Difference between revisions of "Documentation/BASIC Guide/Control Element Forms"

Revision as of 09:00, 20 August 2008

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The control elements available in forms are similar to those of dialogs. The selection ranges from simple text fields through list and combo boxes to various buttons.

Below, you will find a list of the most important properties for control element forms. All properties form part of the associated model objects.

In addition to the standard control elements, a table control element is also available for forms, which enables the complete incorporation of database tables. This is described in the Database Forms chapter.

Buttons

The model object of a form button provides the following properties:

BackgroundColor (long)

background color.

DefaultButton (Boolean)

the button serves as a default value. In this case, it also responds to the entry button if it has no focus.

Enabled (Boolean)

the control element can be activated.

Tabstop (Boolean)

the control element can be reached through the tabulator button.

TabIndex (Long)

position of control element in activation sequence.

FontName (String)

name of font type.

FontHeight (Single)

height of character in points (pt).

Tag (String)

string containing additional information, which can be saved in the button for program-controlled access.

TargetURL (String)

target URL for buttons of the URL type.

TargetFrame (String)

name of window (or frame) in which TargetURL is to be opened when activating the button (for buttons of the URL type).

Label (String)

button label.

TextColor (Long)

text color of control element.

HelpText (String)

automatically displayed help text which is displayed if the mouse cursor is above the control element.

HelpURL (String)

URL of online help for the corresponding control element.

ButtonType (Enum)

action that is linked with the button (default value from com.sun.star.form.FormButtonType ).

Through the ButtonType property, you have the opportunity to define an action that is automatically performed when the button is pressed. The associated com.sun.star.form.FormButtonType group of constants provides the following values:

PUSH

standard button.

SUBMIT

end of form entry (particularly relevant for HTML forms).

RESET

resets all values within the form to their original values.

URL

call of the URL defined in TargetURL (is opened within the window which was specified through TargetFrame).

The OK and Cancel button types provided in dialogs are not supported in forms.

Option Buttons

The following properties of an option button are available through its model object:

Enabled (Boolean)

the control element can be activated.

Tabstop (Boolean)

the control element can be reached through the tab key.

TabIndex (Long)

position of control element in the activation sequence.

FontName (String)

name of font type.

FontHeight (Single)

height of character in points (pt).

Tag (String)

string containing additional information, which can be saved in the button for program-controlled access.

Label (String)

inscription of button.

Printable (Boolean)

the control element can be printed.

State (Short)

if 1, the option is activated, otherwise it is deactivated.

RefValue (String)

string for saving additional information (for example, for administering data record IDs).

TextColor (Long)

text color of control element.

HelpText (String)

automatically displayed help text, which is displayed if the mouse cursor is above the control element.

HelpURL (String)

URL of online help for the corresponding control element.

The mechanism for grouping option buttons distinguishes between the control elements for dialogs and forms. Whereas control elements appearing one after another in dialogs are automatically combined to form a group, grouping in forms is performed on the basis of names. To do this, all option buttons of a group must contain the same name. Apache OpenOffice combines the grouped control elements into an array so that the individual buttons of a Apache OpenOffice Basic program can be reached in the same way.

The following example shows how the model of a control element group can be determined.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Forms As Object
Dim Form As Object
Dim Ctl As Object
Dim I as Integer
 
Doc = StarDesktop.CurrentComponent
Forms = Doc.Drawpage.Forms
 
For I = 0 To Forms.Count - 1
  Form = Forms.GetbyIndex(I)
  If Form.HasByName("MyOptions") Then
    Ctl = Form. GetGroupbyName("MyOptions")
    Exit Function
  End If
Next I

The code corresponds to the previous example for determining a simple control element model. It searches through all forms in the current text document in a loop and uses the HasByName method to check whether the corresponding form contains an element with the MyOptions name it is searching for. If this is the case, then the model array is accessed using the GetGroupByName method (rather than the GetByName method to determine simple models).

