Forum Discussion

dcrandall's avatar
dcrandall
Visitor
11 years ago

roTextScreen and auto/manual focus on a button.

I don't know if this was the right thread ( http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=65885 ), but if it wasn't, I'm breaking-out the topic here:

Is there a way to manually send focus to a button?

I ask because our application has these roTextScreens, and the desire was to have an illustrated 'back' button. To get the back button to work, one has to get the focus in that direction. It usually takes one button press to remove the focus from the roTextScreen scroll area to the buttons, and another key press to activate the button.

So we pull-up our 'roTextScreen' and we have to go 'click click' on the ok button to go back.

I know the back button is there, and it works, but it's the way we use it...so it's the way we think our customers will.
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26 Replies

  • RokuJoel's avatar
    RokuJoel
    Binge Watcher
    11 years ago
    Sorry, there is no secret method for setting the button focus.

    Better approach would be to create your own custom screen and not use the roTextScreen, that screen type was created for one purpose, which was to display and accept a click-through agreement on the firmware 4.9 home screen. It isn't really suited for any other purpose.

    - Joel
  • TheEndless's avatar
    TheEndless
    Channel Surfer
    11 years ago
    "RokuJoel" wrote:
    It isn't really suited for any other purpose.

    Well, if that's not thinking inside the box, I don't know what is... 😉

    OP, you could send an OK click via ECP once the screen is drawn to force a focus change.
  • dcrandall's avatar
    dcrandall
    Visitor
    11 years ago
    "TheEndless" wrote:


    OP, you could send an OK click via ECP once the screen is drawn to force a focus change.


    Thank you, this works!

    Here's my fix if anyone needs it.



    fnSimulateKeyPressECP("Select")

    function fnSimulateKeyPressECP(keypress as string) as void

        url = "http://127.0.0.1:8060/keypress/" + keypress

        request = CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")
        port = CreateObject("roMessagePort")
        request.SetMessagePort(port)
        request.SetUrl(url)
        
        request.PostFromString("")
        

    end function
  • RokuJoel's avatar
    RokuJoel
    Binge Watcher
    11 years ago
    "TheEndless" wrote:
    "RokuJoel" wrote:
    It isn't really suited for any other purpose.

    Well, if that's not thinking inside the box, I don't know what is... 😉

    OP, you could send an OK click via ECP once the screen is drawn to force a focus change.


    In the future the way the ECP works might change, with that in mind, I try to avoid recommending outside the box hacks like that.

    - Joel
  • EnTerr's avatar
    EnTerr
    Roku Guru
    11 years ago
    "dcrandall" wrote:
    Thank you, this works! Here's my fix if anyone needs it.
    ...
        url = "http://127.0.0.1:8060/keypress/" + keypress
    ...

    This won't work with 1st gen players (fw3), if i remember - loopback interface is blocked, have to find the external IP instead. And that makes me uneasy since that may get axed: usually it's the other way around - host firewall will block loopbacks on external interface but allows that on 127.0.0.1

    Joel - can't you just put a word on roTextScreen to be fixed up a bit? viewtopic.php?f=34&t=65885
    To me it seems like a fixer-upper (and then we can start flipping it 🙂 )
  • dcrandall's avatar
    dcrandall
    Visitor
    11 years ago
    I hate to ask, but I have to ask... say my little ECP hack gets blocked in the future with the loopback like that, is it going to be like, blow-up bad, or just sad-trombone bad?

    Because as it's used, if it doesn't work, it's just sad-trombone bad.

    Feature request - Could I find out if the text scrolls in roTextScreen? Like, if there's 2 lines of text, there's no scrolling. If there's 400 lines of text, there's gonna be some scrollin'. Without guessing by newlines and character counts, I can't know.
  • kc8pql's avatar
    kc8pql
    Visitor
    11 years ago
    ... is it going to be like, blow-up bad, or just sad-trombone bad?

    I gotta remember that... Smiley LOL
  • TheEndless's avatar
    TheEndless
    Channel Surfer
    11 years ago
    "RokuJoel" wrote:
    In the future the way the ECP works might change, with that in mind, I try to avoid recommending outside the box hacks like that.

    I was actually referring to your dismissal of using the roTextScreen for anything other than license agreements as being inside the box. My ECP suggestion is definitely a hack.. no question about that.

    "dcrandall" wrote:
    I hate to ask, but I have to ask... say my little ECP hack gets blocked in the future with the loopback like that, is it going to be like, blow-up bad, or just sad-trombone bad?

    Since it's just a web request, it should only be sad-trombone bad. You might be safer grabbing the device's IP (via roDeviceInfo) instead of using the loopback address, though, as I'd bet that much less likely to change.

    "dcrandall" wrote:
    Feature request - Could I find out if the text scrolls in roTextScreen? Like, if there's 2 lines of text, there's no scrolling. If there's 400 lines of text, there's gonna be some scrollin'. Without guessing by newlines and character counts, I can't know.

    Hehe.. there's no built-in method of setting focus on the buttons, what makes you think there'd be a way to determine if it's scrollable? 😛 Nope, making an educated guess based on content length is probably your best bet.
  • RokuJoel's avatar
    RokuJoel
    Binge Watcher
    11 years ago
    I would stick to using the loopback address, except on Legacy devices where it doesn't work.

    -Joel
  • EnTerr's avatar
    EnTerr
    Roku Guru
    11 years ago
    "TheEndless" wrote:
    Hehe.. there's no built-in method of setting focus on the buttons, what makes you think there'd be a way to determine if it's scrollable? 😛 Nope, making an educated guess based on content length is probably your best bet.

    So, there is no hope of customizing the font size, as to actually make the text readable in a 10-foot experience, huh?
    I understand lawyers need of using fine print as small as possible (so nobody can actually read it) - but roTextScreen is almost finished and ready for use to show long texts - almost.