[comp.databases] 4th Dimension Question!!!

as2t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew Robert Short) (10/30/90)

I have some more 4th Dimension questions.  You have all
been very helpful, and have solved some of the problems
I put forth earlier.  I still have the following questions,
however (I'm using 4th Dimension 2.1, and I don't own the compiler).


(1) I had asked for a way to make placeholders in an entry filter
mandatory.  I have gotten many different responses, but I don't
think I made the question clear.  What I'm looking for is a way
to literally make the placeholders mandatory, that is, if there are
9 placeholders (ssn), and the user types in only 3 digits then hits
tab (or return, or mouse click somewhere else), I want the system
to ignore the request, and stay on the ssn field.  Is there any way
of doing this using an entry filter?  Or do I have to write a script?
Checking the length in a scipt DOES NOT work, since the length will
ALlWAYS be 9 (because of the placeholders), so the only way to do this
in a script is to search for the existence of at least one default
character, like the '*' or the space, for example.  Searching through
the ssn for a space is time consuming, which is why I'm asking for
an entry filter answer, if any!

(2) I have many situations where it would be nice to know if a
highlight button is enabled/disabled -- is there any way
to return this status (say, as a boolean)?  Also, is there any
way to return the text of a button?  Maybe something like

current_text:=GET BUTTON TEXT(>>button_name)  ` pass pointer to button var

as I have many situations where it would be nice to know the button text
for buttons that have variable text.

(3) Finally, I have asked this before, but no one seems to know this,
is there any way of trapping Option-Click.  Without the compiler, if
you run a program in the Runtime environment, it is VERY EASY for the
user to escape to the user environment just by doing option-click anytime
the beach ball appears.  I DO NOT want the user to have access to the
user environment while using my database, since it obviously puts the user
in an unfamiliar environment, aside from the fact that the user can view
all the tables and their contents and field names...

That's it!!! Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Andrew Short
(412)621-5625