Field editing in QUICK

[Fry, Mark]

Jim Nicoll wrote:
> We use Ctrl-B <enter> quite often. It would be nice
> if there were a way to allow Quick to display existing
> field contents without having to use this key sequence.
> Anyone know of such a thing?

It is possible to force Quick to display existing field contents without
having to use <ctrl>-B by implementing Panel Input behaviour for each field
for which this approach is needed.

The technique is to code a numbered designer procedure for each field in
which you need this behaviour, and as Dave Knox rightly pointed out, the
syntax for this is:

PROCEDURE DESIGNER <n>
BEGIN
  BLOCK TRANSFER
  ACCEPT <your field>
END

The BLOCK TRANSFER control structure turns on Panel Input, and because the
BLOCK TRANSFER is not followed by a BEGIN/END construct, it applies only to
the ACCEPT immediately following it.  Because the ACCEPT is now using Panel
Input, any data already in the field is displayed in input format (ie
without scaling, picture etc) and the cursor is positioned at the end of the
data in the field.  The BLOCK TRANSFER finishes when the user presses the
ENTER key.  All the field-related procedures are executed as normal (INPUT,
EDIT, PROCESS and OUTPUT).

Bear in mind the drawbacks of using this technique, though [bet you guessed
there would have to be some :-)  They are:
a) You are adding a numbered designer procedure for each field requiring
this behaviour.  This will add to the maintenance overheads of the screen
considerably, because now you need to check that the field IDs do not get
out of step with the designer procedures when you add new fields or remove
existing fields.
b) The data is displayed in input format, which might confuse users in some
cases.

Otherwise, the technique works well.

Best regards,

Mark Fry
Cognos Limited
email: Mark.Fry@Cognos.com
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