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DEVELOPING FLASH LITE 4 APPLICATIONS
Creating interactivity and navigation
Last updated 5/10/2010
For more information about the System.Capabilities class, seeAdobe ActionScript 3.0 Reference for the Adobe Flash
Platform.
Default navigation
Using default keyboard navigation in Flash Lite
On desktop applications, the Tab and Shift+Tab keys let users switch focus among objects on the screen. The arrow
keys function in a similar way in some other applications. In Flash Lite, the navigation keys on the device’s keypad
serve the same purpose as the arrow or Tab and Shift+Tab keys in desktop applications. After the desired object has
focus, the user can press the Select key to trigger an action in the application. You define event handlers to respond
when a button or movie clip is selected; for more information, see
“Handling mouse and key events” on page 20.
Default keyboard navigation in Flash Lite works with buttons and input text fields. Movie clips are also included if they
meet the following criteria:
• Their tabEnabled property is set to true.
• They have event handlers associated with them and their tabEnabled property is not set to false.
When an input text field has focus and the user presses the Select key, Flash Lite activates the text field for inline
editing.
For an example of using default navigation, see “Create a simple menu using buttons with mouse navigation” on
page 22.
Keyboard navigation modes
Flash Lite supports three modes of keyboard navigation: two-way, four-way, and four-way with wraparound. Different
devices and Flash Lite content types support different navigation modes.
Two-way navigation in Flash Lite is analogous to tab navigation in desktop applications. In desktop applications, the
Tab and Shift+Tab keys navigate among objects on the screen. The down navigation key on the device corresponds to
the Tab key, and the up navigation key corresponds to the Shift+Tab key.
The default tab order in two-way navigation is generally left-to-right and top-to-bottom. For example, the following
image shows a three-by-three grid of Button objects in a Flash Lite application. The numbers above each button
indicate the order in which each button get keypad focus as the user presses the device’s down navigation key
repeatedly. After the button in the lower-right corner receives focus, the focus “wraps around” to the upper-left button
the next time the user presses the down navigation key.
Description Keys Availability
Numeric, *, # 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, *, # All devices
Five-way keypad Select, up, and down All devices
Left and right Devices that support four-way navigation only
(see
“Keyboard navigation modes” on page 15)
Keyboard keys !, “, #, $, %, &, ‘, (, ), *, +, ,, -, ., /, 0, 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, :, ;, <, +, >, ?, @, A, B,
C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q,
R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, [, \, ], ^, _, ‘, a,
b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r,
s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, {, |, }, ~, Backspace
Devices that have a QWERTY keyboard