WPF ListView with ComboBoxes in header: keyboard navigation

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I've got a WPF ListView with ComboBoxes in the headers (meant for filtering in the list, see sample below). Keyboard navigation is awkward and I cannot get it right:

If the user presses cursor(arrow)-up when the first item in the list is selected, focus moves to the ComboBox in the header of the first column.
And then it's trapped there, pressing down walks the elements in the ComboBox; it does not moves focus back to the list.
Pressing TAB moves focus to the next control in the window. There doesn't seem to be a way to get focus to the list elements anymore by keyboard.
I guess what I want is that a) pressing 'arrow up' on the first element of the list does not transfer focus to the header, and b) that the list and header part can be separately reached by tabbing into them. I cannot seem to get this right.

Can this be done?

Sample code:

XML

<ListView>
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn>
                <GridViewColumn.Header>
                    <ComboBox Width="150">
                        <ComboBoxItem Content="Filter Item 1" />
                        <ComboBoxItem Content="Filter Item 2" />
                    </ComboBox>
                </GridViewColumn.Header>
            </GridViewColumn>

            <GridViewColumn>
                <GridViewColumn.Header>
                    <ComboBox Width="150">
                        <ComboBoxItem Content="Filter Item 1" />
                        <ComboBoxItem Content="Filter Item 2" />
                    </ComboBox>
                </GridViewColumn.Header>
            </GridViewColumn>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
    <ListViewItem Content="Item 1" />
    <ListViewItem Content="Item 2" />
    <ListViewItem Content="Item 3" />
    <ListViewItem Content="Item 4" />
</ListView>

<TextBox or other control />

Thanks!

Posted 20-Aug-12 23:30pm

Dropmans

Updated 21-Aug-12 4:14am

Kenneth Haugland

v2

Add a Solution

2 solutions

Solution 1

Yes, it can be done!

You need to work with some events.

Posted 21-Aug-12 5:20am

Christian Amado

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Dropmans · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-21T21:23:00

Tried a few hours, never got it quite right. Closest I've got is:

C#

private void testListView_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (testListView.SelectedIndex == 0)
    {
        if (e.Key == Key.Up)
        {
            e.Handled = true; // Don't move focus to the header/filter row on arrow-up.
            return;
        }
    }
}

This fixes the main part of the problem (focus is moved to the filter on up arrow).

Couldn't get elegantly tab behavior from another control into the filter comboboxes part, then the list part, then to the next control however. No combination of KeyboardNavigation.TabNavigation, ControlTabNavigation and DirectionalNavigation got the desired behavior.