RFR: 8340852: ScrollPane should not consume navigation keys when it doesn't have direct focus

[Andy Goryachev]

On Thu, 26 Sep 2024 21:17:55 GMT, John Hendrikx <jhendrikx at openjdk.org> wrote:

> This change modifies `ScrollPaneBehavior` to only consume keys that are targetted at it.  As `KeyEvent`s are in almost all cases only intended for the targetted node (as visually that's where the user expects the keyboard input to go, as per normal UI rules) consuming key events that bubble up is simply incorrect.  When the `ScrollPane` is focused directly (it has the focused border) then it is fine for it to respond to all kinds of keys.
> 
> In FX controls normally there is no need to check if a `Control` is focused (although they probably should **all** do this) as they do not have children that could have received the Key Events involved, and Key Events are always sent to the focused Node.  When `ScrollPane` was developed this was not taken into account, leading to it consuming keys not intended for it.
> 
> This fixes several unexpected problems for custom control builders.  A custom control normally benefits from standard navigation out of the box (TAB/shift+TAB) and directional keys.  However, this breaks down as soon as this custom control is positioned within a `ScrollPane`, which is very surprising behavior and not at all expected.  This makes it harder than needed for custom control developers to get the standard navigation for the directional keys, as they would have to specifically capture those keys before they reach the `ScrollPane` and trigger the correct navigation action themselves (for which as of this writing there is no public API).
> 
> The same goes for all the other keys captured by `ScrollPane` when it does not have focus, although not as critical as the UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT keys.

SCCE = Self-contained code example, or "complete code sample" in https://wiki.openjdk.org/display/OpenJFX/Submitting+a+Bug+Report

I am not entirely convinced that the proposed solution addresses compatibility concerns, unless this can be demonstrated.  I would imagine the idea behind SP handling these keys might have been a desire to be able to scroll the content in the view without changing the currently focused node within possibly?

Alternatively, should we use a different set of key bindings instead of simple arrow keys, like for instance alt-ctrl-LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN (option-command-LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN) key bindings, similarly to #1393 ?

-------------

PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jfx/pull/1582#issuecomment-2383534093