Today I tried to validate an Architecture by creating a POC. The architecture is an N-Tier using Silverlight for the client. The customer as one particular request that, I thought, was reasonable: all actions – including menu navigation – has to be available through keyboard.
When I tried Silverlight 4 I was surprised not to find any menu control so I downloaded several open source and commercial menu controls. I was very disappointed, after having searched for a couple of hours I didn’t manage to find any control providing a decent keyboard support. Most controls provides some basic support but not one control enabled to gain focus on the first item through the keyboard. You are able to use the keyboard (arrow keys) but you need first to select the control with the mouse! Not one control provided support for Keyboard shortcut.
This is my shortlist of open source Sylverlight controls:
Codeproject free Menu : http://www.jebishop.com/2009/11/18/implementing-a-contextmenu-in-silverlight-4-beta/
Codeplex free Menu : http://www.codeproject.com/KB/silverlight/SL2DropDownMenu.aspx