Re: Input --- for the "Why Not?" Dept.

Michael Hoffman wrote: > > Am I missing something, or is this another instance of Informix not being > able to do the most simplistic things: > You're missing something. Be sure to add at least two shots of whiskey to your morning coffee. It works for me, however, by the time I get home and post to this newsgroup it's usually worn off. :-) Just kidding! > (This is using I4mix v. 5.04 on an HP 9000 running UX 10.01) > > I have a VERY full input form. The user wants no more than 2 forms, so I > have to squeeze as much info as I can in limited space. This has led to > many "pop up" windows (windows with display arrays that the user pages > through and selects the appropriate data) with smaller display areas. > Most of the information passed from the display arrays to the main form > gets truncated on the screen, but the real data is OK. > > My problem arose when the users decided they need to free-type into one of > these fields. The screen has no more room for more lines, and the field is > only 40 characters displayed. The user nees 255 characters!!! > Coolness. All you have to do is create a TEXT (BLOB) field in your form, and make it 1-character wide: Hello[a] When the user gets to this field, they press the '!' key, and are taken into their favorite editor, where they can edit to their hearts' content. You should define an editor with the PROGRAM attribute in the ATTRIBUTE section of the form, but basically you're done. You'll have to modify your INSERT clause to accomodate the BLOB, but it's really quite easy. In the INPUT block, the management isn't much different than the rest of the fields. For a quick-shot demo, download my "bas_4gl" code-generator, and give it a run. There's a couple of other little programs to download with it, but it handles BLOBs adequately. I designed it to handle TEXT BLOBs with this idea in mind. You can find bas_4gl1 and many other interesting tools at: http://www.mindspring.com/~tschaefe ( If I ever get around to paying the internic for it, this URL will change to www.inxutil.com. ) One other final thing: Do not expect to be able to seach on the TEXT BLOB. You won't be able to, and last I checked no other vendor has this feature, but you never know... The whole point is, if you want quick-n-easy note fields, use a TEXT BLOB. For more complicated, searchable note fields, break down and create another screen as the other posts suggest. And balance that coffee! :-) -- Tim Schaefer \\\\|// tschaefe@mindspring.com (6 6) ------------------------oOOo---( )---o00o---------