on the stacked canvas CTRL-TAB doesn't navigate to the next tab page - it attempts to switch windows.
It looks like the items that aren't onthe tab canvas, but are on the stacked canvas, aren't party to the CTRL-TAB event?
Has anyone else experienved this problem? Or know of a work around?
Regards,
Bren

Answer 1

When I use CTRL-TAB just the trigger key-next-item fires. In our environment we use CTRL-PageUp/Down to switch the tab canvas. But I think the event that is really fired is key-nxtblk. So on forms-level I added the triggers key-nxtblk/prvblk that call my procedure next-/previous-tab-page.
In the when-new-forms-instance trigger I initiate a plsql-table, that has the following record type as a rowtype:
TYPE TabPage_Rec IS RECORD
(TabPage Varchar2(80),
First_item Varchar2(80));
So each tab page 'knows' its predecessor and successor. I then implemented two procedures next_tab_page and previous_tab_page, that iterate the plsql-table and set the canvas_property TOPMOST_TAB_PAGE to the requested value and navigate to the first item on the tab page.
That way you are mostly independent of the way your form is designed (blocks, items, order in object navigator). It is a bit of an investment and you have to keep it consistent to the way your form changes tabwise, but I found it quite handy.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Bettina