How to add Access key for ToolbarItem on Xamarin UWP ?

Question

Hello everyone!

I'm currently trying to add shortcuts for the elements of my application with Xamarin on UWP.

I saw that we can add shortcuts with Access Key by adding the namespace "Xamarin.Forms.PlatformConfiguration.WindowsSpecific" and "windows:VisualElement.AccessKey" to the element.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work on ToolbarItem so I tried another strategy by modified the style of AppBarButton, which seems the renderer on UWP, by customizing the FormsCommandBarStyle from: https://github.com/xamarin/Xamarin.Forms/blob/5.0.0/Xamarin.Forms.Platform.UAP/FormsCommandBarStyle.xaml#L758

I added those lines to add the Access Key on my custom FormsCommandBarStyle:

<ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>  
     <Style TargetType="AppBarButton">  
          <Setter Property="AccessKey" Value="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=Self}, Path=(AutomationProperties.AutomationId)}"/>  
     </Style>  
</ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>  

Unfortunately, that doesn't work too, as if it couldn't find the AutomationId value which is defined on my ToolbarItem element :

<ToolbarItem x:Name="QRCodeButton" Icon="{AppThemeBinding Light=qrscanner.png, Dark=qrscanner_dark.png}" Text="{x:Static res:AppResources.ButtonQRCodes}" Order="Primary" Priority="1" Clicked="QRCodes_Clicked" AutomationId="BA"/>  

The only case this works it's when I add a compact value on the style of AppBarButton.
Do you know if there are other ways to achieve this?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hello @Guillaume Dewaghe ,

As described at the document- VisualElement Access Keys on Windows - Xamarin | Microsoft Learn: This UWP platform-specific is used to specify an access key for a VisualElement. But the inheritance of ToolbarItem (Object->BindableObject->Element->BaseMenuItem->MenuItem->ToolbarItem) doesn't include VisualElement, you cannot set the Access key for ToolbarItem by this way.

ToolbarItem class is a special type of button, you could try to custom the NavigationPage.TitleView and set the attached property to a layout class that contains multiple buttons, then set the Access key for the Button. For more details, you can refer to Displaying Views in the Navigation Bar and Xamarin.Forms ToolbarItem - Xamarin | Microsoft Learn.

Best Regards,
Wenyan Zhang

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