You are here:

TextArea

Form and theme XML code and CSS element selector

Inheritance diagram

Most commonly used form and theme properties

Associated 4gl syntax and ui methods

Influence and behavior

TextArea is used to input and display text data of different formats in multiple lines of text.

TextArea inserted in a GridPanel as seen in Lycia Form Designer:

Form XML code:

Theme element filter XML code:

...

</ElementFilter>

CSS element selector code:

qx-aum-text-area

Inheritance diagram:

Most commonly used form properties:

Most commonly used theme properties:

Associated 4gl syntax:

INPUT

DISPLAY

Associated ui methods:

Create

ForName

SetText →

GetText

SetAllowTabulation →

GetAllowTabulation

SetAutonext →

GetAutonext

SetMaxLength →

GetMaxLength

SetReadOnly

GetReadOnly

SetToCase →

GetToCase

Influence and behavior:

To add a TextArea to your form, you

Step 1. Choose a TextArea from the widgets palette by left-clicking its icon.

Step 2. Select the place in the form where you want to put the TextArea.

Step 3. Left-click the selected spot (cell or sector) to place the TextArea there.

Step 4. The TextArea is now added to your form, and you can see it in the Structure view.

Here you can find out how to change the initial text displayed to the TextArea in the form:

Here you can learn how to change the text displayed to the TextArea at runtime using ui methods or DISPLAY ...TO statement.

Here you can find out how to input text to a TextArea using the INPUT statement, e.g.,

INPUT BY NAME f1 WITHOUT DEFAULTS

You can change the appearance of a TextArea via master or user themes and css styles.

In the example below, we change the font color of the text displayed to a definite TextArea by applying the New Font property with a With ID... filter.

property applied in the user theme:

theme XML code:

runtime appearance:

In the example below, we use css to change the text style for a TextArea:

.qx-aum-text-area .qx-text {

padding: 2px;

padding: 5px 10px;

color: white !important;

font: bold 14px "Calibri","Helvetica Neue", Sans-Serif;

}

At runtime, you can create and manipulate TextAreas with ui methods:

create()	creates a ui.TextArea object and inserts a TextArea to the specified form element: LET ta = ui.TextArea.Create("ta1")
forName()	binds a TextArea existing in a .fm2 form to the specified variable of the ui.TextArea type: LET ta = ui.TextArea.ForName("ta1")
setText()	sets the text to the specified TextArea: CALL ta.setText("ui.SetText")
setAllowTabulation()	allows inserting tab characters to the specified TextArea:
setAutonext()	allows moving the input to the next field once it gets to the set maximum length:
setMaxLength()	sets the maximum length for the string input to the specified TextArea:
setReadOnly()	if enabled, switches off the input - users will not be able to enter any text to the specified TextArea: CALL ta.setReadOnly(1)
setToCase()	specifies the case of the text displayed/input to the specified TextArea: CALL ta.setToCase("Up")