HP Data Entry and Forms Management System (VPLUS) Reference Manual (32209-90024)

Chapter 6 345
USING VPLUS INTRINSICS
INTRINSIC DESCRIPTIONS
by the enter key or by a function key. Timeouts can be enabled in an application by setting
bits in the
termoptions word of the comarea and specifying a timeout interval in the
usertime word of the comarea . For more information regarding user timeouts, consult the
Terminal Communications Area section of Appendix G.
For any terminal with touch capability, an application activates the touch feature by
setting bit 0 of
showcontrol to one. Then, for each time the user touches a field,
VREADFIELDS returns
lastkey with the field number of the touched field (as a negative
number). Refer to Appendix G for the "Supported Terminal Features" list.
For the data capture devices, VREADFIELDS, not VSHOWFORM, displays a form one field at a
time and reads entered data, also one field at a time. Editing is performed after data for all
the fields in the form has been read. VREADFIELDS sets
lastkey as follows for these
terminals: -1 is the
ATTENTION key, 0 is the ENTER key, 1 is the "A" key, 2 is the "B"
key…and 26 is the key. If a function key is pressed when entering data on the data capture
devices, VREADFIELDS returns to the calling program and does
not display any remaining
fields.
Bits 12 and 11 of the
comarea item showcontrol affect form display on the data capture
devices. These bits can be set as follows:
bit 12 = 0 Stop after displaying a form without fields.
1 Do not stop after displaying a form without fields.
11 = 0 Do not put a right closing bracket (]) on all input fields.
1 Put a right closing bracket (]) on all input fields.
A form without fields can be used to display a message to a user. If bit 12 is
zero, this type of form is frozen until
ENTER or a function key is pressed so
that the user has time to read the message. If bit 11 is one, a right bracket
is displayed as a terminator on all input fields.
VREADFIELDS may also invoke look-ahead form loading for terminals with local form
storage using the
comarea item lookahead . If point-to-point data communications is being
used, the next form (as defined in the forms file) is loaded into the terminal's local form
storage memory while the user is typing in data) before
ENTER is pressed. If multipoint or
X.25 data communications is being used, the next form is loaded after the data has been
read, after
ENTER is pressed. If there is no room in local form storage for the next form, or
if there are no available entries in the form storage directory (set with
formstoresize
prior to VOPENTERM and VOPENFORMF), the least recently used form could be purged from
local form storage. Look-ahead form loading does not load multiple family members. If a
family member of the next form is already in local form storage, this family member is
changed into the required form when it is displayed. (Refer to Section 4 for more
information on Local Form Storage.)
If the next form does not load successfully, no error is returned. The next form is simply
displayed by VSHOWFORM.
Example
COBOL
CALL "VREADFIELDS" USING COMAREA.