Rapid data entry in SelectItem / Improvements to SelectItem

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic

I just noticed (current 5.1p) that if you use keyboard-only entry, the following does not work

• expanding SelectItem that currently has the focus ("F4" in Windows)
• scrolling un-expanded SelectItem with Pg-Up/Pg-Down (normal Up / Down is working)
  • most likely this is because Pg-Up/Pg-Down don't change the selection, also not in an expanded SelectItem
• In Sample dep_selectects_db_combobox_category, the (expanded) right box supports jumping to entries with letter-Keys, the (expanded) left one does not.
• In Sample multi_select_combobox_category (SelectItem expanded), it is possible to jump to "China" by pressing "C", but not to "Canada"
  • It is not possible to jump to "United States" (1st entry) at all (Off-by-one somewhere?)
• (Jumping to an entry in a sorted list by start to enter the whole string is not working. I read about this before somewhere in the forum.)

All of these have no importance for me, this is more of a FYI.
I noticed it because I was doing the very same thing in Windows before and it did not work for a SelectItem in my application.

Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

We've made a bunch of changes that should improve things for you - please retest your issues with a build dated February 28 or later.

Note that, as documented, pickLists are expanded with Alt-Down.

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

I retested with the online sample (v10.1p_2016-03-03).
It seems that

In Sample multi_select_combobox_category (SelectItem expanded), it is possible to jump to "China" by pressing "C", but not to "Canada"

• It is not possible to jump to "United States" (1st entry) at all (Off-by-one somewhere?)

is fixed. I did not notice any other changes.

I also found the threads to the Multiple-letter search (linked for completeness).

Thank you for the hint on Alt-Down.

Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

As noted in the threads you linked to - multi-char searching in SelectItems is not currently supported. You can use a ComboBoxItem to do that.

We made some changes for you other reports:

PgUp/PgDown support was only added to 11.0/6.0, because it wasn't a bug.

In Sample dep_selectects_db_combobox_category, both SelectItem will now jump to an entry that starts with the letter you type, but only if it is in the current client-side cache.

And "(Jumping to an entry in a sorted list by start to enter the whole string is not working. I read about this before somewhere in the forum.)" - we're not sure what you mean here. But again, SelectItems do no currently support multi-char searching.

[Isomorphic]

Quick update - we went ahead and added some features - these have all been ported back to 10.1 and will be in builds dated March 18 and later.

1) Multi-char searching
2) Partial-cache searching
3) PageUp/Down support

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

thanks for adding, I think those minor but superb features is what makes a great product.

Unfortunately the change from #4 is not working for me, yet. I tried the linked online showcase, which currently uses SNAPSHOT_v11.0d_2016-03-16.

• PgUp/PgDown does not select a different item.
• Partial-cache searching (Pressing letter keys in an either open or closed SelectItem) does not work.

I'll try those and Multi-char searching in the 5.1 showcase as well after the March 18 build.

By "(Jumping to an entry in a sorted list by start to enter the whole string is not working. I read about this before somewhere in the forum.)" I meant Multi-char searching. This was before I found the other threads and new the technical name for the feature.

Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

Yes - they didn't hit the code-base until today - they'll be in builds dated March 18 and later.

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

I tried with the updated online showcase (6.0d, March, 18th):

• PageUp/Down support: Working
• Partial-cache searching: Working
• Multi-char searching: Working

Actually Partial-cache searching and Multi-char searching are the same, aren't they?

The In Sample multi_select_combobox_category (SelectItem expanded), it is possible to jump to "China" by pressing "C", but not to "Canada" from post#1 is now obviously not working anymore (one has to enter "Ca..." or "Ch..."). So as enhancement (again, not needed, perfect the way it is) you could add a setter for the time keypresses between C-a-n-a-d-a may take, where "0" makes subsequent "C" jump between Canada and China.

Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

Apologies, your latter point was an oversight on our part - we'd implemented repeated character-pressing (along with separate multi-char) in the SelectItem itself (ie, when the PickList is closed) but hadn't updated the similar code in PickList. That's fixed for builds dated march 20.

Partial-cache and multi-char searching are not the same - until these changes, searching did not take place *at all* if the pickList was closed and there was a partial cache.

Now, it will search for a single or multi-char buffer whether or not the pickList is open, and whether or not all data is client-side.

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

using the online showcase and SNAPSHOT_v11.0d_2016-03-20, I can see that:

• Repeated "C" jump between Canada and China in either expanded or closed SelectItem in this sample
• Writing "Glue " plus letter "U" or plus letter "P" jumps to the expected entry in this sample

I did not test client-side search with partial cache, but I assume that this happens seldom anyway. A SelectItem with setAllowEmptyValue(true) always has all data and if a SelectItem with setAllowEmptyValue(false) exceeds the default dataPageSize of 75, one will use a ComboBoxItem anyway.

So thanks for adding, end-users will like the behavior and developers don't have to do anything but re-download to have a new great feature.

Best regards
Blama