menuPick doesn't fire if menu was dropped via "click at..."

[MichaelBluejay]

I'm trying to make a data entry app on my Mac. If you've done data entry, you know that keyboard control is essential; productivity is slowed down dramatically if the user has to constantly waste time going back and forth between the keyboard and the mouse.

My idea is [field] tab >> [field] tab >> [field] >> tab [option menu] type text or use arrow keys, return >> [option menu] type or arrows, return

I get from the last text field to the first option menu with "on tabkey / click at the loc of btn Account1". That drops the menu nicely, but when I hit Return to select a menu item, "on menuPick" does not fire, so the second option menu does not drop. "on menuPick" fires just fine if I drop the menu with a human click on the menu, but of course, I'm trying to handle this from the keyboard.

I'm stumped. Any ideas?

[Klaus]

Hi Michael,

hm, just made a quick test on my Mac with macOS 10.14.6 and LC 9.5:
One "option menu" button with this script:

Code: Select all

on menuPick pItemName
   put pItemName
end menuPick

So I can see if it works.
Then this in the card script:

Code: Select all

on tabKey
   click at the loc of btn 1
end tabKey

Now when I hit TAB, I can select the menus with the arrow keys and when I hit ENTER or RETURN
I see the selected menuitem in the message box!

Not sure what is going wrong on your side? Can you please post the involved script(s)?


Best

Klaus

[MichaelBluejay]

Thank you very much for the quick reply.

Okay, I stand corrected: menuPick does indeed fire when an item is selected via the keyboard. However, the second option menu just won't drop.

Code: Select all

on menuPick
   wait 1 milliseconds # Next menu doesn't pop unless we wait
   click at the loc of btn Account2_
   put the seconds
end menuPick

The "wait 1 milliseconds" is because even when choosing the menu item with the mouse, the next option menu won't pop unless I put in the delay.

I thought maybe with a keyboard selection I might just have to wait longer, but waiting even 5 seconds doesn't drop the second menu.

I do see "the seconds" populated in the message box.

So, the problem isn't that menuPick isn't firing, it's that the second menu is prejudiced against keyboard input on the first menu.

[Klaus]

Hi Michael,

ah, get it!
Yep, same here, nothing pops up after the first option menu.
No idea why this is so, but here a workaround, just put the popping of the next menu
into an extra handler and SEND it with a little delay.

This does work for the optionmenu buttons:

Code: Select all

## Optionmenu 1 in my example
on menuPick pItemName
   put pItemName
   send "nextmenu" to me in 1 millisecs
 end menuPick

## This will also go into this button:
## No idea why, but it does work reliably! :-)
command nextmenu
   click at the loc of btn "my option 2"
end nextmenu

Hint: Get used to put QUOTES around names of objects!

Code: Select all

...
   ## click at the loc of btn Account2_
   click at the loc of btn "Account2_"
...

Best

Klaus

[MichaelBluejay]

Thank you, Klaus. You saved my project!