I would like to state at the beginning that I work with Orion every single day. We are integrating the system deeper and deeper into our every day work schedule. The Alerting, SNMP, Reporting, and UDP are used extensively in our environment. Each and every day I get frustrated working with your product because I work with the keyboard most of the time. My position allows me to automate processes within the work environment which means I am constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency. It can be said that taking the time to write this post is not a very efficient use of my time but I do this in hopes it will be addressed and allow me to work efficiently in the future.
Please take this as constructive criticism and honestly have your programmers look at this. They must see that this is incorrect and has to be fixed.
For those uninformed, Tab Ordering is something which is done programmatically to an application to allow a user to quickly and efficiently flow through the forms with ease. When the form loads, the cursor is set in a logical starting position, and then each time the user presses the TAB key, the cursor moves to the next logical position. It allows a user who is keyboard proficient the freedom from having to move a hand off the keyboard to the mouse each time to go to the next field.
Below are 4 examples of Tab Ordering that must be fixed.
Example #1 New Report - Design Mode. Note: when the form loads, the cursor should be at "Report Group", instead it is nowhere to be seen. You have to press TAB twice to finally see where the focus is. It takes pressing tab 4 times to begin entering data, and then the focus jumps over to Subtitle before Report Title. From there it goes to Preview & Execute, even though you have yet to enter any SQL query. Then it jumps to Description (which should have come just after Subtitle)
Example #2 Orion Universal Device Poller Note: If you are working within the UDP, you probably know a little about how OID's & Mibs work. You either want to enter in an OID you already know or want to browse to a device and find exactly where that piece of SNMP data is. Either way, the form shouldn't load with the focus on NEXT, as there has been no data entered. From Next it jumps to Cancel, then over to Help. Finally after 4 Tabs, there is something useful, the Browse MIB Tree button. Next it goes to "More About OID's" which is another help. After 6 tabs, I can enter in the OID which I already had copied. After that, this form follows nice progression except for a jump over to "More about historical data" help but I can live with that.
Example #3 Edit Alert Note: When this form loads, you are highlighting the OK button. Why? No information has been entered yet. From OK you go to Cancel, Help, Tab Selection, and then to Name of Alert. Why not load the form with the cursor already in Name of Alert? Again, 5 Tab Presses just to be able to enter information useful to what the form is used for. Tab presses 7 & 8 are in the label area below which has no purpose at this stage. Then we go back up to Check Frequency. At no time does the Tab Order touch the "Enable this alert" check box.
Example #4 Edit E-Mail/Page Action Note: This form starts with the Tabs selected, then jumps down to OK, even though no relevant information has been entered. Then to Cancel and then From E-mail Account followed by reply address and then a jump to Help with Variables. Again, finally, after 7 Tab presses this time, I can enter the address of the recipient.
