Setting focus to a button from from text box?

Question

Hi, i have a few text boxes and buttons on my form.

Lets say txtBox1 is next to btnSubmit1, txtBox2 is next to btnSubmit2, txtBox3 is next to btnSubmit3.

How can i set the focus on btnSubmit3 when the user starts to type something in txtBox3. Meaning..... if a user type in a text box the program will know what button to fire when the user press the enter key.

Please Help Regards Etienne

Answer 1

If you use a panel, you should be able to set a defaultbutton. I´m not sure if it´s an win forms application or a web forms application, but this is how you should do it with web forms:

<asp:Panel id="panel1" runat="server" DefaultButton="Button1">
   <asp:TextBox id="textbox1" runat="server" />
   <asp:Button id="Button1" runat="server" Text="Button 1" />
</asp:Panel>

<asp:Panel id="panel2" runat="server" DefaultButton="Button2">
   <asp:TextBox id="textbox2" runat="server" />
   <asp:Button id="Button2" runat="server" Text="Button 2" />
</asp:Panel>

<asp:Panel id="panel3" runat="server" DefaultButton="Button3">
   <asp:TextBox id="textbox3" runat="server" />
   <asp:Button id="Button3" runat="server" Text="Button 3" />
</asp:Panel>

Answer 2

Use JavaScript and add a "onblur" for those TextBoxes...

Example:

<asp:TextBox ID="t1" runat="server" onblur="CheckIfTextBox1ShouldFocusOnButton1();" />

:)

Answer 3

I've seen it done like this but don't ask me to explain it or to say what the pros and cons are over any other method. Just thought I would publish it in case its useful to you.

// Fires a particular event when enter is pressed within a textbox.
function FireButtonOnEnter(controlID)
{
    if((event.which ? event.which : event.keyCode) == 13)
    {
     window.event.returnValue = false;
     window.event.cancelBubble = true;
     document.getElementById(controlID).click();
    }
}

Call it by adding the following for the textbox...

txtOrgName.Attributes.Add("OnKeyDown", String.Format("return FireButtonOnEnter('{0}');", btnOrgNameGo.ID));

Answer 4

This is an easy solution if you know that the only browser being used is IE.

You just have to add to the Page load

txtBox1.Attributes.Add("onKeyPress", "javascript:if (event.keyCode == 13) __doPostBack('" + btnSubmit1.UniqueID + "','')");

txtBox2.Attributes.Add("onKeyPress", "javascript:if (event.keyCode == 13) __doPostBack('" + btnSubmit2.UniqueID + "','')");

txtBox3.Attributes.Add("onKeyPress", "javascript:if (event.keyCode == 13) __doPostBack('" + btnSubmit3.UniqueID + "','')");

The reason that this only works in IE is that it uses the Javascript "event" key word that doesn't work in Firefox.