Stealing text input focus from a chart window

[NicholasJoannette]

Hi all, I'm trying to add a TextBox control to an indicator which appears on the chart. However, I'm having trouble keeping the 'Symbol Selection Dropdown' overlay from popping up when a key stroke is entered. I can keep the keyboard focus within the textbox, but am unsure as to how I can prevent this 'symbol input' overlay page from appearing at the first key stroke. Any simple solution?

Thanks a lot for your time,
Nicholas

[NicholasJoannette]

After some better searching I found a great answer in this thread.

Thanks a lot!

[ntbone]

I tried the code out in that thread. When I type the 1 character or 2 character I end up with D1 or D2 inserted in the text box. I haven't yet tried the longer complicated code at the end of that referenced thread.

Further, in reviewing the code, this entire process seems like a rather hacked together way of handling this. The keys are converted to strings only to then be processed differently?

Further the entire process of editing in the window needs to be reproduced here when the text box is already capable of doing this work.

Makes me wonder what the quantity text field on the chart trader does to handle this.

[ntbone]

I have revised the code provided in the referenced thread.

void TextBox_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    e.Handled = true;

    // handle the keydown event for the text box,					
    var textBoxSender = (TextBox)sender;
    var textBoxText = textBoxSender.Text;

    switch(e.Key)
    {
        case Key.Space:
            textBoxText += " ";
            break;
        case Key.Back:
            if(textBoxSender.Text.Length > 0)
            {
                var index = textBoxSender.SelectionStart;

                if(textBoxSender.SelectedText != "")
                {							
                    textBoxSender.Text = textBoxSender.Text.Replace(textBoxSender.Text.Substring(textBoxSender.SelectionStart, textBoxSender.SelectionLength), "");
                    textBoxSender.SelectionStart = index;
                    return;
                }

                if(index == 0)
                {
                    return;
                }

                if(index <= textBoxSender.Text.Length)
                {
                    var lengthOfString = textBoxSender.Text.Length;
                    var firstHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(0, index - 1);
                    var secondHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(index, lengthOfString- index);
                    textBoxText = firstHalf + secondHalf;
                    textBoxSender.Text = textBoxText;
                    textBoxSender.SelectionStart = index - 1;
                }
            }
            return;
        case Key.Delete:
            if(textBoxSender.Text.Length > 0)
            {
                var index = textBoxSender.SelectionStart;

                if(textBoxSender.SelectedText != "")
                {							
                    textBoxSender.Text = textBoxSender.Text.Replace(textBoxSender.Text.Substring(textBoxSender.SelectionStart, textBoxSender.SelectionLength), "");
                    textBoxSender.SelectionStart = index;
                    return;
                }

                if(index < textBoxSender.Text.Length)
                {
                    var firstHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(0, index);
                    var secondHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(firstHalf.Length+1);
                    textBoxText = firstHalf + secondHalf;
                    textBoxSender.Text = textBoxText;
                    textBoxSender.SelectionStart = index;
                }
            }
            return;
        case Key.Capital:
            return;
        case Key.Left:
            if(textBoxSender.SelectionStart > 0)
            {
                textBoxSender.SelectionStart = textBoxSender.SelectionStart - 1;
            }
            return;
        case Key.Right:
            if(textBoxSender.SelectionStart < textBoxSender.Text.Length)
            {
                textBoxSender.SelectionStart = textBoxSender.SelectionStart + 1;
            }
            return;
        default:
            {
                int index = 0;
                if(textBoxSender.Text.Length > 0)
                {
                    index = textBoxSender.SelectionStart;
                }

                var firstHalf = "";
                var secondHalf = "";
                if(index < textBoxSender.Text.Length)
                {
                    firstHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(0, index);
                    secondHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(firstHalf.Length);

                }
                else if(index != 0)
                {
                    firstHalf = textBoxSender.Text.Substring(0, index);
                }

                var toAdd = string.Empty;

