[g-a-devel] Focus - AT vs. mouse/keyboard manipulation

[Zack Cerza <zcerza redhat com>]

Hi,

If I do something that results in a dialog popping up via either the 
mouse or the keyboard, that dialog has focus. If I open the dialog via 
AT-SPI's AccessibleAction interfaces (e.g. 'click' and/or 'activate'), 
the dialog does not have focus. Now, it seems that this would be 
considered a bug, but even if it isn't, I can't seem to find an 
alternative way to ensure that the dialog is given focus.

I did try using AccessibleComponent_grabFocus() on Accessibles which 
implement that interface, but ran into problems; for the vast majority 
of AccessibleComponents, the function returns FALSE, indicating that it 
was unsuccessful (which it was). Why would that function always fail?

I did find that most (if not all) Accessibles with an 
AccessibleEditableText interface can successfully grabFocus, but even 
then, the window or dialog they're in must be focused; they will not 
grab focus from another window.

So, my question is: How can an AT ensure that the same windows and UI 
controls that have focus after a given user action (i.e. with just the 
keyboard and/or mouse) is performed have focus when the same workflow is 
performed by the AT?

Thanks,
Zack