Add support for TAB key selection

[jstayton]

[NOTE: From email correspondence.]

Justin,

Sorry to bother you and thanks for writing such a great jQuery plugin. I have a quick question if you have the time:

In order to select an item from a marcopolo drop down list i have to either:

1. arrow down to an item in the list and press enter.
2. mouse over and click an item in the list.

Q: How can I add a third way to select an item such that the user can arrow down to select an item and then press the TAB key to jump to the next field and select the highlighted value. At present the currently highlighted item is not stored in the field's value if you TAB away as opposed to pressing the ENTER key.

Thanks,

Brady

[jstayton]

Hey Brady,

So sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I'm in the midst of traveling, but I should have some time this coming week to look into your question. Thanks for your patience!

Justin

[jstayton]

Thanks, and enjoy your trip. I look forward to hearing from you.

-Brady

[jstayton]

Hey Brady,

Thanks for holding tight. I'm back from my travels now and have some time to focus on Marco Polo.

There's no easy way to do what you're asking with the currently exposed methods. But I am intrigued by your suggestion. What's your thinking behind this tab-to-select functionality? Is it a common pattern that you've seen with similar UI elements? I've been looking at regular elements in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, and none of them allow tab-to-select, almost certainly because people have been trained that tab moves you to the next field. That's my biggest concern.

Let me know what you think.

Justin

jstayton commented 12 years ago

Justin,

I am using marcopolo and jquery to help users fill out forms on my company's intranet site. I have attached a jpeg of one of the forms. The marcopolo code creates the drop down select menu you see in the form, of course. I have also added a function so that after the user fills in the field (or marcopolo fills it in for them when they select from the menu) other specific fields in the form are automatically populated with data from a database. So you might fill in Item# and it pulls Brand and Vendor Item# from the database and fills those fields for you.

A lot of users navigate forms using the tab key to jump to the next field. They type something into the field, tab to the next field, type something, tab, etc. So, I think it feels natural for these people to arrow down to an item in a marcopolo generated menu and then press tab to move on to the next field expecting that the selected item will be filled into the current field.

Before Google implemented their new instant search results feature I noticed that tab to select didn't work on their drop down menu either. It seems like I recall noticing one day that they had managed to get it working, and then they transitioned to the new instant search not long after that.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look at this. I hope some of it has been insightful from a UI perspective.

Thanks,

Brady

jstayton commented 12 years ago

Hey Brady,

Thanks for the details! That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to make note of this feature request for inclusion in a future version.

Justin

jstayton commented 12 years ago

Hey Brady,

Support for TAB key selection has made it into v1.7.0, just released today. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

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[jstayton]

Justin,

I am using marcopolo and jquery to help users fill out forms on my company's intranet site. I have attached a jpeg of one of the forms. The marcopolo code creates the drop down select menu you see in the form, of course. I have also added a function so that after the user fills in the field (or marcopolo fills it in for them when they select from the menu) other specific fields in the form are automatically populated with data from a database. So you might fill in Item# and it pulls Brand and Vendor Item# from the database and fills those fields for you.

A lot of users navigate forms using the tab key to jump to the next field. They type something into the field, tab to the next field, type something, tab, etc. So, I think it feels natural for these people to arrow down to an item in a marcopolo generated menu and then press tab to move on to the next field expecting that the selected item will be filled into the current field.

Before Google implemented their new instant search results feature I noticed that tab to select didn't work on their drop down menu either. It seems like I recall noticing one day that they had managed to get it working, and then they transitioned to the new instant search not long after that.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look at this. I hope some of it has been insightful from a UI perspective.

Thanks,

Brady

[jstayton]

Hey Brady,

Thanks for the details! That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to make note of this feature request for inclusion in a future version.

Justin

[jstayton]

Hey Brady,

Support for TAB key selection has made it into v1.7.0, just released today. Let me know what you think. Thanks!