Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
AppBuilder

Configuring a radio-set instance

To configure your radio-set object, begin by selecting it and choosing Tools Property Sheet. The dialog box opens:

Minimal configuration

Although you can accept many default settings, you should make at least these changes:

Object — Change the default identifier to one that more clearly reflects the role of this radio set in your application.
Define as — By default, the radio-set widget represents a variable of type INTEGER. You can choose a different data type, if more appropriate. Open the drop-down list and make your choice. Note that the button definitions in the list above this drop-down change to agree with your choice here.
Buttons — Each button is defined by a pair of values:
Label string, delimited by double quotes.
Item value, consistent with the data type.

Use a comma as separator between the label string and the item value, and between the item value for one button and the label string for the next button.

Changing the number of buttons is very simple. To make a set with fewer buttons, delete the unwanted value pairs. To make a larger set, add value pairs.

Initial value — By default, the initial value is undefined. That might not be at all obvious because of the way a radio-button set displays itself. It is good programming practice always to explicitly initialize variables, but initialization is particularly important in such cases as this.

To set the initial value, click the Advanced button. When the Advanced Properties dialog box opens, type an appropriate value into the Initial Value field.

Help

You can add one or two types of help here:

Tooltip — The radio button set will display this string whenever the user allows the mouse cursor to hover over the object’s frame.
Help ID — If you plan to provide context-sensitive help, type in a unique integer identifier.

Geometry

Reflects the XY origin and size, in character units, of the widget’s bounding box. By default, the object’s origin is considered to be the upper-left corner. You can elect to have AppBuilder consider the origin to be the upper-right corner instead, though this will not change the object’s position in any way.

Miscellaneous properties (other settings)

A radio button set has comparatively few properties, but you can change any that do not meet your needs:

Display — Normally set. Clearing this box prevents the object from automatically displaying its initial value, if you have set an initial value. Note that this class of widget always appears to display an initial value, even if you have not set one. It is good practice always to initialize variables such as this.
Drop target — Normally cleared. Setting this box causes the radio set to experience an event when the user drops some other object on it. You must write the code to handle the event, and the dropped object.
Enable — Normally set. Clearing this box prevents the radio set from accepting the input focus when offered. Without the input focus, the user cannot change the radio set value.
Expand — Normally cleared and not settable. Available only with Horizontal orientation. Setting this box regularizes the space between buttons by using the size of the longest label as the inter-button space. When cleared, the space between buttons varies with the length of each button’s label.
Hidden — Normally cleared. Setting this box causes the widget to ignore implicit requests to show itself. If you set this box, you must include explicit code in your application to make this object visible to the user.
Horizontal — Normally cleared. Setting this box changes the orientation of the buttons from vertical to horizontal, and allows you to set the Expand box, if you wish.
No tab stop — Normally cleared. Setting this box removes this object from the enclosing frame’s traversal list. An object not in the traversal list can neither gain nor lose the input focus when the user presses the TAB key.
No undo — Normally set. Clearing this box causes changes to the object’s value to be journaled.
Remove from layout — Cleared. Cannot be set unless defining an alternate layout.
Shared — Normally cleared. Setting this box makes this object’s storage and value available outside the defining procedure.

Advanced properties

A radio-set widget has only the standard advanced properties, but you can change those that do not meet your needs. See the "Advanced properties" section for more information.