uoutputbox (OutputBox)
The uoutputbox widget displays streaming text data. The data may come from a specified
Output Channel, or be explicitly added. By default, it does not listen to
any channel. Uniface provides a logical widget called OutputBox, which is mapped to uoutputbox.
For more information, see Specifying a Widget for a Field or Entity.
| Logical widget name: | OutputBox |
| Maps to physical widget: | uoutputbox
|
| Default definition: | OutputBox=uoutputbox(font=monosmall)
|
| Use for: | String fields |
| Supported triggers: | None, the addLine and getContent widget operations are supported to manipulate the widget content. See Widget Operations. |
| Supported properties: | See Widget Properties |
Supported in egrid(Grid) widget? |
No |
| Supports MSAA? : | Yes, for testing purposes only. For more information, see Accessibility. |
Description
The uoutputbox widget is useful for displaying
messages and process output. It can automatically stream information from the Compiler Output
channel, Putmess channel, or Message Line channel, as determined by the Output
Message property.
It is also possible to manually add text messages to the widget. To do so, you can do one of the following:
- Assign a string to the field value (and then use the show command to synchronize the display)
- Use the widget operation addLine(), which has the advantage of being immediately (synchronously) processed.
The Uniface line break symbol %%^
is interpreted. For example:
"This is a veryyyyyyy long line%%^And this comes at the next line"
is displayed as:
This is a veryyyyyyy long line And this comes at the next line
As text is streamed in, the widget scrolls to display the last line, adding horizontal and vertical scrollbars as necessary. The widget has no awareness of the current line—there is only one active line and that is always the last line. The last line is available in the field value and can be read from ProcScript.
The complete content can be read using widget operation getContent.
The uoutputbox widget supports Unicode and the
standard Uniface field colors. How the color is handled depends on the underlying window
system.
Printing is not supported, but you can use the getContent widget operation to copy the content to a variable, which you can then send to a log file or other output.
To clear the widget, clear it's parent entity.
Widget Properties
| Property | Technical Name | Dynamic? |
|---|---|---|
| 3-D Effect (3d) | 3D | No |
| Attach to Window Border (attach) | attach | Yes |
| Background Color (BackColor) |
BackColor |
Yes |
| BottomLine | Yes | |
| Draw 3-D Frame Outside (DrawOutside) | DrawOutside | No |
| Foreground Color (ForeColor) | ForeColor | Yes |
| Frame | Frame | No |
| Label Font (LabelFont) | labelfont | Yes |
| History Size | history | No |
| Output Channel (MsgChannel) | msgchannel | Yes |
| Tool Tip Text (ToolTipText) | ToolTipText | Yes |
| Vertical Scroll Bar (VScroll) | VScroll | Yes |
| Widget Font (Font) | Font | No |
| Attach Margin (AttachMargin) | AttachMargin | Yes |
| Popup Rectangle (PopupRect) | PopupRect | Yes |
Widget Operations
The uoutputbox widget has widget operations that
can be called in ProcScript to manipulate the contents of the widget, without changing the field's
value. To call these operations, use the $widgetoperation with a field handle
(obtained by $fieldhandle). For more information, see $widgetoperation .
The Output Box has the following widget operations:
- addLine—add a string to
the Output Box.
Syntax: $fieldhandle
(Field)->$widgetoperation(""addLine", "LineContent") - getContent—copy the
current content of the Output Box into a variable (Output). The output consists
of a Uniface list in which each item is a line in the Output Box.
Syntax: $fieldhandle
(Field)->$widgetoperation("getContent",Output)
Keys and Macros
The output box widget uses standard keyboard keys for navigation through the data. .
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Up and Down arrows | Scroll data one line at a time |
| Page Up
Page Down |
Scroll data one page at a time. (A page is equal to the size of the control.) |
| Ctrl+Home | Move to top of data |
| Ctrl+End | Move to end of data |
| Macro | Action |
|---|---|
| ^Save | Puts the complete content on the clipboard. |
| ^Zoom | Zoom field |
| ^Remfield | Allows the user to save the data in a UTF8-formatted file. |
Example: Connecting the Output Box to the Putmess Channel
The following code redirects the
putmess output to the output box. Whenever code calls the
putmess statement, this text is also sent to the uoutputbox. No additional code
required.
$fieldproperties("OUTPUTBOX_FIELD")="msgchannel=2"
Example: Procedurally Adding Messages to the Output Box
The following example adds a message to the uoutputbox using the addLine widget operation:
entry report
variables
handle vHandle
endvariables
vHandle = $fieldhandle("OUTPUTBOX_FIELD")
forentity "MYENT"
if (FLD1.MYENT > FLD2.MYENT)
vHandle->$widgetoperation("addLine", "Error: FLD1 is bigger than FLD2")
endif
endfor
end
