Q: Expand table in popup

Is there a way to use the keyboard to expand the table that's filtered in a popup to show its columns?

I'm struggling to make this work. I have a snippet that uses $OBJECT(table, column, ins_column)$ to insert the selected column names into the code and I can only make it work properly using both the keyboard and the mouse. When the macro in that snippet triggers, I can use the keyboard to filter the tables (and that's a must because there are hundreds of them). However, after filtering the tables, I have to poke the mouse and click the + to expand the table to select multiple columns clicking them one by one. Alternatively, I could use the up/down arrow keys to traverse the list and the right arrow to check/uncheck them, but the harm is already done. Also, using this method to expand the table does not allow filtering on columns (anything typed will still modify the filter for the tables).

On the other hand, expanding the table using the right arrow key instead of the mouse will break the snippet. I recall some explanation from a discussion that happened long ago about this not really expanding the table but instantly opening a new popup. The point is that while that new popup allows filtering on column names, it no longer remembers that it should yield the list of possibly multiple selected columns (no checkboxes to do so), and picking any column in the popup will result in the whole set of the columns inserted into the editor.

While it would be great to have the best of both worlds, if I had to choose between filtering on columns (which does not work anyway, since the checkboxes are gone), and not having to touch the mouse, I'd pick the latter. It's still faster.

Could you add a method to expand the table using the keyboard without losing functionality, please?

Apologies, your question has been overlooked.

You are correct on all points, there is no currently a keyboard shortcut to expand [+] in that type of popup to show column list with checkboxes. IMHO, the issue is not with having additional keyboard shortcut. The popup created by the $OBJECT(...)$ macro needs an enhancement to show checkboxes in the expanded column list, in which case the existing method using arrow keys could be used, and the interaction will be consistent with other types of popup, for example, a popup that appears immediately after typing SELECT in which case tables can be filtered and expanded and multiple columns selected in one operation using keyboard alone. $OBJECT(...)$ should be able to reproduce that behavior.

SysOp wrote:

Apologies, your question has been overlooked.

You are correct on all points, there is no currently a keyboard shortcut to expand [+] in that type of popup to show column list with checkboxes. IMHO, the issue is not with having additional keyboard shortcut. The popup created by the $OBJECT(...)$ macro needs an enhancement to show checkboxes in the expanded column list, in which case the existing method using arrow keys could be used, and the interaction will be consistent with other types of popup, for example, a popup that appears immediately after typing SELECT in which case tables can be filtered and expanded and multiple columns selected in one operation using keyboard alone. $OBJECT(...)$ should be able to reproduce that behavior.

A much better idea than mine was. Would you be so kind as to post a feature enhancement request for this, please?

Of course. Working on creating a ticket.