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

662 AppendixL
A Programmer’s Guide to VPLUS
VPLUS Enhancements
VPLUS/V Reference Manual describes how to use batch mode FORMSPEC. Three new
commands are available to the programmer:
• FIELD - This command allows, several field attributes to be updated in batch mode. Any
of the following can be changed: field name, field enhancements, field type, data type,
initial value.
• RENUMBER - This command reassigns field numbers to their screen order numbers. This
is particularly useful for forms which have deleted fields and are approaching the
maximum field number (256).
• FKLABELS - This command creates or updates a form’s function key labels.
To further enhance batch mode compiling in FORMSPEC, two new JCWs have been
introduced: FORMSPECERRORJCW which indicates the count of the number of errors during a
compile and FORMSPECWARNJCW which indicates the count of the number of warnings
during a compile.
Color Support for 2627A and 2397A (Introduced on VPLUS B.04.15 in
MPE G.01.04)
Starting with VPLUS version B.04.15 which was introduced on MPE version G.01.04,
2627A and 2397A color terminal users may have forms displayed with specific colors
defined for a field. VPLUS has defined eight color pairs which can be used to enhance
fields, highlight fields in error, and display the window. Digits 1 through i correspond to the
default color pairs. The color pairs are defined in Chapter 3 of the VPLUS/V Reference
Manual. These color pairs can be used along with the normal enhancement set of H, I,
B, U, S or NONE for field, error or window enhancements. To use the color enhancements,
the formsfile must have an “X” in the HP2627 box in the TERMINAL/LANGUAGE SELECTION
MENU in FORMSPEC.
VCHANGEFIELD (Introduced on VPLUS B.04.15 in MPE G.01.04)
Prior to VPLUS version B.04.15, a field defined through FORMSPEC could not be changed in
the program. Therefore, if a programmer decided that a field defined as a “REQUIRED” field
type should now be considered a “DISPLAY” field type, this could not be done. With
VCHANGEFIELD, this is now possible. This intrinsic dynamically alters a field on a form. The
changes are temporary, and are not posted to the formsfile. Some of these changes are:
• Changing field enhancements to the following: H, I, B, U, NONE. Changing field
enhancements to S (security) is not available. As of version B.04.20, VCHANGEFIELD has
been expanded to allow field enhancements to include a color pair in addition to H, I, B,
U or NONE.
• Changing field types to any of the following: Optional (O), Display (D), Processing (P),
Required (R).
• Changing data type to any of the following: CHAR, DIG, NUMn, IMPn, DMY, MDY,
YMD.