#1,070 – Event Sequence for Keyboard Focus Events

Events raised by user interface elements that are related to keyboard focus are:

• PreviewLostKeyboardFocus  (tunneling)
• PreviewGotKeyboardFocus  (tunneling)
• LostKeyboardFocus  (bubbling)
• GotKeyboardFocus  (bubbling)

When keyboard focus changes from one control to another, the events fired by the controls are in the order listed above.

Suppose that we have two TextBox controls in a StackPanel, which is contained within a Window.  If the first TextBox has keyboard focus and the user causes the second TextBox to receive focus, the sequence of events is as follows:

• Window fires PreviewLostKeyboardFocus
• StackPanel fires PreviewLostKeyboardFocus
• TextBox #1 fires PreviewLostKeyboardFocus
• Window fires PreviewGotKeyboardFocus
• StackPanel fires PreviewGotKeyboardFocus
• TextBox #2 fires PreviewGotKeyboardFocus
• TextBox #1 fires LostKeyboardFocus
• StackPanel fires LostKeyboardFocus
• Window fires LostKeyboardFocus
• TextBox #2 fires GotKeyboardFocus
• StackPanel fires GotKeyboardFocus
• Window fires GotKeyboardFocus

#1,068 – Most Controls Can Get Keyboard Focus

In WPF, controls that a user interacts with are typically able to get keyboard focus.  (Focusable property is true).  This includes controls that supported text-based input, like the TextBox.  But it also includes controls that the user typically interacts with using the mouse, rather than the keyboard.

Controls that cannot get keyboard focus are ones like the Label that the user does not interact with.

For example, a user will typically use only the mouse when interacting with a Button or a CheckBox, but both of these controls can get keyboard focus.  This is because the user can also interact with these controls using the keyboard.  (E.g. Enter key to “click” a Button, or Spacebar to toggle a CheckBox).

The example below uses code to detect which control has focus.  Note that as we tab through the controls, the TextBox controls get focus, as well as the Button and the CheckBox.

#1,067 – Experimenting with Keyboard Focus

A control has keyboard focus if it can accept input from the keyboard.  The sample code below is a working app that lets us experiment with keyboard focus by setting a Label to indicate which control has focus.

XAML includes some controls and defines a GotKeyboardFocus for the top-level Window.

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="Keyboard Focus" Width="320" Height="190"
        GotKeyboardFocus="Window_GotKeyboardFocus">

    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition/>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
            <StackPanel Background="AliceBlue" Margin="5">
                <TextBox Name="txtLeft" Margin="5" Width="80"/>
                <Button Name="btnClickMe" Content="Click Me" Margin="5"/>
            </StackPanel>

            <StackPanel Background="PaleGoldenrod" Margin="5">
                <Label Content="I'm a Label"/>
                <TextBox Name="txtRight" Margin="5" Width="80"/>
                <CheckBox Name="chkCheckMe" Margin="5" Content="Check Me"/>
            </StackPanel>
        </StackPanel>

        <Label Grid.Row="1" Margin="5" Content="{Binding WhoHasFocus}"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Code-behind uses this code to set property indicating who has focus.

using System;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Input;
//using System.Windows.Media;

namespace WpfApplication1
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window, INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.DataContext = this;
        }

        // INotifyPropertyChanged
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged = delegate { };

        private void RaisePropertyChanged(string propName)
        {
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propName));
        }

        private string whoHasFocus;
        public string WhoHasFocus
        {
            get { return whoHasFocus; }
            set {
                if (value != whoHasFocus)
                {
                    whoHasFocus = value;
                    RaisePropertyChanged("WhoHasFocus");
                }
            }
        }

        private void Window_GotKeyboardFocus(object sender, KeyboardFocusChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            CheckKeyboardFocus();
        }

        private void CheckKeyboardFocus()
        {
            IInputElement elem = Keyboard.FocusedElement;

            if (elem == null)
                WhoHasFocus = "NO FOCUS";
            else
            {
                FrameworkElement felem = elem as FrameworkElement;
                if (felem != null)
                {
                    string identifier = ((felem.Name != null) && (felem.Name.Length > 0)) ?
                        felem.Name :
                        felem.GetType().ToString();
                    WhoHasFocus = string.Format("FrameworkElement [{0}]", identifier);
                }
                else
                {
                    // Maybe a FrameworkContentElement has focus
                    FrameworkContentElement fcelem = elem as FrameworkContentElement;
                    if (fcelem != null)
                    {
                        string identifier = ((fcelem.Name != null) && (fcelem.Name.Length > 0)) ?
                            fcelem.Name :
                            fcelem.GetType().ToString();
                        WhoHasFocus = string.Format("FrameworkContentElement [{0}]", identifier);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        WhoHasFocus = string.Format("Element of type [{0}] has focus", elem.GetType().ToString());
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}