Keyboard Navigation
The keyboard navigation of the Grid is always available.
For a complete example, refer to the demo on using the keyboard navigation of the Grid.
The Grid supports its keyboard navigation functionality through the Navigatable() method. When enabled, you can initially select a row or cell and then move within the Grid by using the Arrow keys. The navigation occurs at a cell level regardless of what the Selectable() mode is. To select the current row or cell, press Space.
The following example demonstrates how to enable the key navigation in the Grid.
@(Html.Kendo().Grid<Kendo.Mvc.Examples.Models.EmployeeViewModel>()
.Name("grid")
/* Other configuration. */
.Navigatable()
)
The keyboard navigation of the Grid works by listening to the keydown events on the wrapper element of the helper. Its behavior is based on the assumption that whatever the user does is in accordance with the currently focused Grid cell and not with the focused element of the browser. If the data cells of the Grid contain hyperlinks that have to be activated through the keyboard:
- Navigate to the respective Grid cell by using the
Arrowkeys. - Press
Enterto focus the hyperlink inside the cell. - Press
Enteragain.
To return the focus on the table cell, press Esc. In order for the hyperlinks to be inaccessible through tabbing, set the tabindex="-1" attribute to the custom hyperlinks.
You can also avoid the procedure and bypass the keyboard navigation of the Grid, access the custom hyperlinks with tabbing, and activate them with Enter. To achieve this, prevent the keydown event bubbling of the custom hyperlinks. As a result, the Enter key-presses will be unnoticed by the Grid.