pp108 : Textarea

Textarea

The Textarea control is a type of Input control that is used to display or input multi-line text. Textarea controls can be data-bound or free-form controls. When data-bound, an Textarea control is bound to a model from which it fetches data. When you change the data in the control, the model is updated and all controls associated with the model are refreshed. You can use a free-form Textarea control to display any arbitrary multi-line text.

You can bind a Textarea control to a model by setting the Reference property of the associated business object in the control's property sheet. To do so, specify the XPath of the business object's data to be bound. If no model is set for the control, then the control is bound to the model of its parent control, by default.

Properties, Events, and Methods of the Control

The properties, events, and methods associated with the Textarea control define its behavior. You can set them either through the control's property sheet or programmatically using the APIs.

Table 1. List of Properties

Design-time property

Runtime property

Description

ID

Sets the string that identifies the control on an XForm. If not specified, a unique ID is automatically generated.

Tab Index

Sets and retrieves the position of the current control in the tabbing order for the current XForm.

Model

Sets the ID of the data model from which the data (specified using the Reference property) is displayed in the control. If model is not specified, it is inherited from the parent control's model.

Reference

Sets the location or expression for the XPath that contains the data (value) displayed in the control. The XPath refers to the child node or descendants of the immediate parent control's reference.

Class Name

className

Sets or retrieves the class name applied on the control.

Tooltip

title

Sets the tool tip that appears on a control when the mouse is moved over it. Programmatically, this property is set by specifying the title property of the control.

Resizable

Select to enable the resizing of control at run time.

Note:

  • It is not possible to resize the control beyond the XForm or its parent control.
  • This functionality is disabled if the position of the control is set to free or the layout of the parent control or XForm is set to free.

Task Part

Creates a task part for the control. Selecting the check box, displays the Task Part pane.

Zoom URL

Sets the URL of the Zoom (lookup) page to be opened when the zoom button next to a control is clicked.

Zoom Field

Sets the location or XPath expression that contains the data to be set to the control when the Zoom (lookup) page is closed.

Constraint Validation On Change

Denotes whether validation constraints need to be applied to validate data according to the business logic, when the data associated with a control is changed. This property is available only when a WS-AppServer model is set for a control.

ClickChoice Relation

Sets the properties of the related application to be opened when a context-menu option of the control is selected. All the necessary properties of the application (including the name of context-menu option) is set through this property.

businessObject

Retrieves the root node of the XML data associated with the control; the location of the data is specified by the Reference property.

currentContext

Retrieves the immediate parent of the data that the control represents. This data is the child node of the business object.

data

Retrieves the XML node of the data (value) that the control represents. The location (XPath) of this XML inside the business object is set through the Reference property.

Table 2. List of Events

Event

Description

Change

This event is activated on modifying data in the control, after the Validate event has been fired.

Data Bind

This event is activated before the data is bound to the control.

InFocus

This event is activated when you highlight or focus upon the control.

OutFocus

This event is activated when the control loses its focus.

Validate

This event is activated after the value of the control is changed and the new value is successfully validated against the settings specified in the Formating Options dialog box.

onafterzoom

This event is activated before the lookup page is closed.

onbeforezoom

This event is activated before the lookup page is opened.

Table 3. List of Methods

Method

Description

addListener()

This operation registers the control to receive notifications for an event.

create()

This operation is available for data-bound controls only. It creates an instance of the business object for the control.

disable()

This operation disables the control on which it is invoked.

enable()

This operation enables the control on which it is invoked.

getBusinessObject()

This operation retrieves data or business object.

getEBIValidate()

This operation retrieves the value that indicates whether a validate request was sent to the Cordys WS-AppServer when the data in the control was changed.

getFormatType()

This operation retireves the format type that is attached to the control.

getFormattedValue()

This operation returns the value that is to be displayed in the control.

getLabel()

This operation returns the label object associated with the control. It is available for all controls associated with labels.

getValue()

This operation returns the original value of the control, as available in the database.

hide()

This operation hides controls and all associated child controls.

isEnabled()

This method retrieves the value that denotes whether the control is enabled or not.

rebind(oBusinessObject)

This operation is available for all controls bound to a model. This operation refreshes the control with data from the business object that is passed as a parameter. If no parameter is passed, the business object of the model's activeTuple node is used and the control is refreshed.

remove()

This operation is available only for data-bound controls. It removes the instances marked for deletion.

removeListener()

This operation unregisters the control to cease receiving notifications for its events.

setEBIValidate()

This operation sets the value that indicates whether a validate request must be sent to the Cordys WS-AppServer when the data in the control changes.

setFormatType()

This operation sets the format type for the control.

setLabel(sText)

This operation sets the text that is passed as a parameter to the label object associated with the control. It is available for all controls associated with a label.

setValue(sValue)

This operation sets the value of the control. The sValue parameter denotes the value to be set for the control.

show()

This operation makes the control and its child controls visible.