Users can't select text

1

Is there a way to let Users select text in the app to copy it? This comes up when an operator needs to request a specific part that is referenced in the tulip but is missing. They have to hand key the part number instead of copying and pasting

2

Hi @Gary, this is a great suggestion. I just experimented with this myself and was able to copy text that was embedded on an app and paste it into an input field. It’s not a great experience but it does work clicking and dragging on a laptop trackpad.

Can you tell me about how you’ve configured this app? There may be a better way to do this without requiring an operator to copy-paste.

3

Hi @John, the text is in a text widget, when I try to select it in the player all I get is this yellow box. Ctrl+ C doesn’t seem to do anything. Are there settings for the player somewhere that could change this behaviour?
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4

Actually, playing around with it more, if I start the click and drag outside the text box, I can drag to select text inside the text box. Weird behavior. Unfortunately, the text box covers half the screen and the one part number I want is buried right in the middle so I would need to copy the whole contents of the text box somewhere else and delete most of what I copied

5

Hey @Gary ,

Chiming in here because I’ve run across similar items in the past. Unfortunately, you’re right - the text box is an Element in the web browser (that we call the Player), so if you click and drag the system will think you’re trying to select the Text Box, not whatever’s inside. However, if you click and drag from outside, you’re avoiding that first click being identified as a “Select” function and can highlight the text as desired. I’ve had to do similar things with .pdf’s fairly often.

Depending on what you want to happen this may change a bit, but you could certainly achieve some results with buttons. For example, if you place a transparent button over the text box, you can have the button copy the part number to wherever you need it to be. To ‘find’ the part number, the button could either:

  1. Have the part number it cares about hard-coded
  2. Reference the part number externally (perhaps the instruction does this too, by being an Expression like 'Paint assembly number ' + @Variable.YourPartNumber to avoid having to update said part number in two places)
  3. ‘Find’ the part number programmatically (e.g. if all part numbers are a string of 9 numbers, have the button deposit the result of a REGEX_MATCH with formula [0-9]{9})

Hope this helps! Let me know what you may run into.