EEDTDSP_METHOD

Perform user field editing

subroutine EEDTDSP_METHOD
   a_data       ,a
   a_type       ,a
   a_text       ,a
   a_edit       ,a
   a_inpinfo    ,a

Arguments

a_data

The data as stored in the field. (a)

a_type

The user_type string specified in the .FIELD USER qualifier. (a)

a_text

(optional) The user_text string specified in the .FIELD USER qualifier. (a)

a_edit

The returned text to be edited. (a)

a_inpinfo

The structure of input information. (a)

Discussion

EEDTDSP_METHOD is a subroutine that you write and name. The name of your subroutine is registered with UI Toolkit using the E_METHOD subroutine.

We recommend using an input field edit format method (%IEDITFMT_METHOD) instead of EEDTESP_METHOD. Unlike EEDTDSP_METHOD, your %IEDITFMT_METHOD adds to Toolkit functionality rather than replaces it. %IEDITFMT_METHOD also provides access to the structure defined in inpinf.def and to the 20 optional arguments passed to I_INPUT and L_INPUT.

The UI Toolkit input subroutine calls the EEDTDSP_METHOD subroutine to display the editable contents of a user-type field differently than both the way it is stored and the way EDSPFLD_METHOD displays it (with formatting). If an edit format method is specified for the input field (using %IEDITFMT_METHOD), the edit format method is called after the EEDTDSP_METHOD subroutine. Use EEDTDSP_METHOD if you need the text of user-defined data type fields to display in another way than the way they are stored.

Note that the length of the text passed in a_edit is defined by the input length for the field. It is not limited by either the display length or the view length.

You will never call EEDTDSP_METHOD directly; it is called only by UI Toolkit.

The inpinf.def file defines a_inpinfo. See IARRIVE_METHOD for information.

S/DE Repository allows you to specify a subtype (or class) for user-defined fields. The default subtype is alpha, but you can optionally specify numeric or date. To access this subtype within the Toolkit user-defined processing routines, use the window ID and field number contained within the inputinfo structure (the a_inpinfo argument). Pass these two values to the I_FLDINF subroutine to retrieve the gs_inpfld structure (the controls argument) which contains the gs_class (user subtype) value. For user-defined alpha fields; gs_class = 0; for user-defined numeric fields, gs_class = 1; for user-defined date fields, gs_class = 2.

Although you can manage the display and validation of user-defined fields using EDSPFLD_METHOD and ECHKFLD_METHOD, when the field is edited (with the E_xxx menu entries) the field is treated as alphanumeric. Thus if the storage form of the data differs from the manner in which it was entered, confusion can result. EEDTDSP_METHOD can solve this problem.

Toolkit’s default method is named TKP_EDTDSP and is listed below:

subroutine tkp_edtdsp
; 
; Description:
; Format the editable text for a user-defined data type 
; 
; Arguments: 
;       a_data                  ,a      ;Data as stored in the field
;       a_type                  ,a      ;User-defined data type
;       a_text                  ,a      ;(Optional) user text string
;       a_edit                  ,a      ;Returned text to be edited 
;       a_inpinfo               ,a      ;Input information
; 
; Notes: 
; 
;  Overload this routine if you need to have user-defined data types
;  display data other than as stored when the user begins to edit the field. 
; 
;  This default version merely moves the stored data into the editing
;  buffer. You should retain this functionality for any unknown user data
;  types. If you remove the semi-colons which "comment out" the case
;  statement, then replace the "MYTYPE" case shown with one or more of
;  your own, the "else" on the endcase will handle the default condition.

proc 
; case a_usertype of 
;   begincase 
;     "MYTYPE ": call format_my_type 
;   endcase 
; else 
        a_edit = a_data
    xreturn 
endsubroutine