Question

How to send a TAB key to form with code?

Asked by: codefinger

My WinForm has a treeview on the left side, clicking on a node determines what displays on the right hand side of the form using the treeview's afterselect event.

Right after a node is clicked,  I want the editing cursor to display in the 2nd editable textbox on the right hand side of the screen, but my efforts to set focus to that textbox remain in vain.  The focus remains on the treeview control no matter what code I  put in its AfterSelect event.  The Treeview control has tabstop = 0, but clicking on it apparently overrides that setting, which is understandable, but then no matter how many times my subsequent code says TextBox2.Focus(), the cursor will  not move to it.  I've even tried coding it in the MouseUp event of the Treeview control and still  no dice.

However, if I physically press the Tab key right after the Treeview node is clicked, then everything assumes the initial state I am seeking.  

So (assuming this is the only approach that will work) how do I programmatically send a Tab key to the form via VB.NET code?

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Asked On
2009-10-06 at 15:27:06ID24790744
Tags

winforms

,

treeview

,

vb.net

,

focus

,

raiseevent

Topics

VB Controls

,

.NET

,

Microsoft Visual Basic.Net

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: rettiseertPosted on 2009-10-06 at 15:31:29ID: 25510616

Hi

have you tried my.application.doevents() before focus() ?

if that doesnt work you can use

SendKeys.Send("{TAB}")

 

by: EladlaPosted on 2009-10-06 at 15:33:32ID: 25510632

You can also try From.ActiveControl = ControlName.

 

by: EladlaPosted on 2009-10-06 at 15:35:14ID: 25510640

You can also try ControlName.Select.

 

by: CodeCruiserPosted on 2009-10-07 at 03:15:26ID: 25513666

 

by: EladlaPosted on 2009-10-07 at 03:33:27ID: 25513783

Thanks Mr. Cruiser. Nice to know I was right :)

 

by: codefingerPosted on 2009-10-07 at 07:25:09ID: 25515796

Thanks for the multiple  prompt replies everyone, unfortunately only SendKeys fixed my problem.
"SendKeys" has a bad  reputation in my shop due to its  overuse and misuse in previous applications,  so if there is a way to avoid using it and still accomplish my goal,  I  would be most interested,  otherwise SendKeys response wins.

Try this:
Make a  new vb.net winforms project.
Make a new form.
On the form place a treeview  control and two text boxes.
Set TabOrder on the treeview control to false and  accept the default tabs on the two text boxes.
Add a parent and child node to the treeview control.
In the Treeview's AfterSelect event, provide code to set the blinking cursor to the 2nd text box.
Run the project.
The form displays with the cursor blinking in the first text box.
Click a node of the treeview control.

What I want to happen is the  blinking cursor appears in the 2nd text box.
Can anyone make  that happen without using SendKeys?  
I can't.



 

by: EladlaPosted on 2009-10-07 at 07:34:12ID: 25515928

SendKey IS a bad idea since it is dependent on tab order and this can change for many reasons.
I`m not at my VS computer now, so I can`t recreate your senario, but I have an idea.
You can try setting the focus to the form holding both controls and then set the focus to the textbox
(using .select like I said before, not .focus)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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