                if((Keyboard.IsKeyToggled(Key.CapsLock) || (Keyboard.IsKeyDown(Key.LeftShift) ||
                    Keyboard.IsKeyDown(Key.RightShift))) && e.Key.ToString().Length == 1)
                {
                    toAdd = e.Key.ToString();
                }
                else if(e.Key.ToString().Length == 1)
                {
                    toAdd = e.Key.ToString().ToLower();
                }
                else if(Keyboard.IsKeyDown(Key.LeftShift) || Keyboard.IsKeyDown(Key.RightShift))
                {
                    switch(e.Key)
                    {
                        case Key.D0:
                            toAdd = ")";
                            break;
                        case Key.D1:
                            toAdd = "!";
                            break;
                        case Key.D2:
                            toAdd = "@";
                            break;
                        case Key.D3:
                            toAdd = "#";
                            break;
                        case Key.D4:
                            toAdd = "$";
                            break;
                        case Key.D5:
                            toAdd = "%";
                            break;
                        case Key.D6:
                            toAdd = "^";
                            break;
                        case Key.D7:
                            toAdd = "&";
                            break;
                        case Key.D8:
                            toAdd = "*";
                            break;
                        case Key.D9:
                            toAdd = "(";
                            break;
                        case Key.OemSemicolon:
                            toAdd = ":";
                            break;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    switch(e.Key)
                    {
                        case Key.D0:
                            toAdd = "0";
                            break;
                        case Key.D1:
                            toAdd = "1";
                            break;
                        case Key.D2:
                            toAdd = "2";
                            break;
                        case Key.D3:
                            toAdd = "3";
                            break;
                        case Key.D4:
                            toAdd = "4";
                            break;
                        case Key.D5:
                            toAdd = "5";
                            break;
                        case Key.D6:
                            toAdd = "6";
                            break;
                        case Key.D7:
                            toAdd = "7";
                            break;
                        case Key.D8:
                            toAdd = "8";
                            break;
                        case Key.D9:
                            toAdd = "9";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad0:
                            toAdd = "0";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad1:
                            toAdd = "1";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad2:
                            toAdd = "2";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad3:
                            toAdd = "3";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad4:
                            toAdd = "4";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad5:
                            toAdd = "5";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad6:
                            toAdd = "6";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad7:
                            toAdd = "7";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad8:
                            toAdd = "8";
                            break;
                        case Key.NumPad9:
                            toAdd = "9";
                            break;
                        case Key.Divide:
                            toAdd = "/";
                            break;
                        case Key.Multiply:
                            toAdd = "*";
                            break;
                        case Key.Subtract:
                            toAdd = "-";
                            break;
                        case Key.Add:
                            toAdd = "+";
                            break;
                        case Key.Decimal:
                        case Key.OemPeriod:
                            toAdd = ".";
                            break;
                        case Key.OemMinus:
                            toAdd = "-";
                            break;
                        case Key.OemPlus:
                            toAdd = "+";
                            break;
                        case Key.OemOpenBrackets:
                            toAdd = "[";
                            break;
                        case Key.OemCloseBrackets:
                            toAdd = "]";
                            break;
                        case Key.OemSemicolon:
                            toAdd = ";";
                            break;
                    }

                }

                if(textBoxSender.SelectionLength == 0)
                {
                    textBoxText = firstHalf + toAdd + secondHalf;
                    textBoxSender.Text = textBoxText;
                }
                else
                {
                    textBoxSender.Text = textBoxSender.Text.Replace(textBoxSender.Text.Substring(textBoxSender.SelectionStart, textBoxSender.SelectionLength), toAdd);
                }

                if(toAdd != string.Empty)
                {
                    textBoxSender.SelectionStart = index + 1;
                }
                else
                {
                    textBoxSender.SelectionStart = index;
                }
            }
            break;
    }
}

[Stefan Mayer]

Hi ntbobne,

This is gr8 ! many thanks for the code !!
Seems to me that this is working for Englisch Keyboard layout, what if i use a German Keyboard, or any other language. Can i just set the type of keyboard at first before looking for a particular key? How would I cater for other languages best?

Many thanks for any input !

[ntbone]

After a quick review of the code, the default switch statement may need additional handling for any punctuation or accent characters for Germain or other languages to be supported. Its also possible that the punctuation characters that show up there are incorrect and would need to be mapped differently. I would recommend putting the code for the default case statement perhaps in its own function, check the language for the keyboard in use and then have a function to handle each desired language.

[Stefan Mayer]

Where can i fond more information on the Key-mapping. how do i know what for example a Key.D6 represents on my keyboard? I can see for example the Key.OemSemicolon in your code but when i hit my "semicolon key on the German keyboard" i get nothing; so i guess, i need to use another mapping.

[ntbone]

The PreviewKeyDown event handler above is from WPF framework. WPF is the UI framework that NinjaTrader is built off of. Documentation for it can be found
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/do...owsdesktop-7.0

This link gives a more general overview of the key event handlers.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/do...owsdesktop-7.0

This is the documentation for the KeyEventArgs
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/do...owsdesktop-7.0

And finally this
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/do...input-key-left
contains documentation about values for Key.