Window settings

A window element is a representation of a 4GL form element. Regardless of how it is created (with the 4GL OPEN WINDOW statement or by the framework as a default window, using built-in functions or the WINDOW data type) each window within an application have a separate window element.

A window object is a child of an application object. The Window element can be viewed from the Form Tree view:

 

Description: 4453423.png

The name of a window (its ID) is predefined when it is opened in 4GL. As 4GL is case insensitive, a window name can be lower, upper or mixed case. 

The 4GL Source File:

MAIN

  OPEN WINDOW w_name

  AT 3,5

  WITH 19 ROWS, 72 COLUMNS

  DISPLAY "My text" AT 1,1

END MAIN

 

The exception to the window name is the default window. It is created when your program first does screen output, without opening a window prior, and is called Screen.

The 4GL Source File:

MAIN

   DISPLAY "My First Text Line" At 1,1

   OPEN FORM f_my_form FROM "f_form_file"

   DISPLAY FORM f_my_form

   DISPLAY "My Second Text Line" AT 5,5

END MAIN

 

Window Width and Height

The window width and height can be modified by means of Size properties (Preferred size).

The size parameters applied to a window specify the absolute value of its width and height to be set.  This overrides the value requested by the 4gl in the OPEN statement.

The width and the height options of the Preferred Size property control the default size of the window. Besides, they control whether any scrollbars appear and, if so, the region over which scrolling can occur. It is often more preferably to set the value of the Delta Size property than the Size one.

If height and width properties are set explicitly, any of the delta properties is ignored.

Title

The Title property is used to change the text displayed as the window title.

By default, a title displayed to a window with a border reflects the title defined in the 4gl when opened. 

Title Bar Options

The Title bar options are those that hide or show the title bar and its elements.

The title bar is the header of a non-flat window that contains the window title and the title bar buttons: close, minimize and maximize. Flat windows do not have a title bar, so any title bar properties applied to them will have no effect.

New Title Bar Options

 Automatically adds all the possible title bar options to be set by the user.

Hide Title Bar

 Hides the Title Bar when added and checked: the whole title bar together with the window title and the title bar buttons becomes invisible. However, this does not turn the window into a flat window, because the border and the status bar remain intact.

Disable Title Bar Close Button

Description: TitleBarClose.png         Disables the Close button when added and checked: the user is not able to exit an application by using the close button in the upper-right corner of the title bar.

Disable Title Bar Maximize/Title Bar Minimize Buttons

Description: TitleBarMaximize.png Description: TitleBarMinimize.pngSimilar to the option above: when checked, the specified option is inaccessible to the user.

By default, both Minimize and Maximize functionalities of the application window are available. If both these properties are set to true, the maximize and the minimize buttons become invisible. If only one of these options is set to true, the corresponding button becomes disabled.

Relative to Parent

When a new window is opened in a 4GL application being run by a GUI client, by default, the window is positioned relative to the 4GL screen window. (This is a change in behavior from traditional 4GL, where windows were opened relative to their parent window.) To enable the traditional 4GL method of window positioning, add and check the Relative To Parent option.