Fiveway navigation in pocket pc

Tribe,
In my Palm dev days we called it the FiveWay or 5-way. It's the rocker
nav pad with center button. We used it to navigate focus around data
entry screens. Well this functionality does not work as expected on a
pocket pc device. And now that I must support the Treo700 where the
5-way is extremely important in usage I'm a bit flumoxed with how to
make this 5-way nav pad work as it did in the Treo650.

Any clues or pointers or terminology corrections you can give me?

Thanks,
Dave Cline
~bangeye~

ctacke/>
Tue Jan 10 19:44:14 CST 2006

It simply sends cursor keys and a return. CE apps behave like desktop
Windows apps, so a cursor doesn't change fields. If you want it to do that,
capture the keys coming into the app and act accordingly depending on the
behavior you want.

-Chris

<davecline@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1136942640.898385.227360@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Tribe,
> In my Palm dev days we called it the FiveWay or 5-way. It's the rocker
> nav pad with center button. We used it to navigate focus around data
> entry screens. Well this functionality does not work as expected on a
> pocket pc device. And now that I must support the Treo700 where the
> 5-way is extremely important in usage I'm a bit flumoxed with how to
> make this 5-way nav pad work as it did in the Treo650.
>
> Any clues or pointers or terminology corrections you can give me?
>
> Thanks,
> Dave Cline
> ~bangeye~
>

davecline
Tue Jan 10 22:25:43 CST 2006

What you describe is technically feasible but apparently I would have
to add keypress code to each control as this event does not filter down
through the form but rather skips the form.

I can see this being a real problem with the new treo700 as EVERYONE I
know who has a treo650 (about 100 people) is addicted to using the
5-way (rocker is what it is apparently called in PPCCFPE).

So I need to come up with an inheritable way to handle this problem of
control navigation.

I've seen heresy to the effect of using MessageWindow but an elegant
solution to this is necessary as there will be thousands of PPCCFPEWM
developers for the Treo700 in the coming years.

PPCCFPEWM (what a morass of half redundant, utterly confusing names
Microsoft has created)

Regards,
Dave Cline
~ bangeye ~

ctacke/>
Tue Jan 10 22:48:43 CST 2006

Why ios a MessageWindow heretical? It's not the route I'd go, but it would
probably work. If a customer asked me to implement this, I'd add an
IMessageFilter implementation to the Form, scan for the cursor keys and
handle them at that point by probably turning them into tab or alt-tab key
presses. Of course if you're in a multiline text box or a combobox you'd
have to decide what to do. Of course I'd only do it after informing them
it's against expected Windows usability standards.

-Chris


<davecline@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1136953543.872993.292590@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> What you describe is technically feasible but apparently I would have
> to add keypress code to each control as this event does not filter down
> through the form but rather skips the form.
>
> I can see this being a real problem with the new treo700 as EVERYONE I
> know who has a treo650 (about 100 people) is addicted to using the
> 5-way (rocker is what it is apparently called in PPCCFPE).
>
> So I need to come up with an inheritable way to handle this problem of
> control navigation.
>
> I've seen heresy to the effect of using MessageWindow but an elegant
> solution to this is necessary as there will be thousands of PPCCFPEWM
> developers for the Treo700 in the coming years.
>
> PPCCFPEWM (what a morass of half redundant, utterly confusing names
> Microsoft has created)
>
> Regards,
> Dave Cline
> ~ bangeye ~
>

davecline
Tue Jan 10 23:34:32 CST 2006

Well if it's the only way to accomplish this then so be it. I'm afraid
I'll have to research IMessageFilter to see how that might be
accomplished.

I did go and get this code:
http://www.opennetcf.org/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=283&SearchTerms=hotkey

And added 37,38,39,40 (Left,Up,Right,Down) to it and have a somewhat
servicable solution. One of the really nice features of the Treo650
though was the focus ring. I've had to hand code a facimile to simulate
this effect and again, it's serviceable.

It's just that I'm appalled at the fact that Microsoft and Palm have
been working on this for 2 years and neglected to deal with this
glaring deficiency, which all the fanatical treo users find fundemental
in the usability the device.

Thanks for your guidance however.
Regards,
Dave Cline
~ bangeye ~

davecline
Tue Jan 10 23:37:31 CST 2006

Oh and sorry, hearsay not heresy.

-dc