Key ahead/keyboard buffer

[Rob T]

I'm porting over an application that runs on an AS/400 over to asp.net. One
of the features my users like is to be able to start typing before the
screen is loaded. (this is a 5250 emulator, not IE). In some cases they
are able to pass through several screens before they even load.

For example, in an order entry screen, they could go past the 'customer
name' screen, then 'shipping info' screen, then 'billing info' screen to end
up at the 'line item' screen, just buy hitting the Enter key quickly 3
times....the screens will still load, but will flash buy quickly as the
keyboard cleans out. (reminder, this is in the 5250 screen)

In my app, currently in Javascript, I'm setting the focus to a default field
and setting the Enter key to hit the 'submit' button, to help speed things
along, but the user has to wait for each screen to load before proceeding.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

-Rob T.

 

[Bruce Barker]

unfortunately the browser does not support type ahead. the pages needs to be
rendered, and an input field has to have focus before it accepts keystrokes.

note: the current page will accepts keystrokes, until it unloaded by the
render of the postback, so you might want client script to disable postback
buttons prevent double postbacks etc.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)