Thread: Can not navigate SD with keyboard only

Originally Posted by S4Per

Attempting to navigate SD with just a keyboard is not possible, or not clearly documented. I've tried using left/right/up/down arrows exclusively and you can not access all menu options doing so. I'm looking at using an encoder vs. touch or gesture to navigate the menus, and if this is not fully implemented, it will make it impossible. Allowing for full keyboard based navigation (a la rotary encoder or something similar) would be the safest way to use SD outside of 100% voice commands.

For example: on the home screen, one can not tab or arrow to the help, settings, or volume buttons. Using the up arrow also sometimes moves the highlights to the left. It's unpredictable.

I realize this is a bug forum, so I'm not sure if I should reply here or not, but...

Allowing buttons to receive keyboard/mouse "focus" (or, in other words, to be able to be highlighted with the keyboard arrows/mouse) is a property of each button that can easily be set from within the Development environment. I would imagine that you haven't attempted skinning, otherwise you'd likely be familiar with this concept already. It's really not too difficult...fire up the developer environment, click on a button in design mode, and you can change the properties of each button.

I am currently using a iDrive-like controller I built to navigate SD, enabling all buttons to be keyboard selectable is really just the first step...you will find that there are other interface adjustments that MUST be made to the basic skin for full functionality.

I think that keyboard/haptic support is likely coming...check the Input Devices thread for info on a new haptic device that will shortly be offered by mp3car.com and is in the hands of frontend developers now for testing.

thanks parksgm.

I actually have ccStick which I'm waiting to install....

As for being able to do this in the dev environment: that's good news, but I've found that after skinning for media car, media engine, road runner, and then doing a bit with SD, I just don't have the time to do this; and when paying for the software, I expect core functionality like this (which you can pretty much find in 98% of all applications out there) to be in the default / base release...hence, I believe it's a bug that the SD folks should fix.

Originally Posted by S4Per

thanks parksgm.

I actually have ccStick which I'm waiting to install....

As for being able to do this in the dev environment: that's good news, but I've found that after skinning for media car, media engine, road runner, and then doing a bit with SD, I just don't have the time to do this; and when paying for the software, I expect core functionality like this (which you can pretty much find in 98% of all applications out there) to be in the default / base release...hence, I believe it's a bug that the SD folks should fix.

Ok, ok, so you're an experienced skinner...sorry. ;-) I agree with you though. I'll be interested in your experience with the ccStick and SD...it looks like a great product.

If I'm not mistaken (and this should be in another thread, I know), the ccStick uses MWI for part of the software interface. I had trouble getting MWI to work smoothly with SD and my Powermate, although some members here thought that might be because my graphics card is only 32MB. Have you tried using MWI with SD?

I haven't tried it yet...and I didn't mean to say, "Listen, I can skin!", I just wanted to highlight that I've come to understand that skinning takes TIME...and I just don't have the time for it, so I figure I spend the money on software that gives me all of the functionality that I need (I see skinning as..well, SKINNING: appearance, not functionality), paste in a background picture i like, and call it a day :-) . I'll let you know how MWI works, but it'll be a while before I have a chance to play with it.

Thanks,
Per

Originally Posted by S4Per

I see skinning as..well, SKINNING: appearance, not functionality

Good point. I hadn't thought of it that way before.

The buttons at the top are not accessible by design by the remote. They can be changed in the skin editor. The buttons on the top are used often and should be hard coded as remote buttons.

There are issues all throughout the UI though in regards to this and I don't believe they are by design. Nav keyboard access was just mentioned in another thread, for instance. It'd be great if someone from SD spent some time trying to use SD ONLY with a keyboard and then fixed the shortcomings. Again, using safety as the primary reason, I think it's worthwhile to address this bug.

If I notice other specifics / have the time to document them on this topic, I'll post here again.

Thanks,
Per

Originally Posted by S4Per

It'd be great if someone from SD spent some time trying to use SD ONLY with a keyboard and then fixed the shortcomings.

Agreed. While keyboard might not be the primary intended method of input, if it is supported, it should be consistent throughout the program.

Is this still an issue in the new release (1.0.8.1) for you?