Video Attributes

Video attributes determine the Uniface index colors used in an application, and additional attributes such as bold, blink, bright and underline used character mode that can be used to highlight current fields and occurrences.

You can customize video attributes for Uniface objects at several levels in the application:

At Application level, by using assignment settings.
Form level, by changing the properties of the appropriate forms.
Object level, by specifying any of the codes shown in the following table either as defaults—during the installation process—or in ProcScript statements.

See Setting Video Attributes.

Video Attribute Codes

The available attribute codes are shown in the following table:

Video Attribute Codes
Attribute Code	Description
`BLI`	Blinking
`BOR`	Border
`BRI`	Bright
`HLT`	Use system highlight color. Note: This attribute always takes precedence over other video attributes that may be specified.
`INV`	Inverse
`UND`	Underline
`COL=` n	Set color to color code n, the sum of the color numbers for foreground and background.

Note: Not all of these video attributes work on all displays. You should experiment to find what works best.

Uniface Index Colors

The following tables describe the foreground and background colors when the Bright and Blink video attributes are set.

Foreground color numbers for bright, blink, and bright and blink
Number	Bright	Blink	Bright & blink
0	dark gray	white	dark gray
8	dark blue	gray dark	blue
16	dark green	green	dark green
24	dark cyan	cyan	dark cyan
32	dark red	red	dark red
40	dark purple	purple	dark purple
48	dark yellow	yellow	dark yellow
56	dark gray	white	dark gray

Background color numbers for bright, blink, and bright and blink
Number	Bright	Blink	Bright & blink
0	gray	blue	light blue
1	blue	blue	light blue
2	green	blue	light blue
3	cyan	blue	light blue
4	red	blue	light blue
5	purple	blue	light blue
6	yellow	blue	light blue
7	white	blue	light blue

Video Attributes and Character Shapes

Character shapes (such as underline, bold, and italic) can be mapped to video attributes. However, video attributes cannot be mapped to character shapes. Therefore, if a video attribute is assigned to a Uniface object that has a bold character shape, the bold character shape is overridden by the new video attribute, and is no longer bold.

Inverse

Inverse is the default video attribute for Unifields in Windows. No special color set is needed for inverse and it can be combined with any of the other four video attributes. By default, a Unifield has background color 7, and foreground color 0 (black characters on a white background). If you make the unifield non-inverse, the default combination is background color 0 and foreground color 56 (black characters on a gray background).

Background colors 0 and 7, and foreground colors 0 and 56 are opposites of each other; these are the system colors always used for inverse and non-inverse fields, regardless of the chosen video attributes. So, when you specify the attribute blink, foreground color 0 and background color 7 are still used on an Inverse field. However, because blink is the attribute, the color set from blink is used: white characters on a blue background. If any other color is specified (using COL=n), the INV attribute is ignored.

Applications developed on some platforms may require the use of the assignment setting $SWAP_COLORS for proper display of colors. For more information, see $SWAP_COLORS.

Setting Video Attributes

Uniface allows you to set video attributes for specific objects in ProcScript:

For fields, you can use $fieldvideo or fieldvideo. For more information, see $fieldvideo and fieldvideo.
For current occurrences, you can use $curoccvideo and curoccvideo. For more information, see $curoccvideo and curoccvideo.

Video attributes set in ProcScript usually override those set declaratively in the Uniface IDE, and those set in assignment files.

Assignment settings allow you to specify the video attributes used for highlighting the current field or occurrence, and for objects in character mode.

Assignment Settings for Highlighting
Assignment Setting	Description
$ACTIVE_FIELD	Set the video attributes for the current field. Overrides the attributes set for the current occurrence.
$ACTIVE_FIELD_FIRST	Enable or disable the video attributes defined by $ACTIVE_FIELD to take precedence over those set by $fieldvideo and fieldvideo.
$CUROCC_VIDEO	Enable the current occurrence in all form components of the application.
$CUROCC_VIDEO_HLT	Set the colors used to highlight the current occurrence when the following conditions apply: The video attribute for the current occurrence is set to`HLT` The system highlight color is the same as the color used by Windows to highlight text selected in an edit box. In this case, the difference between selected and non-selected text will not be visible to the user, so it is useful to set an alternative color.
$DEF_VIDEO	Set the default video attributes for fields.
$DEF_CUROCC_VIDEO	Set the video attributes used to highlight the current occurrence in all form components of the application.

Assignment Settings for Character Mode Objects
Assignment Setting	Description
$CHECK_BOX	Set the video attributes for a check box in character mode
$FORM_TITLE	Assign form title properties in character mode
$LIST_BOX	Set the video attributes for a list box in character mode
$MENU_BAR	Assign the position, video attributes, and behavior of menu bars.
$MESSAGE_LINE	Assign the position and video attributes for the message line in character mode.
$PROFILE_VIDEO	Set the video attributes for profile characters in Unifields.
$RADIO_BUTTON	Set the video attributes for radio group buttons in character mode.