WinStudio

Use Free Form, Data Type, and Format Properties

Data type and format definitions for components that have the Use Free Form property enabled are specified with the Data Type property and the Format property rather than with the properties normally used.

Definitions consist of WinStudio keywords and parameters. The use of keywords allows you to specify substitution keywords rather than literal values as parameters. Variable values can be set programmatically through the application and retrieved as keyword parameters at run time.

Use Free Form Property

Setting	Description
True	Data type and format definitions for the component are specified with the Data Type property and the Format property, rather than with properties normally used.
False	Default. Data type and format definitions for the component are specified in the normal way.

NOTE: If you use the Free Form property and you want to set conditions for Enabled When, Required When, or Visible When properties, you must do so using the appropriate keywords in the Data Type property field for the Free Form property. Setting the Free Form property value to True disables those property fields in the Component Property sheet.

Data Type Property

The following table maps keywords for data type definitions to property names in the component properties sheet.

This property is enabled only if you have the Free Form property set to True.

Keyword	Component Property
DATATYPE	Underlying Type
LENGTH	Length
DECIMALPOINT	Decimal Point Position
BOOLTRUE	Boolean True
BOOLFALSE	Boolean False
DEFAULTVALUE	Default Value
CASE	Upper or Lower Case
ENABLEDWHEN	Enabled When
REQUIREDWHEN	Required When
VISIBLEWHEN	Visible When

A value of the Data Type property is specified as follows:

keyword1 ( parameter ) [keyword2 ( parameter ) . . . keywordn ( parameter ) ]

Format Property

The following table maps keywords for format definitions to property names in the component properties sheet.

This property is enabled only if you have the Free Form property set to True.

Keyword	Component Property
DEFAULTFORMAT	n.a.
DECIMALPOINT	Decimal Point Position
TRUNCATEDECIMAL	Round
DATE \| TIME \| DATETIME	Date Format
BLOBFORMAT	Binary Data
COMMA	n.a.
COMMAS	n.a.
DECIMAL	n.a.
FONT	Font
FORECOLOR	Foreground Color
BACKCOLOR	Background Color
MASK	Input Mask
AUTOIME	Default IME Character Set
JUSTIFY	Justification

A value of the Format property is specified as follows:

DEFAULTFORMAT ( keyword1 ( parameter ) [ keyword2 ( parameter ) . . . keywordn ( parameter ) ] )

The keyword DEFAULTFORMAT is optional in a Format value for a component.

Component Classes and Property Class Extensions

In a component class or property class extension, Data Type and Format values are combined as follows:

keyword1 ( parameter ) [keyword2 ( parameter ) . . . keywordn ( parameter ) ] DEFAULTFORMAT ( keyword1 ( parameter ) [ keyword2 ( parameter ) . . . keywordn ( parameter ) ] )

Note that all format keywords are specified as parameters to the DEFAULTFORMAT keyword. See the example below.

Example

In the following definition from a component class, parameters of the keywords are temporary, global variables.

DATATYPE(V(AcctDataType))LENGTH(V(AcctLength))DEFAULTFORMAT(MASK(V(AcctInputMask))JUSTIFY(V(AcctJustify)))

Values of the variables are set at system startup by an IDO method call. At run time, the expression evaluates to

DATATYPE(NUMSORTCHAR)LENGTH(5))DEFAULTFORMAT(MASK(ZZZZZ))JUSTIFY(R))

In the property sheet for the component class, NUMSORTCHAR appears as the Underlying Type, and 5 appears as the Length. The Input Mask value is ZZZZZ, and the Justification property is Right. All values are read-only.