tabChangesFocus property in TextArea is not working

advent

As explained in documentation here: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qml-qtquick-controls-textarea.html#tabChangesFocus-prop

I expect the Tab key in TextArea to be accepted as input not to change the focus. But in my QML code below, whatever tabChangesFocus value assigned, it keep changing the focus into next element. I use Qt 5.4 and qmlscene to preview the QML file.

import QtQuick 2.4
import QtQuick.Controls 1.3
import QtQuick.Layouts 1.1

ColumnLayout {
    id: columnLayout1

    RowLayout {
        id: rowLayout1
        anchors.top: parent.top
        anchors.topMargin: 0
        anchors.left: parent.left
        anchors.right: parent.right

        TextField {
            id: textField1
            placeholderText: qsTr("Text Field")
            Layout.fillWidth: true
        }

        Button {
            id: btnAdd
            text: qsTr("Add")
        }

        Button {
            id: btnClose
            text: qsTr("Close")
        }
    }

    TextArea {
        id: textArea1
        Layout.fillHeight: true
        anchors.bottom: parent.bottom
        anchors.bottomMargin: 0
        anchors.right: parent.right
        anchors.rightMargin: 0
        anchors.left: parent.left
        anchors.leftMargin: 0
        tabChangesFocus: false
    }
}

p3c0

Hi @advent,
It is a known bug. See QTBUG-39102. Still unresolved.

advent

@p3c0 Hi, thanks for the information! Btw, is there any way to force Tab as input?

p3c0

@advent I think you can use "\t" for that purpose.

textArea.insert(2,"\t") 
//insert tab at position 2
//textArea = id of TextArea

advent

@p3c0 Sorry, that's not what I really mean. I want to force the TextArea (if it's possible) to accept Tab key as character. I know inserting Tab character in TextArea can be done with Ctrl+Tab, but I don't like that. The bug has been there for like a year. Is there any workaround?

Btw, I tried to override the Tab key behavior in QML, but it's just doesn't work. Is this correct way to override Tab key?

TextArea {
    id: textArea
    ...
    Keys.onPressed: {
        if (event.key == Qt.Key_Tab) {
            textArea.insert(/*current_position*/, "\t");
        }
    }
}

advent

Finally, I can figure it out. Here is the code to override the Tab key change focus behavior:

TextArea {
    id: textArea
    ...
    Keys.onPressed: {
        if (event.key == Qt.Key_Tab) {
            insert(cursorPosition, "\t");
            event.accepted = true;
        }
    }
}

p3c0

@advent Glad that you found the solution. Thanks for sharing. Please mark the post as solved so that it would be helpful to others too.