... better widget focus visualisation?

QNX DEVELOPERS GUI Programming
1

I am building a photon application for a device with no mouse input - only keyboard - and a monchrome display. So I have to select dialog items via TAB and cursor keys.
What I need is good visual feedback of which widget actually has the input focus (e.g frame, white color, and the like). The resources for that offered in PhAb (roundness) are rather poor and almost invisible on monochrome. So I built my own focus callbacks (see below). This works pretty well for simple widgets (buttons, sliders,…)
but not for compound widgets (combo-boxes, …)

Is there something in PhAb I have not yet discovered?
I think other programmers may have faced similar problems before.

My code I don’t want to use:

int DlgElementGotFocus( PtWidget_t *widget, ApInfo_t *apinfo, PtCallbackInfo_t *cbinfo )
{

PgColor_t *pFillColor;
const long *plBasicFlags;
const long *plFlags;

/* eliminate 'unreferenced' warnings */
widget = widget, apinfo = apinfo, cbinfo = cbinfo;

pFocussedWidget = widget;

PtGetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FLAGS, &plFlags, 0 );
lFlags = *plFlags;	
PtGetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_BASIC_FLAGS, &plBasicFlags, 0 );
lBasicFlags = *plBasicFlags;	
PtGetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FILL_COLOR, &pFillColor, 0 );
fillColor = *pFillColor;

PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FLAGS, Pt_TRUE, Pt_HIGHLIGHTED );
PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_BASIC_FLAGS, Pt_TRUE, Pt_ALL_INLINES );
PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FILL_COLOR, Pg_WHITE, 0 );

return( Pt_CONTINUE );

}

int DlgElementLostFocus( PtWidget_t *widget, ApInfo_t *apinfo, PtCallbackInfo_t *cbinfo )
{

/* eliminate 'unreferenced' warnings */
widget = widget, apinfo = apinfo, cbinfo = cbinfo;

//printf(" L%lu %lu \n", lFlags, widget);
PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FLAGS, Pt_FALSE, Pt_HIGHLIGHTED );
PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FLAGS, Pt_TRUE, lFlags );

PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_BASIC_FLAGS, Pt_FALSE,  Pt_ALL_INLINES );
PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_BASIC_FLAGS, Pt_TRUE,  lBasicFlags );

PtSetResource( widget, Pt_ARG_FILL_COLOR, fillColor, 0 );

return( Pt_CONTINUE );

}

:question:

2

Could you maybe draw a big red panel behind the in-focus widget, sized 4 pixels wider and higher than the widget in question, and positioned at the x and y position of that widget, minus 2 pixels on each, giving you a 2 pixel wide border around any widget?

3

Thank You.
First of all pardon my late reaction.
Do You mean drawing/removing the rectangle from callback-code? This is what I exactly did not want to do. I mean, can’t I change the light blue-one pixel wide- almost invisible- frame/underbar into a (e.g.) 3 pixel wide black visible frame within the widget’s resources or some general photon settings ???

:question:

4

I think I see what you mean, you could try something like this:

qnx.com/developers/docs/mome … idget.html

check out Pt_ARG_BEVEL_WIDTH, this seems to only alter the widget’s look in highlighting.

Cheers

Garry

5

Thanks,
but I have already tested it before and now again (I forgot), as far as I can see bevelwidth has nothing to withfocus (visibility), but is the 3d frame width (very hard to recognize, I have only tested a button).
What I mean, there are so many resources of a widget, I really wonder I don’t find this one …

:question: