Develop > Tailoring > Form creation > Forms Designer > Creating and editing forms > Text area control

Text area control

Use this control to add a text area that displays the contents of a text field and conditionally enables users to input several lines of data. This object contains scroll bars and allows text wrapping.

Note A field associated to a text area must be defined as an array of characters in the dbdict.

To place a text area on a form, click Text area and then click the form.
Be sure to put the name of the database field or variable that you want to associate with this control into the Input property.

Using URLs in text areas

Text areas (including those in dynamic forms) support clickable URLs. When a text area is not in focus (that is, when it is in view mode), URLs in the text area are displayed as hyperlinks. Clicking the hyperlink opens the URL in a new page of the browser. When a text area is in focus (that is, when it is in edit mode), you can modify the text in the text area, but the URL is not displayed as a hyperlink and is not clickable.

The following URL protocols are clickable when used in text areas:

  • http://
  • https://
  • ftp://
  • notes://
Property Usage
Name Specify a unique identifier for the object on the screen. (Optional)

This name is used by external applications, such as RAD, to dynamically change the properties of the object.
X Specify the object’s horizontal position based on the left edge of the object.
Y Specify the object’s vertical position based on the top edge of the object.
Width Specify the width of the object in alignment grid units.
Height Specify the height of the object in alignment grid units.
Visible Select this option to make the object visible on the form. Clear the check box to hide the object from view on the form.
Visible Condition Specify an expression to override the Visible property when that expression evaluates to true.
Caption Specify a text caption for the object.
Caption Condition Specify an expression to override the Caption property when that expression evaluates to true.
Input Specify the database field or variable to associate with this control.
Accessible Name Specify a component name for use with accessibility software. (Optional)

Note:This function is only supported by the web client.

If no name is present, the Web client defaults to looking for a nearby label to use for the name of the component. For buttons, check boxes, or radio buttons, it uses the component’s text. Accessibility software can query the Web client to get this information and use it to present data to the user in a variety of ways. For example, speech simulation software says the name and the type of component when the component has focus.
Accessible Description Specify a component description for use with accessibility software. (Optional)

Note: This function is only supported by the Web client.

If no description is present, the Web client defaults to looking for a nearby label to use for the name of the component. For buttons, check boxes, or radio buttons, the Web client will use the component’s text. Accessibility software can query the Web client to get this information, and use it to present it to the user in a variety of ways. For example, when a component gets focus, speech simulation software will say the name and the type of component, based on the settings in the Accessible Name and Accessible Description fields.
Tab Stop Specify the tab sort order for this field. By default, the TAB key navigates the focus on a form from top to bottom and left to right. Objects that have a non-zero Tab Stop are visited first, in ascending order. For a button, file, radio button or check box, you will almost always use the default of 0.
Read-Only Select this option to disable editing capabilities and provide only viewing access to the field. Give read–only fields a tab–stop value of –1 to prevent users from tabbing into them.
Read-Only Condition Specify an expression to override the Read-Only property when that expression evaluates to true.
Mandatory Select this option so that a red asterisk indicating a required field is displayed. This is a visible change only.
- To make the field mandatory for any form it appears on, use the System Definition Utility.
- To make the field mandatory for a small number of forms only, use Format Control.
Mandatory Condition Specify an expression to override the Mandatory property when that expression evaluates to true.
Password Select this option to make the text entered in the field a series of asterisks on the screen. The data is not encrypted, just transposed.
Maximum Chars Specify the number of characters the user can enter in the field. The default is 0 (unlimited).
Maximum Characters Beep Select this option to notify the user by sounding a beep that they reached the maximum number of characters. This is not available on UNIX systems.
Case Conversion Specify how to change the case of text entered in the field. The choices are None, Upper, Lower.
Decimals Specify the number of decimal points for numbers in this field.
Service Manager modifies numbers entered in the field to the number of decimal points you specify.
Parse

Select this option to verify that the text entered in a field is the correct syntax. The syntax for the field is defined by the type of field it displays (date, expression, number, and so forth).