802.TXT
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Working With Applications in R:BASE 5.0
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PRODUCT: R:BASE VERSION: 5.X
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AREA : Other CATEGORY: Programing in R:BASE
A menu-driven application operates differently in Windows than it
does in a DOS environment. You will see some differences when running
your applications in R:BASE 5.0. Most of the differences are a
direct result of operating under Windows instead of DOS. We want you
to be aware of these differences.
The basic R:BASE interface had not changed in five years, so you and
your users were well used to the way applications and menus were
presented and your fingers automatically pressed the right keys in
the right places. Some of those keystrokes have changed in R:BASE 5.0.
You should not need to modify any code in your existing applications.
Most applications run in R:BASE 5.0 exactly as written. The
differences in using your applications are as minimal as possible.
Where an option is no longer available, such as with the CHOOSE
command or some SET keywords, the old command is ignored. No
extraneous error messages are returned because of options that are
no longer available. Review the New Features and Commands section of
online Help for information about specific commands that have changed
or are no longer available. If you set keymaps or use playback files,
those might need to be changed because of menu and hot key changes.
Both the look and the operation of menus has changed in R:BASE 5.0.
All menus now operate as Windows-style menus. You can use the mouse
to choose menu options, or you can use the keyboard. The keys used
to move around the menus and select items are different in R:BASE
5.0. Some hot keys have stayed the same, such as [Shift][F6] to
select all items, while others have changed to conform to Windows
standards, such as [F2] to indicate completion. Online help is always
available in R:BASE 5.0. For a list of the available hot keys, press
[Shift][F1] and click the Hot Keys button.
Menu Colors
All menu colors are set in the Windows Control Panel. You can't set
these colors in your applications; each person running the
application might see different colored menus. By default, Windows
menus are black text on a white background with a dark blue highlight.
The dark blue highlight is the same color as the R:BASE default
screen color. While you cannot control the menu colors in your
application code, you can control the color of the R> prompt window
and your application background. For instance, you can change the
application background to a light color, such as cyan or white, so
that menu options are easier to read.
Pop-up and Check Box Menus
An R:BASE 5.0 pop-up menu always has black text on a white background.
The first item on the menu is highlighted. The MICRORIM_MENU_POS
variable cannot be used in 5.0 to change the location of the default
menu item. Choose an option from the menu by clicking on it, or use
the arrow keys to select the item and press [Enter]. Clicking on an
item selects it and immediately closes the menu. The [PgUp], [PgDn],
[Home], and [End] keys can also be used to move to a specific item on
the menu. Pop-up menus are always cleared from the screen; they cannot
be cascaded.
In the DOS versions of R:BASE, you pressed [Enter] to choose the
different items on a check box menu. In Windows, pressing [Enter]
always indicates completion. Use the mouse or press [spacebar] in
R:BASE 5.0 to choose items from a check box menu, then press [Enter]
to accept your choices. Pressing [Enter] with no items selected on a
check box menu returns [Esc] to the menu choice variable.
Menu Hot Keys
The R:BASE 5.0 menus have standard Windows hot keys as indicated by
the underlined letter of the menu option. Pressing [Alt] plus the
letter selects a main menu option and drops down the menu. Once the
drop down menu is displayed, pressing the underlined letter of an
option selects and executes it. On menus without designated hot keys,
such as your application menus or pop-up menus, pressing the first
letter of a menu option selects that option.
You can add hot keys to application menus in R:BASE 5.0. When defining
or modifying a menu, put the & character before the hot key letter.
Any letter in the menu option can be designated as the hot key. You
can add hot keys to both the main menu bar and the drop downs of pull
down type application menus. You cannot add hot keys to pop-up menus.
Below are commonly asked questions and answers about applications.
Question: I started Application Express to modify a 4.5++ application.
The application name did not appear on the menu, so I entered the name
in "Name." R:BASE created a new application instead of editing the
existing application.
Answer: While R:BASE 5.0 can run applications made with earlier
versions of R:BASE, those applications cannot be edited in Application
Express. R:BASE 5.0 Application Express has a completely new format.
The structure of your application is now stored in an appname.APW file
instead of an appname.API file. R:BASE 5.0 still makes an appname.APP
and an appname.APX file. You can't have both an old and a new
application with the same name in the same directory. The new
application will overwrite the runable files, appname.APP and
appname.APX, from the old application.
Question: I like the new way to define application menus in
Application Express. But once I have defined the menu text, I can't
figure out how to define the menu actions since Application Express
no longer walks me through building the menus and actions.
Answer: Once you have laid out your menus, highlight a menu item and
press the right mouse button. A menu pops up with a number of choices
including Menu Item Settings.... Choose Menu Item Settings... to
define the actions for a menu item. The right mouse button is also
used in QBE, and the Form, Report, and Label Designers to open pop-up
menus with more options.
Question: When I run an application or command file, the R:BASE main
menu and tool bar go away
Answer: Running a command file or application in R:BASE 5.0 is a modal
operation. You must complete that process before doing any other
action in R:BASE 5.0. When you run an application, the R:BASE 5.0 main
menu is replaced by your application menu. The tool bar is removed
because you can't select any of the items on it.
Question: My application used to start with the left most menu on the
pull-down main menu already dropped down. Now I need to select that
item on the main menu before the pull-down menu appears.
