Including Fields Within HTML Areas in the Page Tab Order

When the PeopleSoft system generates HTML for a page, it creates a tab index, or order, including every control or widget on the page, based on the field order for that page in Application Designer. However, with HTML areas, the system skips any control defined within an HTML area, by default, when building the tab index. In some situations, this may be confusing to an end user, such as in the case when screen readers are used.

To include the controls in an HTML area within the page tabbing order, add the %tabindex meta-variable to the HTML. At runtime, for each field inside an HTML area that is defined with the %tabindex meta-variable, %tabindex will be replaced with the tab index of the HTML area itself.

In the following example, two fields have been defined with the %tabindex meta-HTML variable, while one has not:

<a href="http://www.w3schools.com" tabindex="%tabindex">Visit W3Schools.com!</a>
<a id="HELP" name="HELP" href="javascript:some_function1();" tabindex="%tabindex">Help</a>
<a id="NEWWIN" name="NEWWIN" href="javascript:some_function2();">New Window</a>

At runtime, if the tab index for the HTML area is 20, then this HTML fragment resolves to:

<a href="http://www.w3schools.com" tabindex="20">Visit W3Schools.com!</a>
<a id="HELP" name="HELP" href="javascript:some_function1();" tabindex="20">Help</a>
<a id="NEWWIN" name="NEWWIN" href="javascript:some_function2();">New Window</a>

This meta-variable is documented in more detail in the PeopleCode documentation, see PeopleCode Language Reference: %tabindex meta-HTML element for more information.

Note:

The tab order of controls within an HTML area cannot be customized by end users.