Enabling keyboard support in projects

Users frequently interact with host applications using special keys on the physical keyboard, such as F1, Attn, and Clear. There are two different ways in which the end users of your HATS projects can send keystrokes to the host:

• By pressing keys on the physical keyboard. The term keyboard support, as used in this chapter, refers to this activity.
• By using a keypad--a graphical table of HTML buttons or links that represent keys on the physical keyboard. The end user clicks on the desired key in the keypad to send that host key to the host.

  There are two keypads in HATS Studio that you can add to your project:

  • The host keypad, with keys (such as F1, F2, and Clear) that represent host keys. These keys control functions on the host.
  • The application keypad, with keys (such as Refresh, Default, and View Print Jobs) that represent application-level functions. These keys control functions within the HATS project. HATS templates, by default, include the default application keypad. The application keypad keys include:

    Reset

    Clears all the fields on the browser page of any entries made by the end user.

    Default

    Turns off any customization of the host screen by a transform and presents the entire host screen as the default view.

    Reverse Screen

    Toggles the screen image from a left-to-right image to a right-to-left image or vice-versa, if the application is running on a host with an Arabic or Hebrew codepage. If an Arabic or Hebrew codepage is not selected in the project connection settings, this button does not appear on the application keypad.

    Refresh

    Refreshes the current browser screen and performs the current action again.

    Disconnect

    Disconnects from the host session. If this key is clicked, a link appears to let the user reconnect to the host.

    View Print Jobs

    Shows a list of print jobs that the end user has created. If print support is not enabled for the project, this button does not appear on the application keypad.

    Toggle Keyboard

    Toggles support for using the physical keys on the host keyboard. If keyboard support is not enabled for the project, this button does not appear on the application keypad.

    Note:

    The text of the button seen by the end user depends on the state of the keyboard. The button will read "Keyboard on" when keys are being sent to the browser, and "Keyboard off" when keys are being sent to the host.

Using the settings on the General tab of the project editor, you can define whether the project displays keypads, even if the tags for the keypads are included in the templates or transformations. You can define a subset of keys to display in the keypads, and whether the keys should appear as buttons or links. You can also add custom keypads or individual keys to your templates and transformations.

1. The default keypads are not defined using HTML tags, so they cannot be viewed in the Design tab of the HTML editor for a transformation.
2. Custom keypads and individual keys are defined using HTML tags, so they are displayed in the HTML editor.
3. PF keys on host screens that are transformed using the default transformation are displayed as buttons or links. These keys are displayed separately from the default host keypad.

Refer to General tab for more information about the settings for keyboard support and keypads.

This chapter explains how to define keyboard support in your HATS project and contains tips for documenting keyboard support for your end users.

To use keyboard support in HATS projects, the end user's Web browser must be either Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher or Netscape version 6.0 or higher. Javascript must be enabled in the Web browser.

Defining keyboard support

To define keyboard support in a HATS project, you need to enable keyboard support in your project, and define the host keypad and the application keypad keys to include. See General tab for information about the project settings for keyboard support and the keypads.

Changing the appearance of the keypads

You can change any of the following items for the keypads:

• Background color for the keypad
• Attributes for buttons (both enabled and disabled):
  • Font family
  • Font size
  • Color
  • Background color
• Attributes for links (both enabled and disabled):
  • Font family
  • Font size
  • Color
  • Background color

To change style of a keypad for a specific HATS project, change the cascading style sheet that corresponds to the keypad. In the WebSphere Studio workbench, go to the HATS Project View tab of the HATS Studio and expand the project name. Expand Common > Stylesheets. The default keypad stylesheet is keypad.css.

To modify the keypad, double-click on the keypad.css stylesheet open the editor.

The cascading style sheet defines seven styles:

table.HostKeypad

Host keypad background

table.ApplicationKeypad

Application keypad background

input.HostPFKey

Host keypad PF buttons

input.HostButton

Host keypad buttons

input.ApplicationButton

Application keypad buttons

a.HostKeyLink

Host keypad links

a.ApplicationKeyLink

Application keypad links

Providing documentation for end users

To facilitate use of your HATS project, we recommend that you document the keyboard settings for your end users--either in the application's graphical user interface or in some other easily displayed form (perhaps a link in your template). Your documentation should describe:

• How to turn keyboard support on and off, using Toggle Keyboard
• The HATS keyboard mapping, as shown in Table 1
• How the Enter key works with tabbed folders; keyboard support must be off when the user presses the Enter key to display the contents of a different tab, after using the Tab key to move to a new tab. If keyboard support is not turned off, the Enter key goes to the host.
• The required level of Web browser for using keyboard support: either Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher or Netscape version 6.0 or higher.