[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] unfocus search entries in Views and the Journal

[Simon Schampijer]

Hi,

I have been thinking a bit about how we can enhance the interaction with 
the search entries in the Shell so they will work well in touch as well [1].

When you have a touchscreen device focusing an entry will automatically 
bring up the onscreen keyboard (OSK). We are currently doing this in the 
Home View/Neighborhood View and in the Journal. For keyboard devices 
this makes absolute sense, having first to move the pointer towards the 
entry, click on it before you can type in the search is a too long 
interaction. With a touch interface however it is ok to touch the search 
field to bring up the OSK in most of the cases. Otherwise the OSK might 
cover parts of the screen without need.

I would suggest the following new behavior:

- the entry is unfocused by default, the canvas is focused

- the entry contains a hint (e.g. "Search in your Journal..."), adding a 
placeholder text is available in GTK+3.2 [2]

- when the user starts typing the entry is focused automatically 
(listening on the canvas and switching focus)

I think this will give a good behavior for both worlds. I have attached 
as well a GTK+ 3 example. Let me know what you think.

Regards,
    Simon

[1] 
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Touch/Development#Reveal_on_text_input_focus.2C_auto_.2A.2Adismiss.2A.2A_on_loss_of_focus
[2] 
http://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/3.4/GtkEntry.html#gtk-entry-set-placeholder-text

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