Strategy control its Ninja Chart keyboard focus?

[Hyper]

Hi, I'm developing a "standalone" unmanaged strategy which has its own Winforms interface.
Yes, I know about WPF but this older approach is, for me at least, an easier approach, and
it's working fine. But since the strategy is started by, and associated with a NinjaTrader "host"
Chart, and I'm wanting to use the Chart as part of the interaction...

I'm wondering how I can force keyboard focus to the Chart; and then, of course, I can take it
back again. So it doesn't sound too difficult; so what would be the most reliable way for my
Strategy to ask its Chart to request focus.

I mean, I guess I could hack in some Auto Hotkey Script which my Winforms app could invoke
to cause focus to be shifted to the Ninja Form, in a specific location on the screen. That's a
hack that I could easily use, but maybe an easier solution?

Obviously, to get Cntl key up/down states, and Mouse Clicks, the Chart must have focus. I toyed
with the idea of doing my own simple chart, which would eliminate this issue; but I'd like to use
the NinjaTrader Chart's great features, as part of the overall interactive solution.

[edit] I do have this little DLL I once wrote, which can programmatically
simulate click anywhere on the desktop; so I could give focus on the chart
in that way as well...

Thank you !

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello Hyper,

Thanks for your post.

While working with another user we faced some struggles trying to force focus after clicking an added button in ChartTrader when using ChartControl.PreviewKeyUp and ChartControl.PreviewDown. I understood this issue to involve trying to force focus on ChartControl as opposed to forcing focus on a ChartPanel. We document the IsFocused property for ChartPanel, but we do not do so for ChartControl.

The snippet below can be used to observe focus on a ChartPanel and the two lines of code that are commented can be uncommented to force focus on a ChartPanel.

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
    if (State == State.Historical)
        return;

   foreach (var window in NinjaTrader.Core.Globals.AllWindows)
   {
      // check if the found window is a Chart window, if not continue looking
      if (!(window is NinjaTrader.Gui.Chart.Chart)) continue;

      window.Dispatcher.InvokeAsync(new Action(() =>
      {
         // try to cast as a Chart, if it fails it will be null
         var foundChart = window as NinjaTrader.Gui.Chart.Chart;

         // make sure we found a chart
         if (foundChart == null) return;

         // make sure the found chart is the owner window
         if (foundChart == this.Owner as NinjaTrader.Gui.Chart.Chart)
         {
            if (foundChart.ActiveChartControl.ChartPanels[ChartPanel.PanelIndex] == ChartPanel)
            {
               ClearOutputWindow();

               //foundChart.ActiveChartControl.ChartPanels[0].Focus();
               //Keyboard.Focus(foundChart.ActiveChartControl.Chart Panels[0]);

               Print(ChartPanel.IsFocused.ToString());
               Print(foundChart.ActiveChartControl.IsFocused);
               Print(foundChart.ChartTrader.IsFocused);
               Draw.TextFixed(this, "Status", ChartPanel.IsFocused.ToString(), TextPosition.BottomLeft);
            }
         }
      }));
   }
}

I have had luck using a WinForms timer and to check hot key presses from there. I have attached an example that was used to demonstrate.

It may also be of use if you shared where your DLL can be found if others want to consider that approach for an unsupported way to force focus.

We look forward to assisting.

[Hyper]

I am very appreciative of your help; and of all you guys in Platform Technical Support !!
hyperscalper

[PaulMohn]

Alternative Solution