Answer: This is standard operation for Windows menus. The main
application menu is initially displayed with no menu selected. A
drop-down menu is not displayed until the menu item is selected.
Question: I have an application with pull-down menus. Some of the
main menu options, when selected, performed an action instead of
displaying a drop-down menu. Now, when I select the menu item, a drop
down menu opens with an "OK" option. When I choose it, the action is
performed.
Answer: Windows menus require that a drop-down menu of some type is
defined from a menu bar. In a new application, you can no longer
associate an action with a main menu option. A drop-down menu is
always defined; actions are assigned to the drop-down menu options.
So that old applications are compatible, the "OK" options is added to
menus with no pull-down menus.
Question: When running my new application that I built in R:BASE 5.0,
some of my menus have the option (Continue) on them. I didn't put it
there, where did it come from?
Answer: The (Continue) indicates a blank option on a menu. If you
pressed [Enter] after entering the last option of a drop-down menu,
you might have accidentally created a blank option. Modify the
application, select the blank option, click the right mouse button,
and then choose to delete the blank menu option.
Question: I press [Esc] to exit my application, but it doesn't close.
I have to keep pressing [Esc], and finally the application exits.
Answer: You need to press [Esc] three times to exit an application.
This is standard operation for Windows menus. The first [Esc] takes
you from a drop-down menu to the main menu bar, the second [Esc]
un-selects the main menu item, and the third [Esc] exits the main
menu and closes the application.
Question: My horizontal menus are coming up as pop-ups. Why?
Answer: Horizontal and vertical menu types (ROW and COLUMN) can no
longer be created in R:BASE 5.0 because they are not compatible in
a Windows program. To support older applications that still use these
menu types, R:BASE 5.0 automatically converts them to pop-up menus
when the application runs.
Question: I try to close my application by double clicking on the
system menu like I do elsewhere in R:BASE 5.0. Nothing happens.
Clicking once doesn't even open the system menu.
Answer: You cannot close the R> prompt window while an application is
running. The system menu is for the R> prompt, not for your
application. You must exit the application by pressing [Esc] or by
selecting an Exit option.
Question: Can I use the status bar at the bottom of the screen to
display custom messages in my application?
Answer: Menu titles from CHOOSE commands are automatically placed in
the status bar. You cannot, however, use the WRITE command to display
a message on that line.
Question: I have a menu choice in my application that uses the ZIP
command to run AUTOCHK to check the database before a backup or a
PACK. It isn't working. AUTOCHK is not running.
Answer: AUTOCHK is no longer a separate .EXE file, it is now an R>
prompt command. Instead of using the ZIP command to start AUTOCHK, you
use the AUTOCHK command. AUTOCHK automatically checks the connected
database. Errors are returned to the R:BASE error variable.
Question: I press [Enter] on a check box menu to select an item and
the menu is closed without anything being selected. How do I select
items in a check box menu?
Answer: Press [spacebar] or use the mouse to select an item, then
press [Enter] to accept the selections. The [Enter] key in a Windows
application indicates that you are done selecting items. Use
[Shift][F6] to select all the items on a check box menu.
Question: When using the TRACE command, I pressed [Shift][F5] so it
wouldn't stop at each nested RUN command, but instead the window
changed sizes. Why?
Answer: [Shift][F5] is used to tile the open Windows. The new hot key
for skipping nested RUN commands is [Shift][F10]. To see the current
hot keys, press [Shift][F1], then click the Hot Keys button.
Question: I use the MICRORIM_MENU_POS variables to select default
menu selections in my application. In R:BASE 5.0, the pop-up menus
come up with the first item selected even though I set the variables.
Answer: That's correct. The menu position variables are ignored by
R:BASE 5.0.
Question: I built a custom application with cascading menus. The
menus no longer cascade. Each menu is cleared from the screen and
they all appear in the same location.
Answer: Windows applications do not allow cascading menus. CASCADE and
a number of other options in the CHOOSE command are no longer
applicable in the Windows environment. The following options in the
CHOOSE command are ignored by R:BASE 5.0: CLEAR, CASCADE, RIGHT,
LEFT, RESET, NOCHG, and FOOTING. You can still make check box and
check sort menus, however, and return a value from a column not
included on the menu.
Question: I set WALKMENU on so users could quickly move to choices on
pop-up menus by spelling the choice. It's not working any more. Only
the first letter of a pop-up menu is acting as a hot key regardless
of the setting for WALKMENU.
Answer. WALKMENU is not applicable to a Windows application; it is
strictly a DOS-style menu interaction. Use the mouse and the menu
scroll bars to move on pop-up menus. Pressing the [Home], [End],
[PgUp], and [PgDn] keys also moves to choices on pop-up menus.
Question: My users are always pressing [Enter] without selecting
anything on a check box menu, then the application does not work
correctly. Can I get the menus to work like they did in the DOS
versions of R:BASE?
Answer: You can use the command SET OLDMENUS ON from the R> prompt to
tell R:BASE 5.0 to display and work with menus in the same way as
R:PORT and R:BASE 4.5++.
Question: Is there any way to change the main window title bar when
running an application? I'd like it to have a unique application name
rather than the name of the file being run.
Answer: Use the new SET CAPTION command to specify the window title
when an application executes. Specify the title when creating a new
application, or edit the Startup block and add the title. Add the
command SET CAPTION 'this is my heading' to the startup block and
save the application.