Checkboxes

The model object of a checkbox form provides the following properties:

Enabled (Boolean)

the control element can be activated.

Tabstop (Boolean)

the control element can be reached through the tab key.

TabIndex (Long)

position of control element in the activation sequence.

FontName (String)

name of font type.

FontHeight (Single)

height of character in points (pt).

Tag (String)

string containing additional information, which can be saved in the button for program-controlled access.

Label (String)

button label.

Printable (Boolean)

the control element can be printed.

State (Short)

if 1, the option is activated, otherwise it is deactivated.

RefValue (String)

string for saving additional information (for example, for administrating data record IDs).

TextColor (Long)

text color of control element.

HelpText (String)

automatically displayed help text, which is displayed if the mouse cursor is above the control element.

HelpURL (String)

URL of online help for the corresponding control element.

Text Fields

The model objects of text field forms offer the following properties:

Align (short)

orientation of text (0: left-aligned, 1: centered, 2: right-aligned).

BackgroundColor (long)

background color of control element.

Border (short)

type of border (0: no border, 1: 3D border, 2: simple border).

EchoChar (String)

echo character for password field.

FontName (String)

name of font type.

FontHeight (Single)

height of character in points (pt).

HardLineBreaks (Boolean)

the automatic line breaks are permanently inserted in the text of the control element.

HScroll (Boolean)

the text has a horizontal scrollbar.

MaxTextLen (Short)

maximum length of text; if 0 is specified, there are no limits.

MultiLine (Boolean)

permits multi-line entries.

Printable (Boolean)

the control element can be printed.

ReadOnly (Boolean)

the content of the control element is read-only.

Enabled (Boolean)

the control element can be activated.

Tabstop (Boolean)

the control element can be reached through the tab key.

TabIndex (Long)

position of the control element in the activation sequence.

FontName (String)

name of font type.

FontHeight (Single)

height of character in points (pt).

Text (String)

text of control element.

TextColor (Long)

text color of control element.

VScroll (Boolean)

the text has a vertical scrollbar.

HelpText (String)

automatically displayed help text, which is displayed if the mouse cursor is above the control element.

HelpURL (String)

URL of online help for the corresponding control element.

List Boxes

The model object of the list box forms provides the following properties:

BackgroundColor (long)

background color of control element.

Border (short)

type of border (0: no border, 1: 3D frame, 2: simple frame).

FontDescriptor (struct)

structure with details of font to be used (in accordance with com.sun.star.awt.FontDescriptor structure).

LineCount (Short)

number of lines of control element.

MultiSelection (Boolean)

permits multiple selection of entries.

SelectedItems (Array of Strings)

list of highlighted entries.

StringItemList (Array of Strings)

list of all entries.

ValueItemList (Array of Variant)

list containing additional information for each entry (for example, for administrating data record IDs).

Printable (Boolean)

the control element can be printed.

ReadOnly (Boolean)

the content of the control element is read-only.

Enabled (Boolean)

the control element can be activated.

Tabstop (Boolean)

the control element can be reached through the tab key.

TabIndex (Long)

position of control element in the activation sequence.

FontName (String)

name of font type.

FontHeight (Single)

height of character in points (pt).

Tag (String)

string containing additional information which can be saved in the button for program-controlled access.

TextColor (Long)

text color of control element.

HelpText (String)

automatically displayed help text, which is displayed if the mouse cursor is above the control element.

HelpURL (String)

URL of online help for the corresponding control element.

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Furthermore, the following methods are provided though the view object of the list box:

addItem (Item, Pos)

inserts the string specified in the Item at the Pos position in the list.

addItems (ItemArray, Pos)

inserts the entries listed in the string's ItemArray data field in the list at the Pos position

removeItems (Pos, Count)

removes Count entries as of the Pos position.

selectItem (Item, SelectMode)

activates or deactivates the highlighting for the element specified in the string Item depending on the SelectMode variable.

makeVisible (Pos)

scrolls through the list field so that the entry specified by Pos is visible.