Roku SDK Documentation : Remote Control Events

The SceneGraph architecture supports a notion of remote control key focus. At any time, any node in the SceneGraph node tree can be assigned the remote control key focus. The node with key focus is unique, so when focus is assigned to a node, the currently focused node loses the key focus.

The node with the key focus is given the first opportunity to handle a key event. If that node does not handle the key event, the event is passed up the SceneGraph node tree to the node parent. This continues until a parent node handles the event, or the event moves up to the root of the SceneGraph node tree (that is, a Scene node). The path from the node that has the remote control key focus up to the root of the SceneGraph node tree is referred to as the focus chain.

In many cases, there are default remote key event handlers built into the node classes supplied by Roku, and there are default event handlers that are not accessible by application developers as part of the Roku player firmware. If these default event handlers are called at any time as the event moves up the focus chain, the event is considered to have been handled, and a message to that effect is returned to the firmware, and no further action to handle the event will take place. For other events that are not handled by default, you have the option of handling the event, or allowing the event to move up the focus chain, and possibly not be handled at all.

Since they are derived from roSGNode, each node includes the ifSGNodeFocus interface functions for querying and manipulating the current remote control key focus status of the node. A special function is included in the SceneGraph API, onKeyEvent(), that allows you handle events, and return a message to the firmware that the event has been handled. These two features of the SceneGraph API allow you to selectively control the remote control key focus, and handle remote key press events, as needed for your application. See Handling Remote Control Key Presses for complete information on using these features to handle remote control key events.