topic ui_dialog - force active ui_infield (ui_outfield) ? in GDL

ui_dialog - force active ui_infield (ui_outfield) ?

gaba — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 07:20:43 GMT

I've been struggling with this problem for a long time.

When I type something in ui_infield, archicad refreshes the entire ui_dialog etc. and selects the entire content of ui_infield (highlights all text). And this can cause problems!

Because when I want to continue writing, I have to be careful and put the cursor at the end! If I don't do this and start typing, I can accidentally lose all the text I typed earlier! It's really annoying!

What trick can I use to get around this problem? Maybe after refreshing the window, automatically force the cursor to move to some unimportant e.g. ui_outfield?
Is it even possible to force a specific ui_outfield/ui_infield to be active after opening/refreshing the ui_dialog window?

Re: ui_dialog - force active ui_infield (ui_outfield) ?

vlahtinen — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 09:58:16 GMT

I don’t know any way to do this via GDL, but I think the behaviour is controlled by Dialog Box Auto-Update Delay setting in Work Environment settings, see Archicad 27 help page. That is, the selection of entered text happens after the delay when Archicad “validates” the input. In my opinion, this is totally unnecessary for text fields and should not behave like this. In our office we have set the delay to a quite large value.

Re: ui_dialog - force active ui_infield (ui_outfield) ?

gaba — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 10:51:20 GMT

I also thought about increasing the auto update delay of the dialog. I usually use 0.8-1 second
But this is really unnecessary for text fields - especially in ui_dialog! Because it creates confusion.

Since for example I set the auto update delay of the dialog to 60 seconds and then I type some content into ui_infield to "confirm" it, I can't use ENTER automatically (because ENTER will close the whole ui_dialog - and I don't want that).

So to confirm the entered content I should move the cursor, e.g. to another ui_infield or click some ui_button etc.
For different dropdowns the auto update delay of the dialog is not a problem.

However, the ui_input text should have additional optional flags (+...64, 128, 256, 512...) so that it is not AUTOMATICALLY HIGHLIGHTED when typing content after the normal dialog auto update delay (e.g. 0.8-1 second).