Using a RichText DataWindow object – PB Docs 2021

This section discusses:

Scrolling

In a RichText DataWindow object, the rich text can consist of more
than one page. A row of data can be associated with several pages, making
a row larger than a page. In other DataWindow styles, a page consists of
one or more than one row — a page is larger than a row.

For a RichText DataWindow object, the scrolling functions behave
differently because of this different meaning for a page:

Page flow

As you scroll, the pages appear to flow from one row to the next.
Scrolling to the next page when you are on the last page of the document
takes you to the first page for the next row. The user gets the effect of
scrolling through many instances of the document.

New rows: default data and validation
rules

Input fields are invisible when they have no value. Before data is
retrieved, PowerBuilder displays question marks (??) in fields to make
them visible. For new rows, PowerBuilder assigns an initial value based on
the datatype.

If you have specified an initial value for the column, PowerBuilder
uses that value; if no value is specified, PowerBuilder uses spaces for
string columns or zero for numeric columns.

Possible validation errors

If the default initial value provided by PowerBuilder does not
satisfy the validation rule, the user gets a validation error as soon as
the new row is inserted. To avoid this, you should specify initial values
that meet your validation criteria.

When the user makes changes

Display only

When you check Display Only on the General property page for the
Rich Text Object, the user cannot make any changes to the data or the rich
text.

If you leave the pop-up menu enabled, the user can turn off the
display-only setting and make the DataWindow object editable.

Input fields

In an editable DataWindow object, users change the value of a column
input field by displaying the input field’s property sheet and editing the
Data Value text box. For a computed field input field, the Data Value text
box is read-only.

You can let the user display input field names instead of data. You
might do this if you were providing an editing environment in which users
were developing their own RichText DataWindow object. However, the
RichTextEdit control is better suited to a task like this, because you
have more scripting control over the user’s options.

Rich text

If users edit the text or formatting, they are changing the document
template. The changes are seen for every row.

The changes apply to that session only, unless you take extra steps
to save the changes and restore them.

To save the changes, you can write a script that uses the CopyRTF
function to get all the text, including the named input fields but not the
row data, and save the contents of that string in a file or database.
Whenever users view the RichText DataWindow object, you can restore their
latest version or let them return to the original definition of the
DataWindow object’s text.

Functions for RichText DataWindow
objects

The DataWindow control has many functions.

Functions that behave the same

DataWindow control functions that operate on data, such as Update or
Retrieve, have the same behavior for all types of DataWindow
objects.

When the object in the control is a RichText DataWindow object, some
of the functions do not apply or they behave differently.

Functions that do not apply

Some functions are not applicable when the object is a RichText
DataWindow object. The following functions return an error or have no
effect:

Functions that behave differently

Some functions have different behavior when the object is a RichText
DataWindow object: