Reading comboboxes editable in QT applications

[CoBC]

Steps to reproduce:

• Open a QT application
• Go to a field using a combobox with editable attribute set to true
• Try to read combobox content with left and right arrows

Actual behavior:

• NVDA say nothing, braille cursor is not moved

Expected behavior:

• NVDA should speak letters, and cursor braille should moved

System configuration

NVDA installed/portable/running from source:

• Installed

NVDA version:

• Alpha

Windows version:

• 10.0.19042.928

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue:

• TeamTalk 5.7
• All other QT applications

Other information about your system:

Other questions

Does the issue still occur after restarting your computer?

• Yes

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA? If so, please report their behaviors.

• No

If add-ons are disabled, is your problem still occurring?

• Yes

Does the issue still occur after you run the COM Registration Fixing Tool in NVDA's tools menu?

• Yes

[CoBC]

@leonardder is this something you can look?

[seanbudd]

We can try looking at TeamTalk, but a minimal sample application will make reproducing and investigating this easier.

[CoBC]

I cannot make a GUI for example now. Can you test with TT beta (bearware.dk/beta) and use Stream dialog (CTRL+S) to reproduce this?

[michaelDCurran]

When the combo box gets focus, QT needs to fire focus on the inner QLINEEdit widget. so that ATs understand that it is the edit field that is being interacted with, not the combo box. However, it will be important that the focus event for the QLINEEdit be fired after (or instead of) the focus event for the combobox, otherwise if the events appeared in the cincorrect order, the AT would still think that the final focus was on the combo box.

the alternative is for the Combobox itself to expose the UIAutomation TextPattern, but this would be duplicating functionality.

Finally, NVDA could add specific functionality for these combo boxes, looking for a QLINEEdit child and internally redirecting focus to that. But if this issue affects other ATs then obviously it is better to address it in QT.

[CoBC]

@michaelDCurran No answer from Qt devs for now for this issue. JAWS and Narrator reads correctly comboboxes editable. Can you implement a fix on the NVDA side as you envisioned in your last post.

[CoBC]

Finally fixed on the Qt side: (QTBUG-107572)