KeyDown event not fired on floating window

Hello,

I think the problem here is that ToolWindow instances might get recreated on layout loads so you don't really want to attach to events like KeyDown directly on them.  Instead, I'd suggest that you attach to KeyDown on the root content control that is displayed within the tool window.

Could you elaborate on "attach KeyDown on the root content"? Specifically what changes to make in order to get the KeyDown event on the floating window in the scenario I described in the post above.

Thanks.

Hello,

I'm referring to whatever root control you use as the content of the tool window.  In your specific scenario, the root control of markupLabelToolWindow is markupLabel.  But perhaps you put some other UserControl, etc. to wrap that and put your KeyDown handler on it.

Thank you for the quick response.

I am still unable to capture the event. I attached a KeyDown event to the markupLabel in the sample application provided, restored the same layout file as described above, still did not get the popup message.

However, as soon as I press (Shit+Tab) after loading the layout and press any key, the message popup appears. It seems like the focus is not set to the correct object.

Note that I am only using the sample project provided with Actipro setup and I don't see a reason why the KeyDown event should not be captured as expected.

Our markup label control is just a display only control and doesn't really capture focus.  That could be part of what you just saw.  You might need to have some child control in the tool window that is actually focusable for KeyDown to be caught at that level.  I'd recommend swapping a TextBox or other focusable control in for the MarkupLabel instead and see if you still have the problem then.

Adding a text box inside and attaching a KeyDown event to the text box does show the popup but I am still having a hard time understanding why the orignal case is not throwing events initially. As soon as you dock and undock the markupLabelToolWindow, the events are getting fired as expected.

KeyDown only fires where the focus is within.  The ToolWindow control is marked as not Selectable, meaning when it gets focused (such as title bar clicks, etc.), it is supposed to be forwarding focus down to a focusable child control.  But since MarkupLabel isn't a focusable control, I'm not sure where focus goes.  If you have a focusable control somewhere in the ToolWindow, and have the KeyDown event attached to the root content control of the ToolWindow, then the KeyDown should work.  That's why I had you try the TextBox.  Because that is a focusable control and thus ensures that focus moves properly into the content of the ToolWindow in various scenarios.

I understand what you are saying with having a control that is focusable but that is not always the case. And if that were the case, the behavior should be consistent. However, docking the markupLabelToolWindow and floating it does start throwing the events although as per your explanation, it shouldn't be throwing any events since there are no focusable control on them.

I did some debugging and in this scenario, after the layout load, it appears the ToolWindowContainer has focus, which is the root control it the rafting Form.  Since that control is above any ToolWindow or content control in hierarchy, that's why KeyDown doesn't fire.

When you click the title bar of a docked tool window, it is manually focusing the ToolWindow.  Since there is no focusable child control in this scenario, WinForms is falling back to focus the ToolWindow.  In the case of a floating ToolWindow after a layout load, the title bar there is a system title bar and not our docked title bar.  So it's running different logic when clicked.  We added some code for the next maintenance release so that when the floating title bar is clicked, if the ToolWindowContainer has focus (which is the problem scenario here) it will focus the ToolWindow (or a focusable child control if available).  This should help.