Referring to tab pages in scripts

Dot notation allows you to refer to individual tab pages and controls on those tab pages:

The window or user object containing the Tab control is its parent:
```
window.tabcontrol
```
The Tab control is the parent of the tab pages contained in it:
```
window.tabcontrol.tabpageuo
```
The tab page is the parent of the control contained in it:
```
window.tabcontrol.tabpageuo.controlonpage
```

For example, this statement refers to the PowerTips property of the Tab control tab_1 within the window w_display:

w_display.tab_1.PowerTips = TRUE

This example sets the PowerTipText property of tab page tabpage_1:

w_display.tab_1.tabpage_1.PowerTipText = &
   "Font settings"

This example enables the CommandButton cb_OK on the tab page tabpage_doit:

w_display.tab_1.tabpage_doit.cb_OK.Enabled = TRUE

Generic coding

You can use the Parent pronoun and GetParent function to make a script more general.

Parent pronoun In a script for any tab page, you can use the Parent pronoun to refer to the Tab control:

Parent.SelectTab(This)

GetParent function If you are in an event script for a tab page, you can call the GetParent function to get a reference to the tab page’s parent, which is the Tab control, and assign the reference to a variable of type Tab.

In an event script for a user object that is used as a tab page, you can use code like the following to save a reference to the parent Tab control in an instance variable.

This is the declaration of the instance variable. It can hold a reference to any Tab control:

tab itab_settings

This code saves a reference to the tab page’s parent in the instance variable:

// Get a reference to the Tab control
// "This" refers to the tab page user object
itab_settings = This.GetParent()

In event scripts for controls on the tab page, you can use GetParent twice to refer to the tab page user object and its Tab control:

tab tab_mytab
userobject tabpage_generic

tabpage_generic = This.GetParent()
tab_mytab = tabpage_generic.GetParent()

tabpage_generic.PowerTipText = &
   "Important property page"
tab_mytab.PowerTips = TRUE

tab_mytab.SelectTab(tabpage_generic)

Generic variables for controls have limitations The type of these variables is the basic PowerBuilder object type—a variable of type Tab has no knowledge of the tab pages in a specific Tab control and a variable of type UserObject has no knowledge of the controls on the tab page.

In this script for a tab page event, a local variable is assigned a reference to the parent Tab control. You cannot refer to specific pages in the Tab control because tab_settings does not know about them. You can call Tab control functions and refer to Tab control properties:

tab tab_settings
tab_settings = This.GetParent()
tab_settings.SelectTab(This)

User object variables If the tab page is an independent user object, you can define a variable whose type is that specific user object. You can now refer to controls defined on the user object, which is the ancestor of the tab page in the control.

In this script for a Tab control’s event, the index argument refers to a tab page and is used to get a reference to a user object from the Control property array. The example assumes that all the tab pages are derived from the same user object uo_emprpt_page:

uo_emprpt_page tabpage_current
tabpage_current = This.Control[index]
tabpage_current.dw_emp.Retrieve &
   (tabpage_current.st_name.Text)

The Tab control’s Control property The Control property array contains references to all the tab pages in the control, including both embedded and independent user objects. New tab pages are added to the array when you insert them in the painter and when you open them in a script.