ui-text-input should send user input when Enter is pressed

[colin-grierson]

Description

Currently the widget does not send user input until the cursor is taken outside of the widget - by tabbing past the last input position or clicking elsewhere. When I first tested my widget, set for time entry, I found this very confusing: I typed my time, pressed Enter - nothing happened. I used the selector popup - chose the time I wanted clicked, double clicked - still nothing happened. Got quite frustrated. Eventually I happened to tab past the seconds and out of the widget - and my time was sent. Similarly for text format the Enter key does nothing. I feel this is very unintuitive and a bad UI. Enter should send the value the user has input (unless it is invalid or incomplete of course)

Epic/Story

No response

Have you provided an initial effort estimate for this issue?

I am no FlowFuse team member

[colinl]

For information, D1 does send on Enter.

Also the Delay field is not yet implemented. That is available in the D1 text in node and says that a message will be sent after a change and configured time of inactivity.

[joepavitt]

Agree entirely, will add to the list. Thanks for raising

[joepavitt]

Implementing this now, and just wanted to share an change I've made to the config vs. Dashboard 1.0:

[joepavitt]

Provides way more customisation and clarity on the behaviour, rather than needing to set delay to 0

[colinl]

Does the comment in yellow mean that if one enters the same value twice then it will only be sent once? I am not sure that is desirable. I think if the user keys in a value then it should be sent even if the value is the same as last time.

[joepavitt]

I am not sure that is desirable. I think if the user keys in a value then it should be sent even if the value is the same as last time.

I have built it to match how Dashboard 1.0 operates.

This prevents a case where, if we have "send on delay" and "send on blur" enabled, only one fires, as realistically that's what the user will want.

I have since updated that yellow comment though, as "send on enter" will always fire, that's an active step taken by the user to send input, so it will abide by that.

[colinl]

What happens if, for example, send on delay 1 second is configured, and the user:

1. Hits the numeric 1 key
2. Waits more than 1 second
3. Erases the '1' and hits the 1 key again
4. Waits more that one second

I would expect the node to send "1" at point 2 and again at point 4, even though there is no change since the last value sent.

[joepavitt]

Great summary @colinl - that wouldn't work right now in the Open PR, but it's a one line change for it to start working, so will sort that before merging

[colinl]

Perhaps the comment needs adjusting too, to clarify the operation.

[joepavitt]

Done in https://github.com/FlowFuse/node-red-dashboard/pull/365/commits/c2ffaa6fbc59644e76a087af7b0f1aef7bf9cb07

[colin-grierson]

What are the defaults for Delay, Focus Leave and Press Enter options?

• I think they should be No, Yes, Yes respectively... Putting my user hat on and imagining I am using a widget, which I open, start keying, ponder... I would not expect - in most cases definitely not want - the widget to post my half keyed input. I think automatically sending input after a delay, with focus never leaving the widget, would only be desirable in a few specialized situations. Most of the time this will not be what people expect to happen.

[colin-grierson]

Making the action explicit and selectable is a great idea!

[joepavitt]

I think they should be No, Yes, Yes respectively

Good points, I have made it so: https://github.com/FlowFuse/node-red-dashboard/pull/365/commits/ac4cef75bb94c1fce0384a67f065d8a0b92d4634