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Using Keyboard Accelerators
Keyboard enablement allows users to operate the Siebel employee applications using sequences of keystrokes as an alternative to the mouse for executing commands and navigating through the application. This is accomplished through the use of keyboard accelerators, specific sequences of keystrokes that are mapped to commands within the Siebel application environment. Typically, these key sequences are combinations of the Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys, along with standard alphanumeric keys.
A full set of keyboard accelerators ship with the Siebel employee applications. Accelerators are defined in Siebel Tools and are fully configurable, although care should be taken when modifying accelerators.
Much of the default keyboard enablement provided natively by Web browsers is also available for use in the Siebel applications. For example, users can navigate sequentially through enterable fields within the application views with the Tab key.
For example, keyboard accelerators are provided for the following commands:
- Record manipulation: New Record, Delete Record, Copy Record, Edit Record, Save Record, Undo Record
- Query management: New Query, Execute Query, Refine Query, Save Query As
- Record navigation: Next Record, Previous Record, Next Page, Previous Page
Keyboard enablement is available in two modes: extended mode and basic mode. Extended mode keyboard enablement gives maximum flexibility in defining accelerators since any key sequence may be mapped to Siebel commands. However, extended mode keyboard accelerators may not be available to all users. Basic mode keyboard enablement is accessible to any user running the Siebel applications in High Interactivity mode. Each accelerator defined in the Siebel Repository can be specific to one keyboard enablement mode, or it can be common to both modes. For a list of basic and extended accelerators available, see Fundamentals.
NOTE: Both extended and basic mode keyboard enablement require that the Siebel applications are running in High Interactivity mode. It is possible that a few applets within the Siebel applications will not enable High Interactivity mode due to special applet functionality, even if High Interactivity mode is in effect for the applications in general. In these cases, keyboard enablement will not be active when the user is working within one of these specialized applets.
Extended Mode
Extended mode keyboard enablement is the default mode of operation for Siebel applications. Applications running extended mode keyboard enablement can map any key sequence to Siebel commands. This includes key sequences that have default interpretations native to the browser in use (for example, Ctrl+N opens a new browser window in late versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer). In cases where both the active Siebel application and the active browser have the identical key sequence mapped, the Siebel applications will win in extended mode. Extended mode keyboard enablement also allows accelerator key sequences to include special keys, such as function keys and the arrow keys.
To provide accelerator access to all available key sequences, extended mode keyboard enablement uses a lightweight ActiveX control to capture keystrokes in the browser. Presence of the control is detected automatically and the control is loaded only if necessary. Once loaded, the control is automatically maintained. It will not be loaded again unless an upgraded version becomes available on the application server.
In order for keyboard enablement to be active in extended mode, the following conditions must be met:
- The line "ExtendedKeyboard=TRUE" must appear in the [SWE] section of the configuration file for the active application
- The user's browser must be able to accept and correctly interpret the ActiveX control used to capture key sequences
- Each client browser must accept the lightweight ActiveX control used to capture key sequences. Acceptance of the control may be silent, or it may require the user to explicitly accept the control depending on browser security settings. If current browser security settings prohibit downloading of ActiveX controls, the browser security settings will need to be modified to allow ActiveX controls.
Basic Mode
Basic mode keyboard enablement is accessible to all browser clients running the Siebel applications in High Interactivity mode. No ActiveX control is required to support basic mode. The functional differences between basic mode and extended mode keyboard enablement are:
- Key sequences mapped natively by the current browser will take precedence over Siebel keyboard accelerators mapped to the same key sequences. For example, Ctrl+N in version 5.5 of Microsoft Internet Explorer will open a new browser window regardless of accelerator mappings for Ctrl+N in the Siebel applications.
- Basic mode keyboard accelerators cannot include special keys in their mapped key sequences. Special keys include, but are not limited to, function keys and arrow keys.
Keyboard enablement will be active in basic mode if either of the following is true:
- The line "ExtendedKeyboard=FALSE" appears in the [SWE] section of the configuration file for the active application.
- The current browser does not support extended mode keyboard enablement.
NOTE: Siebel applications use automatic browser detection to determine if a browser is capable of supporting extended mode keyboard enablement. If the current application is configured to run extended mode keyboard enablement but the browser on a particular client does not meet the minimum requirements, the application will be started with basic mode keyboard enablement in effect.
To configure new keyboard accelerators or modify existing ones, see Siebel Tools Reference.
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Applications Administration Guide Published: 09 September 2004 |