In the Window painter, you do not enter text in the control. Instead, in your application you can programmatically insert text or let the user enter text using the editing tools.
Setting a default font
The Font tab page in the Properties view for a RichTextEdit
control lets you set default font characteristics for the control.
When the control first displays at runtime, and you include the
toolbar with a RichTextEdit control, the toolbar indicates the default
font characteristics that you selected on the Font tab page at design
time. Although the application user can change fonts at runtime,
or you can use PowerScript to change the font style, you can set
the default font at design time only.
From a file If you have prepared a text file for your application, you can insert it with the InsertDocument function. The file can be rich text or ASCII:
li_rtn = rte_1.InsertDocument &
("c:\mydir\contacts.rtf", FALSE, FileTypeRichText!)
The boolean clearflag argument lets you specify whether to insert the file into existing text or replace it. If you want to include headers and footers from a document that you insert, you must replace the existing text by setting the clearflag argument to TRUE. (The InsertFile command on the runtime pop-up menu is equivalent to the InsertDocument function with the clearflag argument set to FALSE.)
DisplayOnly property must be set to false
You cannot insert a document into a rich text control when
the control’s DisplayOnly property is set to true. If you
try to do this, PowerBuilder displays a runtime error message.
From a database If you have saved rich text as a string in a database, you can use a DataStore to retrieve the text.
After retrieving data, paste the string into the RichTextEdit control:
ls_desc = dw_1.Object.prod_desc.Primary[1] rte_1.PasteRTF(ls_desc)
Rich text and the clipboard
The CopyRTF and PasteRTF functions
let you get rich text with formatting instructions and
store it in a string. If you use the clipboard by means of the Copy, Cut,
and Paste functions, you get the text only—the
formatting is lost.
Suppose you have a database table that records tech support calls. Various fields record each call’s date, support engineer, and customer. Another field stores notes about the call. You can let the user record notes with bold and italic formatting for emphasis by storing rich text instead of plain text.
The window for editing call information includes these controls:
A DataWindow control that retrieves all the data and displays everything except the call notes
A RichTextEdit control that displays the call notes
A button for updating the database
RowFocusChanged event As row focus changes, the notes for the current row are pasted into the RichTextEdit control. The RowFocusChanged event has this script:
string ls_richtext // Get the string from the call_notes column ls_richtext = dw_1.Object.call_notes[currentrow] // Prevent flicker rte_1.SetRedraw(FALSE) // Replace the old text with text for the current row rte_1.SelectTextAll() rte_1.Clear() rte_1.PasteRTF(ls_richtext) rte_1.SetRedraw(TRUE)
LoseFocus event When the user makes changes, the changes are transferred to the DataWindow control. It is assumed that the user will click on the button or the DataWindow control when the user is through editing, triggering the LoseFocus event, which has this script:
string ls_richtext long l_currow GraphicObject l_control // Check whether RichTextEdit still has focus // If so, don't transfer the text l_control = GetFocus() IF TypeOf(l_control) = RichTextEdit! THEN RETURN 0 // Prevent flicker rte_1.SetRedraw(FALSE) // Store all the text in string ls_richtext ls_richtext = rte_1.CopyRTF() // Assign the rich text to the call_notes column // in the current row l_currow = dw_1.GetRow() dw_1.Object.call_notes[l_currow] = ls_richtext rte_1.SetRedraw(TRUE)
LoseFocus and the toolbars
A LoseFocus event occurs for the RichTextEdit control even
when the user clicks a RichTextEdit toolbar. Technically, this is
because the toolbars are in their own windows. However, the RichTextEdit
control still has focus, which you can check with the GetFocus function.
You can save the rich text in the control, with the input field definitions, with the SaveDocument function. You have the choice of rich text format (RTF) or ASCII:
rte_1.SaveDocument("c:\...\contacts.rtf", &
FileTypeRichText!)
SaveDocument does not save the data in the input fields. It saves the document template.
Does the file exist? If the file exists, calling SaveDocument triggers the FileExists event. In the event script, you might ask users if they want to overwrite the file.
To cancel the saving process, specify a return code of 1 in the event script.
Are there changes that need saving? The Modified property indicates whether any changes have been made to the contents of the control. It indicates that the contents are in an unsaved state. When the first change occurs, PowerBuilder triggers the Modified event and sets the Modified property to TRUE. Calling SaveDocument sets Modified to FALSE, indicating that the document is clean.
Opening a file triggers the Modified event and sets the property because the control’s contents changed. Usually, though, what you really want to know is whether the contents of the control still correspond to the contents of the file. Therefore, in the script that opens the file, you can set the Modified property to FALSE yourself. Then when the user begins editing, the Modified event is triggered again and the property is reset to TRUE.
