[digiKam-users] DigiKam tagging the old way with TAB

[Peter Albrecht]

Hello list,

I loved the way tagging worked in digiKam 4.4.0. See:
> https://www.digikam.org/news/2012-01-21_efficient_photo_tagging_with_digikam/

Focus in this email is on using the TAB key to switch between the tag search
results you get displayed after typing some characters of the tag you want to
assign to the image.

Example:
1. I have the two tags "foo AAA" and "foo BBB" in my database.
2. I want to assign the tag "foo BBB" to my currently selected picture. So I
   type "foo" in the tag search textbox.
3. digiKam now shows me a popup view listing the two tags "foo AAA" and "foo
   BBB", while "foo AAA" is selected

In digiKam 4.4.0 I uses the TAB key to switch between those search results and
hit RETURN when the desired search result was selected.
In digiKam 5.9.0 I have to use the "cursor down" key to switch between those
search results. This works, too, but I see two disadvantages:
1. I am used to using the TAB key ;) (needs some time to learn the "cursor down"
   method and become as fast as with the old "TAB" way)
2. having my hands in "default typing position" (index fingers on key F and J),
   I have to move my hands/fingers a longer distance to reach the CURSOR_DOWN
   key than to reach the TAB key. So the CURSOR_DOWN-way of selecting search
   results will always be slower and more tiring than the old TAB-way.

** Technical background:
My guess for the reason of this change: By removing KDE dependencies from
digiKam code, "SearchTextBar" (GUI element for typing tag search phrases) has
been changed from "KLineEdit" to "QLineEdit". The class "KLineEdit" had a
special "textRotation()" signal, which by default seems to having provided this
"switch search results by TAB key".

** My solution:
Sadly, I have no experience in Qt-Programming, so I did not manage to bring back
the old TAB-key selection. But I found another way to solve my problem outside
of digiKam:

On the Linux commandline

# xmodmap -e "keycode 23 = Down"

makes the TAB key (keycode=23) send "cursor down" events. Working in this mode,
I can select tag search results by pressing the TAB key in digikam 5.9.0. :)

Calling the command

# xmodmap -e "keycode 23 = Tab"

brings everything back to normal. You can put those commands in one batch file:

  #! /bin/bash
  xmodmap -e "keycode 23 = Down"
  echo "Mapping changed, you can tag now. Press RETURN to go back to normal"
  read
  xmodmap -e "keycode 23 = Tab"


Maybe this helps someone, working on the same problem.

Regards,
	Peter Albrecht