Maintaining Application Components › Maintaining Panels › Designing Panels › Panel Design › Field Types

Field Types

Each field is allocated a field type that specifies the method for processing the field. The following field types are supported:

OUTPUT

Display only—no data can be entered from the screen.

INPUT

You can both display and enter data.

SPD

Selector pen detectable—data cannot be typed in.

NULL

Display only—although unprotected, any data entered is ignored.

Any mixture of the above field types can be defined to suit the requirements for a panel you are designing.

The field character that precedes each field determines:

• The field type.
• The display characteristics of the field (such as intensity, color, highlighting, justification, and capitalization).
• For input fields, the internal validation rules that must be obeyed for data entered in that field. Such rules can specify, for example, that a field is mandatory, must be numeric, cannot contain imbedded blanks, or must be a valid date.

Each field character that you define occupies the equivalent screen position when the panel is displayed, but appears as a blank character (the attribute byte).

The field proper starts from the next position after the field character, and continues to the next attribute byte on the same line, or to the end of that line where there is no intervening field. Fields do not wrap round from one line to the next.

Field characters can be specified either in character, in which case they are always special characters (non-alpha, and non-numeric; for example, *, %), or in hexadecimal.

The standard default field characters are as follows:

%

High-intensity, protected (no input)

+

Low-intensity, protected (no input)

_

High-intensity, unprotected (input, no validation)

These standard default field characters do not require definition by a #FLD Statement statement.

Define any additional field characters you need using the #FLD Statement statement. The attributes for the above default field characters can be modified. You can use the #OPT statement to nominate alternative standard field characters, so that %, +, and _ can be used within the panel and not processed as field characters, if required.

Column 1 of each line of a panel must be a valid field character; if one is not defined, then the attributes for the second standard field character (normally +, for low-intensity, protected) are used to replace any data incorrectly placed in that column.

In the figure below, all fields preceded by a percent sign (%) display in high-intensity and are protected from data entry. All fields preceded by a plus sign (+) display in low-intensity and are also protected. The only field available for input is on line 16 of the text data, preceded by an underline (_). The word newpanel identifies the NCL variable that receives the data that the user enters in this field once the Enter key is pressed.

By default, the cursor is placed at the beginning of the cmd field, as this is the first field requiring input—no other cursor position has been specified.

Note: The ampersand (&) that precedes a variable is omitted when specifying an input field. 

LIB: PANLUSR------------------ MODS : Edit Panel ----------------NAME: PANEL001
 Command ===>                                                   Scroll ===> CSR 
                                                                                
                                                                                
 LINE <---+----10---+----20---+----30---+----40---+----50---+----60---+----70-->
 **** ****************************** TOP OF DATA *******************************
                                   %MODS : Rename Panel                         
      +Command ===>_cmd                                                         
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
      %   Current Panel Definition                                              
                                                                                
      +   Path ....................%&path      +                                
                                                                                
      +   Library .................%&lib  +                                     
                                                                                
      +   Panel Name ..............%&oldpanel +                                 
                                                                                
      %   Enter New Panel Name                                                  
                                                                                
      +   New Panel Name .........._newpanel +

When a panel is displayed, field characters are removed and the required terminal attribute characters substituted. The following figure shows how the panel is displayed.

Note: In all figures, the underline symbol (_) designates the cursor location.

                              MODS : Rename Panel
 Command ===> _



    Current Panel Definition

    Path ....................______________

    Library ................._______

    Panel Name ..............__________

    Enter New Panel Name

    New Panel Name ..........________