All posts in Business

I think the title says it pretty well: we want the DatePicker control to not be stupid and allow tabbing to the calendar button so we can meet mouse-less compliance standards.

Q: Why didn’t Microsoft do this to begin with?
A: *shrugs* But, we’re going to fix it.

The code:

using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Input;

/// <summary>
/// Extended DatePicker.
/// </summary>
public class ExtendedDatePicker : DatePicker
{
    #region Members

    private bool _tabInvoked;

    #endregion

    #region Constructors

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="ExtendedDatePicker"/> class.
    /// </summary>
    public ExtendedDatePicker()
    {
        _tabInvoked = false;
        this.PreviewKeyDown += DatePickerPreviewKeyDown;
        this.CalendarClosed += DatePickerCalendarClosed;

        // Allow to be a tab target
        IsTabStop = true;
    }

    #endregion

    #region Events

    /// <summary>
    /// Dates the picker preview key down.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="sender">The sender.</param>
    /// <param name="e">The <see cref="KeyEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.
    /// </param>
    private void DatePickerPreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
    {
        var datePicker = sender as DatePicker;
        if (datePicker == null || e.Key != Key.Tab) return;

        // Mark that "tab" was pressed
        _tabInvoked = true;

        // Reverse drop down opened state
        datePicker.IsDropDownOpen = !datePicker.IsDropDownOpen;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Dates the picker calendar closed.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="sender">The sender.</param>
    /// <param name="e">The <see cref="RoutedEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.
    /// </param>
    private void DatePickerCalendarClosed(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (!_tabInvoked) return;

        // Reset marker
        _tabInvoked = false;

        // Go to next control in sequence
        var element = Keyboard.FocusedElement as UIElement;
        if (element == null) return;
        element.MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
    }

    #endregion
}

Here is what it does in a nutshell:

• Makes this control a tab stop (it’s not by default)
• Binds to the PreviewKeyDown event, which catches when Tab is pressed. It then sets a marker, telling the control that the calendar was opened via keyboard and sets IsDropDownOpen to true.
• Binds to the CalendarClosed event, which (if Tab was invoked) resets the marker and sets the focus to the next control in the view.

It’s not overly complicated, but it solves an annoyance.

Until next time…