Go To Button Scripting?

[Matt Klein]

With the release of FileMaker 8, buttons on layouts can now be included in the tab order so the user can tab to a button and hit Shift or Return to perform the actions associated with that button such as running a script.

Tabbing through the fields can be simulated using ScriptMaker's Go To Field[] script step. Using this method skips over buttons that are in the tab order though.

Does anyone know a way to script the tabbing to a button in the tab order?

[comment]

Perform Script[]?

[Matt Klein]

Doesn't really answer the question Comment.

[comment]

I am well aware of that - hence the question mark. It indicates that your question is not making much sense to me. I can understand Go To Field[] and do something to the field (or pause and let user do something to the field/s). The only thing you can do to a button is fire it, i.e. perform a script. For this, you don't need to go to the button - you can fire the script expressly.

[Matt Klein]

Expressly firing the script with the Perform Script[] step takes the choice of whether to run the script or not away from the user. I am not looking to fire the script. That is up to the user . I just want to go to the button using a script step.

In my solution, I am controlling the navigation from field to field using a plug-in to trap the tab key, perform some script steps then move to either the next field or the previous field depending on whether the user pressed Tab or Shift-Tab using the Go To Field[] step.

The problem is that using this method doesn't follow the tab order. It skips non-fields in the tab order as would make a certain amount of sense given that the step being used is Go To Field[] and not something like Go To Element[].

[comment]

You can always give the choice to the user by using a custom dialog. I need to confess a bias here: tabbing to a button (or to an object in general) makes no sense to me, I am not aware of any other application that employs a similar UI element, and IMHO it is simply not good user interface (an opinion supported by the Apple Human Interface Guidelines).

That said, I don't know of a way to script tabbing to a button. Perhaps your plugin can trap a succession of tab-Enter (fire) vs. tab-tab (skip).

[Matt Klein]

I don't disagree with you regarding the tabbing to objects. I, in general, remove all buttons from the tab order on all my layouts in FM8 including the Tab Control tabs. In this instance, I feel like it would be a nice feature to have the user able to tab to the button.

I will explore the dialog box method. Perhaps running a script on field exit that presents a dialog box when the field has been modified would be useful.